Publications

The trees and the forest. The role of tree architecture in canopy development; a case study in secondary forest (Araracuara, Colombia).

Publication

Authors: Vester, H.F.M.

Colombia - 1997

ISBN: 90-5651-032-0

Language: English

Secondary forests are the subject of growing attention, and this study on the development of secondary forests in the Araracuara region in Colombian Amazonia appears as a timely contribution. It was written by Hans Vester, who obtained his PhD-degree (with honours) on the basis of this thesis. The study addresses the relation between tree architecture and forest architecture. This was done by the description and analysis of transect laid out in abandoned 'chagras', the field created by shifting cultivation. The transects covered various stages in the development of secondary forests, ranging from 2 to at least 35 years of age. First, an architectural analysis is given of the major species that play a role in the succession from abondoned field to closed forest. An important tool was the drawing of architectural diagrams, synthesesing the development of branching of representative individuals of 17 species. The structure of the vegetation was then analysed in a comparable way, again illustrated with numerous drawings of forest profiles in which distinction is made between trees of the present, past and future. One chapter is devoted to the relation between forest architecture and light distribution in and below the canopy. Light was measured or estimated using a number of techniques (measured, estimated from hemispherical photos and modelled with a forest model). The main conclusion was that light availability is variable in space and time, and that current light availability reveals little about the light environment under which trees develop. No strong relation could be detected between forest architecture or species-composition, and light environment. From the analysis of the forest transects, groups of species sharing the same pattern of responses towards the environment (called 'temperaments') were described, and discussed in relation to the literature. The hypothesis that there was a close relationship between architectural model and temperament could neither be accepted nor rejected. Finally the results of the study were translated into a practical layout for forest design. The base of a management plan should be to mimic natural processes as much as possible. By choosing the right tree temperaments, mixed forest plantations will be a sustainable alternative to monoculture, which depend on silvicultural interventions.

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