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Amazonian forests function as biomass and biodiversity reservoirs, contributing to climate change mitigation. While they continuously experience disturbance, the effect that disturbances have on biomass and biodiversity over time has not yet been assessed at a large scale. Here, we evaluate the degree of recent forest disturbance in Peruvian Amazonia and the effects that disturbance, environmental conditions and human use have on biomass and biodiversity in disturbed forests. We integrate tree-level data on above ground biomass (AGB) and species richness from 1840 forest plots from Peru's National Forest Inventory with remotely sensed monitoring of forest change dynamics, based on disturbances detected from Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Moisture Index time series. Our results show a clear negative effect of disturbance intensity tree species richness. This effect was also observed on AGB and species richness recovery values towards undisturbed levels, as well as on the recovery of species composition towards undisturbed levels. Time since disturbance had a larger effect on AGB than on species richness. While time since disturbance has a positive effect on AGB, unexpectedly we found a small negative effect of time since disturbance on species richness. We estimate that roughly 15% of Peruvian Amazonian forests have experienced disturbance at least once since 1984, and that, following disturbance, have been increasing in AGB at a rate of 4.7 Mg ha−1 year−1 during the first 20 years. Furthermore, the positive effect of surrounding forest cover was evident for both AGB and its recovery towards undisturbed levels, as well as for species richness. There was a negative effect of forest accessibility on the recovery of species composition towards undisturbed levels. Moving forward, we recommend that forest-based climate change mitigation endeavours consider forest disturbance through the integration of forest inventory data with remote sensing methods.

Backgrounds and aims Litter protects the underlying soil, depending on litterfall and decomposition, but dynamics of the standing litter stock in agroforestry systems remain poorly understood. We aimed to unravel effects of litter quality, temporal patterns, microclimate, and a possible home-field advantage (HFA) on standing litter dynamics across a land-use gradient. Methods We quantified litterfall, the standing litter stock, and microclimate during a year in (remnant) forest, cacao-based simple and complex agroforestry, cacao monocultures, and annual crops in a cacao producing area in Indonesia. We conducted a reciprocal litter transfer experiment, and tested decomposition rates of pruning residues. Standing litter stocks during the year were estimated from monthly litterfall and decomposition rates. Results Variation in litter quality influenced decomposition rates more strongly than variation in microclimate or HFA. Lower litter quality in complex agroforestry and in the cacao monoculture decreased the decay rate compared to simple agroforestry systems; mean litter residence time was over a year. Mixing high- and low-quality material in pruning residues modified the decomposition rate, soil C and N changes, offering options for targeted management of soil protection and nutrient release. Conclusions The seasonal patterns of litterfall and relatively slow decomposition rates supported permanence of the litter layer in all cacao production systems, protecting the underlying soil.

Tropical forests are converted at an alarming rate for agricultural use and pastureland, but also regrow naturally through secondary succession. For successful forest restoration, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of secondary succession. These mechanisms may vary across forest types, but analyses across broad spatial scales are lacking. Here, we analyse forest recovery using 1,403 plots that differ in age since agricultural abandonment from 50 sites across the Neotropics. We analyse changes in community composition using species-specific stem wood density (WD), which is a key trait for plant growth, survival and forest carbon storage. In wet forest, succession proceeds from low towards high community WD (acquisitive towards conservative trait values), in line with standard successional theory. However, in dry forest, succession proceeds from high towards low community WD (conservative towards acquisitive trait values), probably because high WD reflects drought tolerance in harsh early successional environments. Dry season intensity drives WD recovery by influencing the start and trajectory of succession, resulting in convergence of the community WD over time as vegetation cover builds up. These ecological insights can be used to improve species selection for reforestation. Reforestation species selected to establish a first protective canopy layer should, among other criteria, ideally have a similar WD to the early successional communities that dominate under the prevailing macroclimatic conditions.

