This project focuses on the process of secondary forest regeneration following agricultural abandonment. Current independent studies conducted in Central Amazonia (Manaus, Brazil), northeastern Costa Rica, and Chiapas, Mexico reveal that observed vegetation changes within forests often deviate from predictions based on single-time studies of forests of different age since abandonment. This project unites four existing projects in wet tropical forests of Latin America. Coordinated annual vegetation censuses in long-term study plots will be conducted to test specific chronosequence predictions for a range of dependent variables including stem density, size distributions, basal area, biomass, species richness, species composition, and life-form composition. Observed rates of change in dependent variables will be compared with predicted rates from chronosequence studies within each region, based on the best-fit statistical models.

By understanding how stand-level dynamics conform to or deviate from overall chronosequence patterns within each of these regions, we will identify key ecological factors, processes, and mechanisms that influence successional pathways. The long-term data gathered will provide essential information to guide forest restoration, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation in the Neotropics. Ultimately, our results will enable development of more predictive and more widely applied models of successional vegetation dynamics in today’s complex tropical landscapes.

This Project is funded by the Program in Long Term Research in Enviornmental Biology of the US National Science Foundation.