Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 374, Issue 6573, Pages 1370-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3629
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- European Research Council-ERC [PANTROP 834775]
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [sDIV W7.20 sUCCESS, FZT-118]
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research -NWO [ALW.OP241, ALWOP.457, ALW 863.15.017, Veni.192.027]
- NWO-Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo [17418]
- Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo (FONDECYT) [1201347]
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico-CNPq [308471/2017-2, 308877/2019-5, 312178/2019-0, CNPq 308778-2017-0, Universal 01/2016, 309659/2019-1, SinBiose-REGENERA 442371/2019-5]
- Corredor Biologico La Gamba (COBIGA)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG [RU 1536/3-1]
- Fondo Mixto CONACYT-Gobierno del estado de Yucatan [FOMIX YUC-2008-C06-108863]
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa de Minas Gerais-FAPEMIG [PPM-00627-16, PPM-00726-16, PPM-00623-16, APQ-03348-16]
- Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul-FAPERGS [2218-2551/12-2]
- Fundacion Jardin Botanico deMedellin
- GEF/FONACIT
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, a research center of the German Research Foundation [DFG -FZT 118, 34600967, 34600970]
- Herbario JAUM
- Secretaria de Educacion Publica-Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Ciencia Basica [SEP-CONACYT 2015-255544]
- Stichting Het Kronendak
- STRI
- ForestGEO
- Heising-Simons Foundation
- HSBC Climate Partnership
- StanleyMotta
- SmallWorld Institute Fund
- Hoch famil
- Universidad de Antioquia
- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
- Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigacion e Innovacion Tecnologica [DPAGA-PAPIIT IN218416, DPAGA-PAPIIT IN217620, PAPIIT-UNAM IN211417]
- Rufford Small Grants [19426-2]
- SENACYT Panama Grant [COL10-052]
- Tropenbos Foundation
- US National Science Foundation [9208031, EAR-1360391]
- Research Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (FOREFRONT program)
- MOE [IG16-LR004]
- LICCI project - European Research Council [FP7-771056-LICCI]
- Maria de Maeztu Programme for Units of Excellence of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [CEX2019000940-M]
- Yale-NUS College
- Rainforest Luxemburg
- Wageningen University
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [9208031] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Tropical forests have high resilience and can naturally regrow on abandoned lands, with soil and plant functioning recovering the fastest. The recovery of forest attributes is interrelated, with three independent clusters identified related to structure, species diversity, and species composition. Embracing secondary forests as a low-cost, natural solution can contribute to ecosystem restoration, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation.
Tropical forests disappear rapidly because of deforestation, yet they have the potential to regrow naturally on abandoned lands. We analyze how 12 forest attributes recover during secondary succession and how their recovery is interrelated using 77 sites across the tropics. Tropical forests are highly resilient to low-intensity land use; after 20 years, forest attributes attain 78% (33 to 100%) of their old-growth values. Recovery to 90% of old-growth values is fastest for soil (<1 decade) and plant functioning (<2.5 decades), intermediate for structure and species diversity (2.5 to 6 decades), and slowest for biomass and species composition (>12 decades). Network analysis shows three independent clusters of attribute recovery, related to structure, species diversity, and species composition. Secondary forests should be embraced as a low-cost, natural solution for ecosystem restoration, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation.
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