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Regeneration from seed under a range of canopy conditions in tropical wet forest, Puerto Rico

  • Chapter
The Ecology and Silviculture of Mixed-Species Forests

Part of the book series: Forestry Sciences ((FOSC,volume 40))

Abstract

There is now a generally accepted model of tropical rainforest dynamics (Swaine and Whitmore 1988). Transient canopy openings (“gaps”) develop in closed forest, new trees grow in them, and the stand develops; eventually a mature forest is reconstituted. This is the essence of so-called gap-phase regeneration. The cycle is initiated with the gap, after which the stand moves through the building to the mature phase (Whitmore 1978). The gap segment is crucial because what establishes and grows then determines the floristic composition of the entire cycle, and influences composition in subsequent cycles. The gap-phase regeneration model has been applied to temperate as well as tropical forests (e.g., Jones 1945, Runkle 1979, Spies and Franklin 1989).

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Authors
  1. Nora N. Devoe
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    Matthew J. Kelty

  2. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 06511, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Bruce C. Larson

  3. College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Chadwick D. Oliver

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Devoe, N.N. (1992). Regeneration from seed under a range of canopy conditions in tropical wet forest, Puerto Rico. In: Kelty, M.J., Larson, B.C., Oliver, C.D. (eds) The Ecology and Silviculture of Mixed-Species Forests. Forestry Sciences, vol 40. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8052-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8052-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4135-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8052-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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