Dynamics of harvested populations of the tropical understory herb Aechmea magdalenae in old-growth versus secondary forests

The prevalence of secondary forests is increasing across tropical landscapes, but the effects of these environments on the population dynamics of understory species and on their capacity to regenerate after harvest remains poorly documented. We compare the population dynamics of the understory bromeliad, Aechmea magdalenae, between old-growth and secondary rainforests in Southeast Mexico. A. magdalenae is a non-timber forest product (NTFP), the ramets of which are harvested from wild populations to make forest plantations. The fates of 600 rosettes in the two forest types were monitored over 3 years to build annual transition matrices. Population projections using the matrices show that secondary forest populations have finite rates of growth significantly higher than those of old-growth populations under both ramet-harvest and no-harvest conditions. Life table response experiments indicate that differences in the capacity for re-growth after harvest was due to greater vegetative reproduction of the largest secondary forest rosettes and faster growth of their ramets. For understory NTFP such as A. magdalenae, secondary forests may offer more economic incentive and greater potential for forest conservation than old-growth forests. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.