The achievement of international goals and national commitments related to forest conservation and management, climate change, and sustainable development requires credible, accurate, and reliable monitoring of stocks and changes in forest biomass and carbon. Most prominently, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in particular require data on biomass to monitor progress. Unprecedented opportunities to provide forest biomass data are created by a series of upcoming space-based missions, many of which provide open data targeted at large areas and better spatial resolution biomass monitoring than has previously been achieved. We assess various policy needs for biomass data and recommend a long-term collaborative effort among forest biomass data producers and users to meet these needs. A gap remains, however, between what can be achieved in the research domain and what is required to support policy making and meet reporting requirements. There is no single biomass dataset that serves all users in terms of definition and type of biomass measurement, geographic area, and uncertainty requirements, and whether there is need for the most recent up-to-date biomass estimate or a long-term biomass trend. The research and user communities should embrace the potential strength of the multitude of upcoming missions in combination to provide for these varying needs and to ensure continuity for long-term data provision which one-off research missions cannot provide. International coordination bodies such as Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI), Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), and Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC‐GOLD) will be integral in addressing these issues in a way that fulfils these needs in a timely fashion. Further coordination work should particularly look into how space-based data can be better linked with field reference data sources such as forest plot networks, and there is also a need to ensure that reference data cover a range of forest types, management regimes, and disturbance regimes worldwide.

Engineering resilience, a forest's ability to maintain its properties in the event of disturbance, comprises two components: resistance and recovery. In human-dominated landscapes, forest resilience depends mostly on recovery. Forest recovery largely depends on autogenic regulation, which entails a negative feedback loop between rates of change in forest state variables and state variables themselves. Hence community dynamics change in response to deviations from forest equilibrium state. Based on the premise that autogenic regulation is a key aspect of the recovery process, here we tested the hypothesis that combined old-growth forest (OGF) and secondary forest (SF) dynamics should show autogenic regulation in state variables, and thus convergence towards OGF-based reference points, indicating forest resilience. We integrated dynamic data for OGF (11-year monitoring) and SF (16-year monitoring) to analyse three key state variables (basal area, tree density and species richness), their annual rates of change and their underlying demographic processes (recruitment, growth and mortality). We examined autogenic regulation through generalized linear mixed-effects models (GLMMs) to quantify functional relationships between rates of change of state variables (and underlying demographic processes) and their respective state variables. State variables in OGF decreased moderately over time, against our prediction of OGF constancy. In turn, the three state variables analysed showed negative relationships with their respective rates of change, which allows the return of SF to OGF values after disturbance. In all cases, recruitment decreased with increasing values in state variables, while mortality increased. The observed negative relationships between state variables, their rates of change and their underlying demographic processes support our hypothesis of integrated OGF and SF dynamics showing autogenic regulation for state variables. Competition seems to be a major driver of autogenic regulation given its dependence on a resource availability that declines as forest structure develops. Synthesis. Based on a straightforward and comprehensive approach to quantify the extent to which tropical forest dynamics is self-regulated, this study highlights the importance of autogenic regulation for tropical dry forest as a basic component of its resilience. This approach is potentially valuable for a generalized assessment of engineering resilience of forests world-wide.

One-third of all Neotropical forests are secondary forests that regrow naturally after agricultural use through secondary succession. We need to understand better how and why succession varies across environmental gradients and broad geographic scales. Here, we analyze functional recovery using community data on seven plant characteristics (traits) of 1,016 forest plots from 30 chronosequence sites across the Neotropics. By analyzing communities in terms of their traits, we enhance understanding of the mechanisms of succession, assess ecosystem recovery, and use these insights to propose successful forest restoration strategies. Wet and dry forests diverged markedly for several traits that increase growth rate in wet forests but come at the expense of reduced drought tolerance, delay, or avoidance, which is important in seasonally dry forests. Dry and wet forests showed different successional pathways for several traits. In dry forests, species turnover is driven by drought tolerance traits that are important early in succession and in wet forests by shade tolerance traits that are important later in succession. In both forests, deciduous and compound-leaved trees decreased with forest age, probably because microclimatic conditions became less hot and dry. Our results suggest that climatic water availability drives functional recovery by influencing the start and trajectory of succession, resulting in a convergence of community trait values with forest age when vegetation cover builds up. Within plots, the range in functional trait values increased with age. Based on the observed successional trait changes, we indicate the consequences for carbon and nutrient cycling and propose an ecologically sound strategy to improve forest restoration success.

