@InProceedings{BerenguerGFAMTVB:2016:UsWoDe,
               author = "Berenguer, Erika and Gardner, Toby and Ferreira, Joice and 
                         Arag{\~a}o, Luiz Eduardo Oliveira e Cruz de and Mac Nally, Ralph 
                         and Thomson, James and Vieira, Ima and Barlow, Jos",
          affiliation = "{Lancaster University} and {Stockholm Environment Institute} and 
                         {Embrapa Amaz{\^o}nia Oriental} and {Instituto Nacional de 
                         Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {University of Canberra} and 
                         {University of Canberra} and {Museu Paraense Em{\'{\i}}lio 
                         Goeldi} and {Lancaster University}",
                title = "Seeing the woods through the saplings: using wood density to 
                         assess post-disturbance recovery of human-modified tropical 
                         forests",
                 year = "2016",
         organization = "Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and 
                         Conservation, 53.",
             abstract = "Most of the worlds humid tropical forests have already been 
                         modified by human activities such as selective logging, understory 
                         fires, and clear-felling. Despite the ubiquity of these 
                         human-modified forests, we have a limited knowledge of their 
                         potential to recover key traits linked to ecosystem functioning. 
                         Here we propose a novel approach to further our understanding of 
                         tropical forests recovery to human-driven impacts. We analyze the 
                         wood density of trees and saplings in 121 plots (0.25ha each) 
                         located across a disturbance gradient in the eastern Brazilian 
                         Amazon. Wood density (wd) is a key plant trait, closely linked to 
                         important ecosystem functions and services, such as carbon 
                         storage. Saplings respond faster to human impacts than large trees 
                         and effectively represent the future of a forest stand, thus 
                         allowing us to make valuable inferences about the future 
                         ecological state of a forest. We combined the analysis of 31,095 
                         stems with a 22-year chronosequence of satellite imagery data and 
                         plot-level environmental variables, including recovery time of 
                         forest plots, distance to the nearest forest edge, density of 
                         lianas, the amount of surrounding forest cover, soil clay content 
                         and mean plot slope. We found that wood density of saplings in 
                         undisturbed primary forests (wd = 0.70; SE = ±0.004) is 
                         significantly higher than in disturbed primary forests (wd = 0.59; 
                         SE = ±0.007) and in secondary forests (wd = 0.58; SE = ±0.016), 
                         indicating that the human-modified forests of the future may 
                         present a different set of traits, and therefore perform a 
                         different set of functions, than the future undisturbed forests. 
                         We also found that forests located less than 130m away from 
                         human-made edges or with high density of lianas (\≥900 
                         stems per hectare) may be impeded in their recovery from 
                         disturbance or clear-felling. These results indicate that future 
                         human-modified tropical forests may hold less carbon than 
                         currently expected. We urge scientists, governments and the civil 
                         society alike to start addressing the cryptic but severe impacts 
                         of human disturbances in remaining areas of standing primary 
                         forests and regenerating secondary forests.",
  conference-location = "Le Corum",
      conference-year = "19-23 June",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "being_seeing.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "28 abr. 2024"
}