Tree mortality and recruitment in secondary Andean tropical mountain forests along a 3000 m elevation gradient.

ABSTRACT: This study addresses the understudied dynamics of mortality and recruitment in Tropical Mountain forests, critical determinants of forest structural processes and biomass turnover. We examine how these demographic processes change with elevation and varying degrees of forest recovery by utilizing two forest censuses (2015 and 2019) from 16 plots (0.36 ha) across a 600-3500 m asl elevation gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes. Employing multivariate PCA analyses, we characterize successional forest dynamics and explore relationships between demographic rates, elevation, and indicators of forest recovery using standard linear regression and generalized additive models (GAMs). Contrary to our hypothesis, mortality exhibits a unimodal response, peaking at mid-elevations, with no significant relati

SUBMITTER: Ordonez JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10927132 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature