Decelerating growth of Neotropical gallery forest

What is it about?

Describing and understanding growth patterns in tropical forests is crucial to a ssessing their role in carbon balance. Growth and vital rates of a protected gallery forest in central Brazil were estimated, based on six measurement intervals between 1985 and 2009. Growth, recruitment and turnover rates fluctuated, but had a net decrease over the whole study period, whereas mortality seemed to be affected by a high disturbance event during the 1994–1999 period. The oscillatory behaviour of growth suggests that the forest is pulsating around a stable state (dynamic equilibrium). Nonetheless, persistence of decelerating growth trends may force the site’s carrying capacity to a lower density or biomass state.

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Why is it important?

We examined forest growth and vital rates patterns of a Cerrado gallery forest in Central Brazil, for six successive periods, between 1985 and 2009. Most long-term dynamics studies on tropical forests rely on few measurement intervals. Changes between two successive periods (single changes) may express transient dynamics of the forest rather than a dominant trend in growth and vital rates, especially for shorter census intervals. On the other hand, single long-term intervals can overlook important changes within the period, which may be revealing of forest dynamics. Detecting growth behavior of tropical forests in face of recent climatic changes is crucial to understand their role in carbon balance. As highly dynamic systems, tropical forests have great potential for carbon assimilation. However, extreme events, such as periods of high temperature combined to low precipitation, can lead to growth deceleration and turn forests into carbon sources. Describing successive behavior of forests can help determine their response to environmental changes. The balanced behavior of growth rate shows that the forest is pulsating around a stable state (dynamic equilibrium). Nonetheless, persistence of decelerating trends may force the site´s carrying capacity to a lower density or biomass state.