Logging impacts on liana regeneration and diversity in belize

Requena, E.; Cayetano, D. T.; Kay, E.; Finkral, A.; Mesh, S.; Roopsind, A.; Alvarez, E.; Putz, F. E.

Logging impacts on liana regeneration and diversity in belize

2017

Lianas play important ecological roles and are represented by large numbers of species in tropical forests, but to timber managers, they are a nuisance as they inhibit commercial tree recruitment and growth, increase the risk of injuries to forest workers and increase collateral damage during timber harvests. To determine the response of lianas to a low-intensity selective timber harvest (2.7 trees ha-¹, 2.9 m³ ha-¹) carried out with reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques, liana regeneration was measured on 11 log landings and each of their associated primary skid trails, secondary skid trails and felling gaps. The study was conducted 10 months after a timber harvest in a lowland mixed tropical forest in Belize. Liana diversity, abundance and modes of regeneration (i.e. seed versus vegetative sprouts) were assessed by taxonomic family. Lianas were least abundant on log landings that experienced complete topsoil removal. Similarly, taxonomic family diversity and Shannon’s entropy based on Renyi’s diversity profile were lowest on log landings. Lianas, particularly those that regenerated directly from seeds, increased in abundance from felling gaps to secondary skid trails to primary skid trails. Liana recruitment was dominated (in order of decreasing abundance) by species in the Fabaceae, Bignoniaceae and Dilleniaceae. Fabaceae contributed the majority of seed-origin liana regeneration while most vegetative sprouts were Bignoniaceae. The results indicated that the low intensity RIL harvest studied retarded liana regeneration only on log landings and did not result in liana proliferation or extreme changes in liana community composition.

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