Competition among trees is an important driver of community structure and dynamics in tropical forests. Neighboring trees may impact an individual tree’s growth rate and probability of mortality, but large-scale geographic and environmental variation in these competitive effects has yet to be evaluated across the tropical forest biome. We quantified effects of competition on tree-level basal area growth and mortality for trees ≥10-cm diameter across 151 ~1-ha plots in mature tropical forests in Amazonia and tropical Africa by developing nonlinear models that accounted for wood density, tree size, and neighborhood crowding. Using these models, we assessed how water availability (i.e., climatic water deficit) and soil fertility influenced the predicted plot-level strength of competition (i.e., the extent to which growth is reduced, or mortality is increased, by competition across all individual trees). On both continents, tree basal area growth decreased with wood density and increased with tree size. Growth decreased with neighborhood crowding, which suggests that competition is important. Tree mortality decreased with wood density and generally increased with tree size, but was apparently unaffected by neighborhood crowding. Across plots, variation in the plot-level strength of competition was most strongly related to plot basal area (i.e., the sum of the basal area of all trees in a plot), with greater reductions in growth occurring in forests with high basal area, but in Amazonia, the strength of competition also varied with plot-level wood density. In Amazonia, the strength of competition increased with water availability because of the greater basal area of wetter forests, but was only weakly related to soil fertility. In Africa, competition was weakly related to soil fertility and invariant across the shorter water availability gradient. Overall, our results suggest that competition influences the structure and dynamics of tropical forests primarily through effects on individual tree growth rather than mortality and that the strength of competition largely depends on environment-mediated variation in basal area. © 2020 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Ecological Society of America

1.Plant species composition and diversity are known to change across local gradients of light, moisture, and nutrients, but ecologists still have a relatively limited understanding of how communities respond to multiple limiting resources. 2.We used a trait‐based approach to investigate how the functional composition and diversity of forest understory plant communities change along gradients in light, soil moisture and nitrogen availability. We used a total of seven leaf, root, and whole‐plant traits for 55‐78 species, and estimated the effects of the three resources on the mean and dispersion of these traits in understory plant communities across 50 forest sites. 3.Soil moisture and nitrogen availability (C/N ratio) both influenced plant community traits, but light availability (canopy openness) did not. Generally, increases in moisture and nitrogen both resulted in shifts towards more acquisitive resource use strategies, including greater leaf area, specific leaf area and maximum plant height, and lower leaf dry matter content, root dry matter content and rooting depth. Functional diversity of most traits also increased with increasing soil moisture and nitrogen. Although most traits varied with soil moisture on nitrogen‐poor sites, moisture did not influence of the distribution of any traits on nitrogen‐rich sites. 4.Synthesis: Independent co‐limitation of soil moisture and nitrogen appeared to influence the functional composition and diversity of understory vegetation in our study area. The co‐occurrence of species with resource acquisitive and conservative strategies on nitrogen‐rich sites may make plant communities relatively resistant to changes to soil moisture. These results suggest that altered precipitation regimes under climate change could lead to greater changes in the composition and diversity of plant communities on nutrient‐poor soils than on nutrient‐rich soils.

Location-specific forms of agroforestry management can reduce problems in the forest&ndash, water&ndash, people nexus, by balancing upstream and downstream interests, but social and ecological finetuning is needed. New ways of achieving shared understanding of the underlying ecological and social-ecological relations is needed to adapt and contextualize generic solutions. Addressing these challenges between thirteen cases of tropical agroforestry scenario development across three continents requires exploration of generic aspects of issues, knowledge and participative approaches. Participative projects with local stakeholders increasingly use &lsquo, serious gaming&rsquo, Although helpful, serious games so far (1) appear to be ad hoc, case dependent, with poorly defined extrapolation domains, (2) require heavy research investment, (3) have untested cultural limitations and (4) lack clarity on where and how they can be used in policy making. We classify the main forest&ndash, people nexus issues and the types of land-use solutions that shape local discourses and that are to be brought to life in the games. Four &lsquo, prototype&rsquo, games will be further used to test hypotheses about the four problems identified constraining game use. The resulting generic forest&ndash, people games will be the outcome of the project &ldquo, Scenario evaluation for sustainable agroforestry management through forest-water-people games&rdquo, (SESAM), for which this article provides a preview.

