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Long-term recovery of the functional community assembly and carbon pools in an African tropical forest succession

dc.contributor.authorBauters, M.
dc.contributor.authorVercleyen, O.
dc.contributor.authorVanlauwe, Bernard
dc.contributor.authorSix, J.
dc.contributor.authorBonyoma, B.
dc.contributor.authorBadjoko, H.
dc.contributor.authorHubau, W.
dc.contributor.authorHoyt, A.
dc.contributor.authorBoudin, M.
dc.contributor.authorVerbeeck, H.
dc.contributor.authorBoeckx, P.
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-04T11:33:45Z
dc.date.available2019-12-04T11:33:45Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.identifier.citationBauters, M., Vercleyen, O., Vanlauwe, B., Six, J., Bonyoma, B., Badjoko, H., ... & Boeckx, P. (2019). Long‐term recovery of the functional community assembly and carbon pools in an African tropical forest succession. Biotropica.
dc.identifier.issn0006-3606
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12478/5798
dc.descriptionPublished online: 15 April 2019
dc.description.abstractOn the African continent, the population is expected to expand fourfold in the next century, which will increasingly impact the global carbon cycle and biodiversity conservation. Therefore, it is of vital importance to understand how carbon stocks and community assembly recover after slash‐and‐burn events in tropical second growth forests. We inventoried a chronosequence of 15 1‐ha plots in lowland tropical forest of the central Congo Basin and evaluated changes in aboveground and soil organic carbon stocks and in tree species diversity, functional composition, and community‐weighted functional traits with succession. We aimed to track long‐term recovery trajectories of species and carbon stocks in secondary forests, comparing 5 to 200 + year old secondary forest with reference primary forest. Along the successional gradient, the functional composition followed a trajectory from resource acquisition to resource conservation, except for nitrogen‐related leaf traits. Despite a fast, initial recovery of species diversity and functional composition, there were still important structural and carbon stock differences between old growth secondary and pristine forest, which suggests that a full recovery of secondary forests might take much longer than currently shown. As such, the aboveground carbon stocks of 200 + year old forest were only 57% of those in the pristine reference forest, which suggests a slow recovery of aboveground carbon stocks, although more research is needed to confirm this observation. The results of this study highlight the need for more in‐depth studies on forest recovery in Central Africa, to gain insight into the processes that control biodiversity and carbon stock recovery.
dc.description.sponsorshipBelgian Science Policy Office
dc.format.extent1-11
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsCopyrighted; all rights reserved
dc.subjectCentral Africa
dc.subjectCarbon
dc.subjectTropical Forests
dc.subjectDemocratic Republic Of The Congo
dc.titleLong-term recovery of the functional community assembly and carbon pools in an African tropical forest succession
dc.typeJournal Article
dc.description.versionPeer Review
cg.contributor.crpMaize
cg.contributor.crpRoots, Tubers and Bananas
cg.contributor.affiliationGhent University
cg.contributor.affiliationMeise Botanic Garden, Belgium
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture
cg.contributor.affiliationSustainable Agroecosystems Group, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Switzerland
cg.contributor.affiliationInstitut National pour l'Etude et la Recherche Agronomique, Democratic Republic of Congo
cg.contributor.affiliationRoyal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
cg.contributor.affiliationMax Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany
cg.contributor.affiliationLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California
cg.contributor.affiliationRoyal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Belgium
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionCentral Africa
cg.coverage.countryCongo, Dr
cg.creator.identifierbernard vanlauwe: 0000-0001-6016-6027
cg.researchthemeNATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
cg.isijournalISI Journal
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country institute
cg.iitasubjectNatural Resource Management
cg.journalBiotropica
cg.howpublishedFormally Published
cg.accessibilitystatusLimited Access
local.dspaceid105185
cg.targetaudienceScientists
cg.identifier.doihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1111/btp.12647


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