Enrichment of Central African logged forests with high-value tree species: testing a new approach to regenerating degraded forests

How Can Remote Sensing Help Monitor Tropical Moist Forest Degradation?—A Systematic Review

In the context of the climate and biodiversity crisis facing our planet, tropical forests playing a key role in global carbon flux and containing over half of Earth’s species are important to preserve. They are today threatened by deforestation but also by forest degradation, which is more difficult to study. Here, we performed a systematic review of studies on moist tropical forest degradation using remote sensing and fitting indicators of forest resilience to perturbations. Geographical repartition, spatial extent and temporal evolution were analyzed. Indicators of compositional, structural and regeneration criteria were noted as well as remote sensing indices and metrics used. Tropical moist forest degradation is not extensively studied especially in the Congo basin and in southeast Asia. Forest structure (i.e., canopy gaps, fragmentation and biomass) is the most widely and easily measured criteria with remote sensing, while composition and regeneration are more difficult to characterize. Mixing LiDAR/Radar and optical data shows good potential as well as very high-resolution satellite data. The awaited GEDI and BIOMASS satellites data will fill the actual gap to a large extent and provide accurate structural information. LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) form a good bridge between field and satellite data. While the performance of the LiDAR is no longer to be demonstrated, particular attention should be brought to the UAV that shows great potential and could be more easily used by local communities and stakeholders.

Fotossíntese de espécies de Anibae em resposta à exposição a ambientes contrastantes de luz

Resumo Fotossíntese de espécies de Anibae em resposta à exposição a ambientes contrastantes de luz. Características ecofisiológicas e o ambiente de luz têm implicações sobre o estabelecimento de plantios florestais. O objetivo desse estudo foi investigar a fotossíntese de Aniba canelilla e A. rosaeodora em resposta à disponibilidade de luz no campo. As trocas gasosas, conteúdo de clorofilas (ICC) e desempenho fotoquímico (FV/FM) foram medidos em folhas aclimatadas (sombra durante 300 dias), a pleno sol (28 dias) e novamente à sombra durante 28 dias. A fotossíntese, ICC e FV/FM de A. canelilla e A. rosaeodora foram afetadas negativamente a pleno sol, mas se recuperaram quando submetidas à sombra. A fotossíntese, ICC e FV/FM foram duas vezes superiores nas plantas de sombra. Aniba rosaeodora apresentou desempenho fotossintético duas vezes superior a A. canelilla. As diferenças nas respostas fotossintéticas à luz sugerem que as espécies poderiam ocupar “nichos” de sucessão diferentes em plantios de enriquecimento e, a plasticidade (mediada pela recuperação) implica aclimatação em ambientes de luz variável. O fato das espécies de Anibae estudadas possuírem diferenças de plasticidade para luz deve ser visto com cautela para sugerir plantios convencionais, mas reforça a indicação para plantios de enriquecimento em sítios florestais com variações na disponibilidade de luz.

History of the fragmentation of the African rain forest in the Dahomey Gap: insight from the demographic history of Terminalia superba

Paleo-environmental reconstructions show that the distribution of tropical African rain forests was affected by Quaternary climate changes. They suggest that the Dahomey Gap (DG)-the savanna corridor that currently separates Upper Guinean (UG, West Africa) and Lower Guinean (LG, western Central Africa) rain forest blocks-was forested during the African Humid Holocene period (from at least 9 ka till 4.5 ka), and possibly during other interglacial periods, while an open vegetation developed in the DG under drier conditions, notably during glacial maxima. Nowadays, relics of semi-deciduous forests containing UG and LG forest species are still present within the DG. We used one of these species, the pioneer tree Terminalia superba (Combretaceae), to study past forest fragmentation in the DG and its impact on infraspecific biodiversity. A Bayesian clustering analysis of 299 individuals genotyped at 14 nuclear microsatellites revealed five parapatric genetic clusters (UG, DG, and three in LG) with low to moderate genetic differentiation (Fst from 0.02 to 0.24). Approximate Bayesian Computation analyses inferred a demographic bottleneck around the penultimate glacial period in all populations. They also supported an origin of the DG population by admixture of UG and LG populations around 54,000 (27,600-161,000) years BP, thus before the Last Glacial Maximum. These results contrast with those obtained on Distemonanthus benthamianus where the DG population seems to originate from the Humid Holocene period. We discuss these differences in light of the ecology of each species. Our results challenge the simplistic view linking population fragmentation/expansion with glacial/interglacial periods in African forest species.