Lessons from a regional analysis of forest recovery trajectories in West Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID15551981
AuthorsBienvenu H K Amani (0000-0003-1610-1212, Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, corresponding author), Anny Estelle N’Guessan (0000-0002-5453-1419, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny), Victor Van der Meersch (0000-0001-7746-4098, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Géraldine Derroire (0000-0001-7239-2881, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Camille Piponiot (0000-0002-3473-1982, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), Aka G M Elogne (0000-0002-6229-7191, Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny), Karidia Traoré (Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé), Justin Kassi N’Dja (0000-0003-1604-1096, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny), Bruno Hérault (0000-0002-6950-7286, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume17
Issue11
Pages115005-115005
Publication date2022-10-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ac9b4f
OpenAlexW4307889738
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited66

In West Africa, very poorly documented are the recovery trajectories of secondary forests, and even less is known about the origin of the observed variability in recovery rates. To understand the relative importance of local and regional environmental conditions on these trajectories, we inventoried all trees larger than 2.5 cm DBH on 236 plots (0.2 ha), aged from 0 to 45 years plus controls, on eight chronosequences representing the typical regional North-South climatic gradient of West Africa. In a hierarchical Bayesian framework, we modelled recovery trajectories of biodiversity, aboveground biomass and floristic composition and tested the influence of variability in local (plot history, landscape context, remnant trees) and regional (climate and soil) conditions on recovery rates. Our results show that (a) diversity recovers faster than composition and biomass, (b) among the local variables, the number of remnant trees has a positive impact on recovery rates while the duration of agricultural cultivation has a negative impact, and (c) among the regional variables, the high seasonality of precipitation and climate, typical of the dry forests of the northern West African forest zone, leads to faster secondary successions. Our simulation approaches have indicated that poor regional conditions can be counterbalanced by adequate local conditions and vice versa, which argues strongly in favour of a diagnosis that integrates these two aspects in the choice of more or less active technical itineraries for forest restoration

Biodiversity · Biology · Biomass (ecology · Climate change · Context (archaeology · Floristics · Geography · Meteorology · Physical geography · Precipitation · Species richness · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Environmental Science · Forest Management and Policy · Ecology · Forestry

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