Increasing anthropogenic pressure leads to loss of habitat through deforestation and degradation in tropical forests. While deforestation can be monitored relatively easily, forest management practices are often subtle processes, that are difficult to capture with for example satellite monitoring. Conventional measurements are well established and can be useful for management decisions, but it is believed that Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) has a role in quantitative monitoring and continuous improvement of methods. In this study we used a combination of TLS and conventional forest inventory measures to estimate forest structural parameters in four different forest types in a tropical montane cloud forest in Kafa, Ethiopia. Here, the four forest types (intact forest, coffee forest, silvopasture, and plantations) are a result of specific management practices (e.g. clearance of understory in coffee forest), and not different forest communities or tree types. Both conventional and TLS derived parameters confirmed our assumptions that intact forest had the highest biomass, silvopasture had the largest canopy gaps, and plantations had the lowest canopy openness. Contrary to our expectations, coffee forest had higher canopy openness and similar biomass as silvopasture, indicating a significant loss of forest structure. The 3D vegetation structure (PAVD – Plant area vegetation density) was different between the forest types with the highest PAVD in intact forest and plantation canopy. Silvopasture was characterised by a low canopy but high understorey PAVD, indicating regeneration of the vegetation and infrequent fuelwood collection and/or non-intensive grazing. Coffee forest canopy had low PAVD, indicating that many trees had been removed, despite coffee needing canopy shade. These findings may advocate for more tangible criteria such as canopy openness thresholds in sustainable coffee certification schemes. TLS as tool for monitoring forest structure in plots with different forest types shows potential as it can capture the 3D position of the vegetation volume and open spaces at all heights in the forest. To quantify changes in different forest types, consistent monitoring of 3D structure is needed and here TLS is an add-on or an alternative to conventional forest structure monitoring. However, for the tropics, TLS-based automated segmentation of trees to derive DBH and biomass is not widely operational yet, nor is species richness determination in forest monitoring. Integration of data sources is needed to fully understand forest structural diversity and implications of forest management practices on different forest types.

Tropical secondary forests recover quickly (decades) in tree species richness but slowly (centuries) in species composition., Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance in an unprecedented multisite analysis for the Neotropics. Secondary forests recover remarkably fast in species richness but slowly in species composition. Secondary forests take a median time of five decades to recover the species richness of old-growth forest (80% recovery after 20 years) based on rarefaction analysis. Full recovery of species composition takes centuries (only 34% recovery after 20 years). A dual strategy that maintains both old-growth forests and species-rich secondary forests is therefore crucial for biodiversity conservation in human-modified tropical landscapes.

© 2018 The Author(s). The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared with wet secondary forests. The tremendous ecological success of legumes in recently disturbed, water-limited forests is likely to be related to both their reduced leaflet size and ability to fix N2, which together enhance legume drought tolerance and water-use efficiency. Earth system models should incorporate these large-scale successional and climatic patterns of legume dominance to provide more accurate estimates of the maximum potential for natural nitrogen fixation across tropical forests.

