Forest structure drives changes in light heterogeneity during tropical secondary forest succession.

ABSTRACT: Light is a key resource for tree performance and hence, tree species partition spatial and temporal gradients in light availability. Although light distribution drives tree performance and species replacement during secondary forest succession, we yet lack understanding how light distribution changes with tropical forest development.This study aims to evaluate how changes in forest structure lead to changes in vertical and horizontal light heterogeneity during tropical forest succession.We described successional patterns in light using a chronosequence approach in which we compared 14 Mexican secondary forest stands that differ in age (8-32 years) since agricultural abandonment. For each stand, we measured vertical light profiles in 16 grid cells, and structural parameters (diameter at bre

SUBMITTER: Matsuo T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8453511 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature