Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Mechanisms of plant regeneration during succession after shifting cultivation in eastern Amazonia

  • Published:
Plant Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The role of seed bank, seed rain, and regeneration from seedlings and sprouts after swidden agriculture was compared in 5-, 10- and 20-year-old secondary forest and in a primary forest in Bragantina, Pará, Brazil. The seed bank (0–5 cm soil depth) was largest in the 5-year-old forest (1190 ± 284 seeds m−2) and decreased nearly ten-fold with age to 137 ± 19 seeds m−2 in the primary forest. The highest seed rain was in the 5-year-old forest (883 ± 230 seeds m−2 year−1) and the least in the primary forest (220 ± 80 seeds m−2 year−1). Large plants (≥5 cm dbh) had more individuals and species that regenerated from sprouts than from seeds and the most abundant tree species in the secondary forest stands of all ages appear to be maintained by sprouting. The smaller individuals (≥1 m tall, <5 cm dbh) in the 5-year-old forest were mainly from sprouts, but those in the older secondary forests originated mainly from seeds. These results show that at the beginning of succession, although many species can be introduced to swidden fallow from seed bank and seed rain, it is the sprout that is the main source of recruits of primary forest species in secondary forests in Bragantina.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+
from $39.99 /Month
  • Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
  • Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
  • Cancel anytime
View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  • Abdulhadi R, Lamb D (1988) Soil seed stores in a rain forest succession. Proc Ecol Soc Austral 15:81–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Adams M (1997) O papel de morcegos na regeneração de florestas secundárias da Amazônia Oriental. Dissertation, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém

  • Brower JE, Zar JH (1984) Field and laboratory methods for general ecology, 2nd edn. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Iowa

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrashekara UM, Ramakrishnan PS (1993) Germinable soil seed bank dynamics during the gap phase of a humid tropical forest in the western parts of Kerala, India. J Trop Ecol 9:455–467

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheke AA, Nanakorn W, Yankoses C (1979) Dormancy and dispersal of seeds of secondary forest species under the canopy of a primary tropical rain forest in northern Thailand. Biotropica 11:88–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denich M (1991) A Importância de uma vegetação secundária nova para o incremento da produtividade do sistema de produção na Amazônia Oriental Brasileira. EMBRAPA /CPATU-GTZ, Belém

    Google Scholar 

  • Denslow JS, Gomez Diaz AEG (1990) Seed rain to tree-fall gaps in a neotropical rain forest. Can J For Res 20:642–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egler EG (1961) A zona Bragantina no Estado do Pará. Revista Brasileira de Geografia 23:527–555

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster SA, Janson CH (1985) The relationship between seed size and establishment conditions in tropical woody plants. Ecology 66:773–780

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garwood N C (1989) Tropical soil seed banks: a review. In: Leck MA, Parker VT, Simpson RL (eds) Ecology of soil seed banks. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Guevara S, Gomez-Pompa A (1972) Seeds from surface soils in a tropical region of Veracruz, Mexico. J Arnold Arbor 53:312–335

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall JB, Swaine MD (1980) Seed stocks in Ghanaian forest soils. Biotropica 12:256–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kauffman JB (1991) Survival by sprouting following fire in tropical forests of the eastern Amazon. Biotropica 23:219–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawton RO, Putz FE (1988) Natural disturbance and gap-phase regeneration in a wind-exposed tropical cloud forest. Ecology 69:764–777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy L, Proctor J (1999) Early secondary forest growth after shifting cultivation. In: Sist P, Sabogal C, Byron Y (eds) Management of secondary and logged-over forests in Indonesia. Selected proceedings of an international workshop held in Bogor, Indonesia, 17–19 November 1997. Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor

  • Nepstad DC, Uhl C, Pereira C et al (1996) A comparative study of tree establishment in abandoned pasture and mature forest of eastern Amazonia. Oikos 76:25–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noble IR, Slatyer RO (1980) The use of vital attributes to predict successional changes in plant communities subject to recurrent disturbances. Vegetatio 43:5–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira AE (1983) Ocupação humana. In: Salati E, Schubart HOR, Junk W et al (eds) Amazônia, desenvolvimento, integração e ecologia. Ed. Brasiliense-CNPq, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  • Penteado AR (1967) Problemas de Colonização e de Uso da Terra na Região Bragantina do Estado do Pará, Universidade Federal do Pará. Coleção Amazônia, Série José Veríssimo. Pará

