Study Shows Replanting Logged Forests with Diverse Mixture of Species Accellerates Restoration

[CMBright]

Study

• Twenty-year experiment finds that active replanting beats natural recovery for restoring logged tropical forests.
• The higher the diversity of replanted tree species, the more quickly canopy area and biomass recovered.
• Results emphasize the importance of preserving biodiversity in pristine forests and restoring it in recovering logged forest.

I found the first bullet point a rather duh! level obvious. I found it interesting that the more diversity, the faster the forest recovered.

 

[Gramps]

I've always thought that replanted forests look so unnatural. The regrowth being targeted for pulp or some other specific attribute.

 

[neandermagnon]

Study


I found the first bullet point a rather duh! level obvious. I found it interesting that the more diversity, the faster the forest recovered.

Not necessarily... in 1987 there was a hurricane which levelled a lot of forests in SE England, and the areas where they planted trees didn't grow back as quickly as where they let forests grow back naturally. Biology is weird like that. It probably depends on a whole variety of abiotic and biotic factors in the forest itself and the type(s) of trees you're trying to grow.

 

[CMBright]

I've always thought that replanted forests look so unnatural. The regrowth being targeted for pulp or some other specific attribute.

A forest planted to be logged will be as planned and orderly as any wheat or corn field.

These seed bombs use wildflower seeds, but there is no reason why tree, shrub and undergrowth plant seeds couldn't be used.