Global environmental change is expected to induce widespread changes in the geographic distribution and biomass of forest communities. Impacts have been projected from both empirical (statistical) and mechanistic (physiology-based) modelling approaches, but there remains an important gap in accurately predicting abundance across species’ ranges from spatial variation in individual-level demographic processes. We address this issue by using a cohort-based forest dynamics model (CAIN) to predict spatial variation in the abundance of six plant functional types (PFTs) across the eastern U.S. The model simulates tree-level growth, mortality, and recruitment, which we parameterized from data on both individual-level demographic rates and population-level abundance using Bayesian inverse modelling. Across a set of 1° grid cells, we calibrated local growth, mortality, and recruitment rates for each PFT to obtain a close match between predicted age-specific PFT basal area in forest stands and that observed in 46 603 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots. The resulting models produced a strong fit to PFT basal area across the region (R2= 0.66-0.87), captured successional changes in PFT composition with stand age, and predicted the overall stem diameter distribution well. The mortality rates needed to accurately predict basal area were consistently higher than observed mortality, possibly because sampling effects led to biased individual-level mortality estimates across spatially heterogeneous plots. Growth and recruitment rates did not show consistent directional changes from observed values. Relative basal area was most strongly influenced by recruitment processes, but the effects of growth and mortality tended to increase as stands matured. Our study illustrates how both top-down (population-level) and bottom-up (individual-level) data can be combined to predict variation in abundance from size, environmental, and competitive effects on tree demography. Evidence for how demographic processes influence variation in abundance, as provided by our model, can help in understanding how these forests may respond to future environmental change. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Models reveal the high carbon mitigation potential of tropical forest regeneration., Regrowth of tropical secondary forests following complete or nearly complete removal of forest vegetation actively stores carbon in aboveground biomass, partially counterbalancing carbon emissions from deforestation, forest degradation, burning of fossil fuels, and other anthropogenic sources. We estimate the age and spatial extent of lowland second-growth forests in the Latin American tropics and model their potential aboveground carbon accumulation over four decades. Our model shows that, in 2008, second-growth forests (1 to 60 years old) covered 2.4 million km2 of land (28.1% of the total study area). Over 40 years, these lands can potentially accumulate a total aboveground carbon stock of 8.48 Pg C (petagrams of carbon) in aboveground biomass via low-cost natural regeneration or assisted regeneration, corresponding to a total CO2 sequestration of 31.09 Pg CO2. This total is equivalent to carbon emissions from fossil fuel use and industrial processes in all of Latin America and the Caribbean from 1993 to 2014. Ten countries account for 95% of this carbon storage potential, led by Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. We model future land-use scenarios to guide national carbon mitigation policies. Permitting natural regeneration on 40% of lowland pastures potentially stores an additional 2.0 Pg C over 40 years. Our study provides information and maps to guide national-level forest-based carbon mitigation plans on the basis of estimated rates of natural regeneration and pasture abandonment. Coupled with avoided deforestation and sustainable forest management, natural regeneration of second-growth forests provides a low-cost mechanism that yields a high carbon sequestration potential with multiple benefits for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In closed-canopy forests, gap formation and closure are thought to be major drivers of forest dynamics. Crown defoliation by insects, however, may also influence understory resource levels and thus forest dynamics. We evaluate the effect of a forest tent caterpillar outbreak on understory light availability, soil nutrient levels and tree seedling height growth in six sites with contrasting levels of canopy defoliation in a hardwood forest in northern lower Michigan. We compared resource levels and seedling growth of six hardwood species before, during and in the three years after the outbreak (2008-2012). Canopy openness increased strongly during the forest tent caterpillar outbreak in the four moderately and severely defoliated sites, but not in lightly defoliated sites. Total inorganic soil nitrogen concentrations increased in response to the outbreak in moderately and severely defoliated sites. The increase in total inorganic soil nitrogen was driven by a strong increase in soil nitrate, and tended to become stronger with increasing site defoliation. Seedling height growth increased for all species in the moderately and severely defoliated sites, but not in lightly defoliated sites, either during the outbreak year or in the year after the outbreak. Growth increases did not become stronger with increasing site defoliation, but were strongest in a moderately defoliated site with high soil nutrient levels. Growth increases tended to be strongest for the shade intolerant species Fraxinus americana and Prunus serotina, and the shade tolerant species Ostrya virginiana. The strong growth response of F. americana and P. serotina suggests that recurring forest tent caterpillar outbreaks may facilitate the persistence of shade intolerant species in the understory in the absence of canopy gaps. Overall, our results suggest that recurrent canopy defoliation resulting from cyclical forest insect outbreaks may be an additional driver of dynamics in temperate closed-canopy forests.