  • Prajadinata S (1996) Studies on tree re-growth on shifting cultivation sites near Muara Joloi, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. M.Sc. thesis, University of Stirling

  • Putz FE, Appanah S (1987) Buried seeds, newly dispersed seed, and the dynamics of a lowland forest in Malaysia. Biotropica 19:326–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putz FE, Brokaw NVL (1989) Sprouting of broken trees on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Ecology 70:508–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putz FE (1983) Treefall pits and mounds, buried seeds, and the importance of soil disturbance to pioneer trees on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Ecology 64:1069–1074

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rico-Gray V, Garcia-Franco JG (1992) Vegetation and soil seed bank of successional stages in tropical lowland deciduous forest. J Veg Sci 3:617–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rouw ADE (1993) Regeneration by sprouting in slash and burn rice cultivation. Taï rain forest, Côte d’Ivoire. J Trop Ecol 9:387–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saulei SM, Swaine MD (1988) Dynamics of seed rain and soil seed banks during forest clearance and subsequent regrowth in the Gogol Valley, Papua New Guinea. J Ecol 76:133–1152

    Google Scholar 

  • Skoglund J (1992). The role of seed banks in vegetation dynamics and restoration of dry tropical ecosystems. J Veg Sci 3:357–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swaine MD, Hall JB (1983) Early succession on cleared forest land in Ghana. J Ecol 71:601–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swaine MD, Whitmore TC (1988) On the definition of ecological species groups in tropical rain forests. Vegetatio 75:81–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C (1987) Factors controlling succession following slash-and-burn agriculture in Amazonia. J Ecol 75:377–407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Clark K (1983) Seed ecology of selected Amazon basin successional species. Bot Gaz 144: 419–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Jordan CF (1984) Succession and nutrient dynamics following forest cutting and burning in Amazonia. Ecology 65:1476–1490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Buschbacher R, Serrão EAS (1988) Abandoned pastures in eastern Amazonia. I. Patterns of plant succession. J Ecol 76:663–681

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Clark H, Clark K (1982a) Successional patterns associated with slash-and-burn agriculture in the upper Rio Negro region the Amazon basin. Biotropica 14:249–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Jordan C, Clark K et al (1982b) Ecosystem recovery in Amazon caatinga forest after cutting, cutting and burning, and bulldozer clearing treatments. Oikos 38:313–320

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Uhl C, Clark K, Clark H et al (1981) Early plant succession after cutting and burning in the upper Rio Negro region of the Amazon basin. J Ecol 69:631–649

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vazquez-Yanes C (1980) Notas sobre la autoecologia de los árboles pioneros de rápido crecimiento de la selva tropical lluviosa. Trop Ecol 21:103–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor RG, Jose GGF (1992) Vegetation and soil seed bank of successional stages in tropical lowland deciduous forest. J VegSci 3:617-624

    Google Scholar 

  • Vieira ICG (1996) Forest succession after shifting cultivation in Eastern Amazonia. PhD. thesis, University of Stirling

  • Vieira ICG, Uhl C, Nepstad DC (1994) The role of the shrub Cordia multispicata Cham. as a “succession facilitator” in an abandoned pasture, Paragominas, Amazônia. Vegetatio 115:91–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Warr SJ, Thompson K, Kent M (1993) Seed banks as a neglected area of biogeographic research: a review of literature and sampling techniques. Progr Phys Geogr 17:329–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitmore TC (1983) Secondary succession from seed in tropical forests. For Abstr 44:767–779

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitmore TC (1984) Tropical rain forest of the Far East, 2nd edn. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Young KR, Ewel JJ, Brown BJ (1987) Seed dynamics during forest succession in Costa Rica. Vegetatio 71:157–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar JH (1996) Biostatistical analysis, 3rd edn. Prentice-Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Nelson Rosa for species identification, Nancy Galvão and Mario Rosa for assistance in the field; Dr. Danilo Mendonça and the small farmers of Anani for permission to carry out the study on their land. The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq-Brazil), provided the research grant. I am very grateful to Dr. Laszlo Nagy for the detailed revision of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Botânica, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, C.P. 399, Belem, Para, CEP 66.040-170, Brazil

    Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira

  2. School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK

    John Proctor

Authors
  1. Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John Proctor
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vieira, I.C.G., Proctor, J. Mechanisms of plant regeneration during succession after shifting cultivation in eastern Amazonia. Plant Ecol 192, 303–315 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9327-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9327-4

Keywords