Applicability of monitoring protocols developed for active restoration projects in the evaluation of passive restoration
- PDF / 1,326,243 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 54 Downloads / 188 Views
Tropical Ecology https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-020-00120-7
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Applicability of monitoring protocols developed for active restoration projects in the evaluation of passive restoration of a subtropical riparian forest in Brazil Thais de Fátima Balbino Lisboa1 · Roque Cielo‑Filho2 · Carla Daniela Câmara3 Received: 17 July 2020 / Revised: 21 October 2020 / Accepted: 2 November 2020 © International Society for Tropical Ecology 2020
Abstract Current restoration monitoring protocols have been developed for active restoration projects (based on planting seedlings) and little is known about their applicability in assessing vegetation resulting from passive restoration, an important knowledge gap for the restoration of tropical and subtropical forests. The present study was developed in a 12-year-old subtropical riparian forest undergoing passive restoration (based on spontaneous natural regeneration), and aimed to evaluate the regenerating vegetation using two monitoring protocols developed for active ecological restoration. The following indicators of restoration success were evaluated: canopy cover; basal area; above-ground biomass; total richness; richness and density of regenerating trees. Passive restoration strategy has been found to be successful in the study area as the observed values for the indicators (except basal area and biomass) were above reference values specified for a 12-year-old active restoration. Our results also show that for most of the indicators of restoration success, the reference values established for the evaluation of active restoration projects may be surpassed through unassisted natural regeneration, suggesting the feasibility of the application of these monitoring protocols for the evaluation of passive restoration projects. Keywords Biodiversity · Conservation · Ecological restoration · Natural regeneration · Reference values · Seasonal semideciduous forest · Secondary succession
Introduction The rich biodiversity of Brazilian forests is a notorious feature acknowledged worldwide. According to the last Global Forest Resources Assessment, Brazil has about 497 million hectares of forest cover, being among the five countries with the largest forest area in the world (FAO 2020). However, human occupation has been causing a progressive increase in the destruction of natural resources, and forests have been replaced to allow other land uses (Rech et al. 2015). Among * Roque Cielo‑Filho [email protected] 1
Federal Technological University of Paraná, Av. Brasil, 4232, Medianeira, Paraná 85884‑000, Brazil
2
State Forest of Avaré, Forest Institute, SIMA/SP, R. Pernambuco, s/n, Avaré, São Paulo 18701‑180, Brazil
3
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Federal Technological University of Paraná, Av. Brasil, 4232, Medianeira, Paraná 85884‑000, Brazil
the forest typologies most impacted by anthropogenic activities are the riparian forests. This type of forest needs special attention, as it has direct influence on physicochemical and biological paramet
Data Loading...