Second-growth tropical forests are an important global carbon sink. As current knowledge on biomass accumulation during secondary succession is heavily based on chronosequence studies, direct estimates of annual rates of biomass accumulation in monitored stands are largely unavailable. We evaluated the contributions of tree diameter increment, recruitment, and mortality to annual tree biomass change during succession for three groups of tree species: second-growth (SG) specialists, generalists, and old-growth (OG) specialists. We monitored six second-growth tropical forests that varied in stand age and two old-growth forests in northeastern Costa Rica. We monitored these over a period of 8 to 16 years. To assess rates of biomass change during secondary succession, we compared standing biomass and biomass dynamics between second-growth forest stages and old-growth forest, and evaluated the effect of stand age on standing biomass and biomass dynamics in second-growth forests. Standing tree biomass increased with stand age during succession, whereas the rate of biomass change decreased. Biomass change was largely driven by tree diameter increment and mortality, with a minor contribution from recruitment. The relative importance of these demographic drivers shifted over succession. Biomass gain due to tree diameter increment decreased with stand age, whereas biomass loss due to mortality increased. In the age range of our second-growth forests, 10-41 years, SG specialists dominated tree biomass in second-growth forests. SG specialists, and to a lesser extent generalists, also dominated stand-level biomass increase due to tree diameter increment, whereas SG specialists largely accounted for decreases in biomass due to mortality. Our results indicate that tree growth is largely driving biomass dynamics early in succession, whereas both growth and mortality are important later in succession. Biomass dynamics are largely accounted for by a few SG specialists and one generalist species, Pentaclethra macroloba. To assess the generality of our results, similar long-term studies should be compared across tropical forest landscapes.

In northern hardwood forests with a closed canopy, tree growth is largely driven by tree size and competition with neighboring trees. Canopy defoliation during insect outbreaks temporarily increases light availability and may decrease light competition among neighboring trees. Defoliation typically reduces tree growth, but canopy defoliation could also stimulate growth of trees that maintain some leaf area. We compared the growth responses of mature trees of non-host species Acer rubrum, and the three host species Acer saccharum, Quercus rubra and Tilia americana, to defoliation by forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria, Lasiocampidae), a native forest insect with a ∼10-year outbreak periodicity, in a northern hardwood forest in northern lower Michigan. We compared tree growth during the forest tent caterpillar outbreak in 2009, and in the following year, to the average growth before the outbreak in relation to the defoliation level of both the focal tree and its neighbors. Growth responses were related to focal tree defoliation, but we found little direct evidence for effects of neighborhood defoliation; relatively uniform defoliation within sites may have obscured detection of neighborhood effects. Growth of T. americana increased substantially in the year following defoliation, despite the growth reduction during the outbreak in 2009. T. americana rapidly produced new leaves after peak defoliation in 2009, which could explain increased growth in 2010. A. rubrum, which was not defoliated, decreased growth slightly during the outbreak. In 2010, however, one year after peak defoliation, A. rubrum growth was similar to pre-outbreak growth. The two other defoliated species, A. saccharum and Q. rubra, decreased growth in both 2009 and 2010. These strongly species-specific growth responses to canopy defoliation might result in changes in tree species’ interactions and shifts in species advantages over time.

There is growing evidence that tree turnover in tropical forests has increased over the last decades in permanent sample plots. This phenomenon is generally attributed to the increase in atmospheric CO2, but other causes cannot be ruled out. A proper evaluation of historical shifts in tree turnover requires data over longer periods than used so far. Here, we propose two methods to use tree-ring data for detecting long-term changes in tree turnover. We apply these methods to two non-pioneer tree species in a Bolivian moist forest. First, we checked for temporal changes in the frequency of growth releases to determine whether this frequency has increased over time. Second, we calculated the degree of temporal autocorrelation-a measure that indicates temporal changes in growth rates that are likely related to canopy dynamics-and checked for changes in this parameter over time. In addition, we performed analyses that corrected for ontogenetic increases in the measures used by analyzing residuals from size-growth relations. No evidence for the occurrence of a large-scale disturbance was found as we did not observe synchronization in the occurrence of releases in time. For both species, we did not detect changes in autocorrelation or release frequency over the last 200-300 years. Only in one size category, we found increased release frequency over time, probably as a result of a remaining ontogenetic effect. In all, our analyses do not provide evidence for long-term changes in tree turnover in the study area. We discuss the suitability of the proposed methods.

