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Restoration ecology in the Anthropocene: learning from responses of tropical forests to extreme disturbance events
Author(s) -
ÁlvarezYépiz Juan C.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
restoration ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1526-100X
pISSN - 1061-2971
DOI - 10.1111/rec.13117
Subject(s) - disturbance (geology) , ecology , ecological succession , anthropocene , ecosystem , restoration ecology , forest restoration , tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests , geography , intermediate disturbance hypothesis , tropical vegetation , vegetation (pathology) , forest dynamics , ecosystem ecology , rainforest , forest ecology , environmental resource management , environmental science , biology , medicine , paleontology , pathology
Extreme disturbance events denote another aspect of global environmental changes archetypal of the Anthropocene. These events of climatic or anthropic origin are challenging our perceived understanding about how forests respond to disturbance. I present a general framework of tropical forest responses to extreme disturbance events with specific examples from tropical dry forests. The linkage between level of disturbance severity and dominant mechanism of vegetation recovery is reflected on a variety of initial trajectories of forest succession. Accordingly, more realistic and cost‐effective restoration goals in many tropical forests likely consist in maintaining a mosaic of different successional trajectories while promoting landscape connectivity, rather than encouraging full‐ecosystem recovery to pre‐disturbance conditions. Incorporating extreme disturbance events into the global restoration ecology agenda will be essential to design well‐informed ecosystem management strategies in the coming decades.