PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #107: Forest Ecology: Disturbance.
Presiding: H. Regan
Friday, August 9. 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Mesquite Room, Radisson.
Tropical cloud forest dynamics under two different restoration strategies.
Murcia, Carolina*,1,2, 1 Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY2 Fundacion EcoAndina, Cali, COLOMBIA
ABSTRACT- The type of restoration strategy used in a project is likely to have profound effects on the resulting ecosystem. I explored the effect two restoration strategies on the forest dynamics of tropical cloud forests. This study took place in the central Andes of Colombia, and involved a comparison between 30-35 year old Andean alder plantations and same age naturally regenerated forests. Using four 0,125 ha permanently marked plots per forest type, I evaluated changes in species composition and basal area, as well as growth, recuitment and mortality of all plants over 2,5 cm dbh. At 30 years old, the forests differed in species composition but not in basal area. Five years later, the two forest types remained equivalent in basal area. Growth and recruitment to the 2.5+cm DAP category compensated loss of basal area due to death and, except for one plot, the increase in basal area was smaller than 5%. This suggests that at 30-35 years the forests are approaching the asymptote of basal area accumulation. Mortality and recruitment were equivalent between the two forest types in terms of number of individuals and basal area. Observed differences in composition between the two forest types, however, increased with time. This suggests that although the forests have the same dynamics in structure they differ in the ecological processes that determine the species that will occupy the site in the long term.
KEY WORDS: Forest restoration, Cloud forest, forest dynamics, Colombia