Most growth and yield models for tropical tree species use diameter growth data obtained from permanent sample plots. A potential disadvantage of this data source is that slow-growing, suppressed juvenile trees are included of which only a small fraction will attain harvestable size. If this is the case, the average growth rate of extant juvenile trees will be lower than the historical, juvenile growth rate of trees of harvestable size. Thus, if juvenile growth rates are obtained from permanent plots, future timber yield may be underestimated. To determine the magnitude of this effect we simulated tree growth based on two types of diameter growth data: long-term tree-ring data from harvestable trees (‘lifetime growth data’) and growth data of the last 10 years from trees of all sizes (‘plot-type growth data’). The latter data type is a proxy for growth data from permanent sample plots. Second, we evaluated which percentage of harvestable timber volume at initial harvest is available at second harvest using lifetime growth data. We obtained tree-ring data from 89 to 98 individuals of three Bolivian timber species over their entire size range. Based on these data tree growth simulations were performed for two scenarios: a second harvest in 20, and in 40 years. A realistic degree of growth autocorrelation was incorporated in the growth projections, for both the lifetime and the plot-type growth data. Observed ages at the minimum cutting diameter in tree-ring data of harvestable trees were high: average ages varied from 63 to 179 years among species. Commercial ingrowth was 23–46% larger when using lifetime growth data than for plot-type growth data for two of the three species. Thus, the faster juvenile growth of trees that reached harvestable size indeed resulted in higher projected timber yield. In spite of the positive effect of higher juvenile growth on projected timber yield, our simulations showed that the recuperation of timber volume was low. Only 18–33% of the timber volume logged at first harvest could be obtained at second harvest after 20 years. For a second harvest after 40 years this was 26–49%. Based on our results we recommend the use of above-average growth rates in timber yield projections that apply permanent plot data. To determine which percentage of faster growers should be used in such simulations, it is important that similar analyses are conducted for more species.

Summary 1The sun–shade acclimation and plasticity of 16 functional leaf traits of 38 tropical tree species were studied in relation to their light demand, maximum adult stature and ontogenetic changes in crown exposure. 2Species differed significantly in all leaf traits, which explained a large part of the observed variation (average R2 = 0·72). Light had a significant effect on 12 traits and species showed a similar proportional response to light, indicating that the species ranking in trait performance is largely maintained in different light environments. 3Specific leaf area, leaf nutrient content and chlorophyll : nitrogen ratio showed the largest plasticity to irradiance. These traits are important for maximizing growth in different light conditions because they are closely linked to the photosynthetic capacity and carbon balance of the plant. 4Plasticity is generally thought to be greatest for pioneer species that occupy early successional habitats with a large variation in irradiance. This hypothesis was rejected because short-lived pioneers showed the lowest plasticity to irradiance. 5An alternative hypothesis states that plasticity is largest for tall species that experience large ontogenetic changes in irradiance during their life cycle. Yet plasticity was barely related to adult stature or ontogenetic changes in crown exposure. Short-lived pioneers that experience consistently high light levels did have low plasticity, but shade-tolerant species that experience consistently low light levels had high plasticity. 6Tropical rainforest species show a large variation in plasticity. Plasticity is a compromise between many factors and constraints, and all of these may explain the observed patterns to some extent.

Over the last decade the field of tropical dendroecology has developed rapidly and major achievements have been made. We reviewed the advances in three main themes within the field. First, long chronologies for tropical tree species were constructed which allowed climate reconstructions, revealed sources of climatic variation and clarified climate-growth relations. Other studies combined tree-ring data and stable isotope (13C and 18O) measurements to evaluate the response of tropical trees to climatic variation and changes. A second set of studies assessed long-term growth patterns of individual trees throughout their life. These studies enhanced the understanding of growth trajectories to the canopy, quantified autocorrelated tree growth and yielded new estimates of tree ages. Such studies were also used to reconstruct the disturbance history of tropical forests. The last set of studies applied tree-ring data to growth models. Tree-ring data can replace diameter measurements from research plots, provide additional information to construct population models, improve timber yield models and validate model output. Based on our review, we propose two main directions for future research. (1) An evaluation of the causes and consequences of growth variation within and among trees and their relation to environmental variation. Studies evaluating this directly contribute to improved understanding of tropical tree ecology. (2) The simultaneous measurement of widths and stable isotope fractions in tree rings offers the potential to study responses of trees to climatic change. Given the major role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle, knowing these responses is of high priority.