Journal ArticleDOI
Deforestation and Reforestation of Latin America and the Caribbean (2001–2010)
T. Mitchell Aide,Matthew L. Clark,H. Ricardo Grau,David López-Carr,Marc A. Levy,Daniel J. Redo,Martha Bonilla-Moheno,George Riner,María José Andrade-Núñez,Maria Muñiz +9 more
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors presented a wall-to-wall, annual maps of change in woody vegetation and other land-cover classes between 2001 and 2010 for each of the 16,050 municipalities in Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC).Abstract:
Forest cover change directly affects biodiversity, the global carbon budget, and ecosystem function. Within Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC), many studies have documented extensive deforestation, but there are also many local studies reporting forest recovery. These contrasting dynamics have been largely attributed to demographic and socio-economic change. For example, local population change due to migration can stimulate forest recovery, while the increasing global demand for food can drive agriculture expansion. However, as no analysis has simultaneously evaluated deforestation and reforestation from the municipal to continental scale, we lack a comprehensive assessment of the spatial distribution of these processes. We overcame this limitation by producing wall-to-wall, annual maps of change in woody vegetation and other land-cover classes between 2001 and 2010 for each of the 16,050 municipalities in LAC, and we used nonparametric Random Forest regression analyses to determine which environmental or population variables best explained the variation in woody vegetation change. Woody vegetation change was dominated by deforestation (541,835 km 2 ), particularly in the moist forest, dry forest, and savannas/shrublands biomes in South America. Extensive areas also recovered woody vegetation (+362,430 km 2 ), particularly in regions too dry or too steep for modern agriculture. Deforestation in moist forests tended to occur in lowland areas with low population density, but woody cover change was not related to municipality-scale population change. These results emphasize the importance of quantitating deforestation and reforestation at multiple spatial scales and linking these changes with global drivers such as the global demand for food.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Land cover and landscape changes in Shaanxi Province during China’s Grain for Green Program (2000–2010)
TL;DR: The results suggested that provincial-level land cover changes modestly reflected the goals of the GFG, and that large-scale reforestation trend in Shaanxi Province was associated with increased inter-landscape aggregation and connection.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts of climate variability on tree demography in second growth tropical forests: the importance of regional context for predicting successional trajectories
María Uriarte,Naomi B. Schwartz,Jennifer S. Powers,Erika Marin-Spiotta,Wenying Liao,Leland K. Werden +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compile data from 112 studies on the effects of natural climate variability, including warming, droughts, fires, and cyclonic storms, on demography and dynamics of second growth forest trees and identify variation in forest responses across biomes, regions, and landscapes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recovery of amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal diversity during secondary forest succession in the tropics
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that the loss of forests is greatlymodifying the distribution, abundance, function and compo- sition of the biota (Ibarra and Martin 2015).
Journal ArticleDOI
Natural regeneration and biodiversity: a global meta‐analysis and implications for spatial planning
Agnieszka E. Latawiec,Renato Crouzeilles,Renato Crouzeilles,Pedro H. S. Brancalion,Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues,Jerônimo Boelsums Barreto Sansevero,Jerônimo Boelsums Barreto Sansevero,Juliana Silveira dos Santos,Morena Mills,André Gustavo Nave,Bernardo B. N. Strassburg,Bernardo B. N. Strassburg +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conducted a meta-analysis for tropical regions and quantified the relationships between both ecological and socioeconomic factors and biodiversity responses in naturally regenerating areas, and showed that natural regeneration was predominantly reported within: the Neotropical realm; areas that were intensively disturbed; and countries with medium HDI.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rapid Liana Colonization along a Secondary Forest Chronosequence
Kathryn E. Barry,Stefan A. Schnitzer,Stefan A. Schnitzer,Michiel van Breugel,Michiel van Breugel,Michiel van Breugel,Jefferson S. Hall +6 more
TL;DR: It is found that lianas reached high densities early in succession, commonly exceeding 1000 stems/ha within the first 5 yr of forest regeneration, and may have a large effect on the way in which secondary forests develop both early and throughout succession.
References
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Random Forests
TL;DR: Internal estimates monitor error, strength, and correlation and these are used to show the response to increasing the number of features used in the forest, and are also applicable to regression.
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Overview of the radiometric and biophysical performance of the MODIS vegetation indices
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Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth
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Random forest: a classification and regression tool for compound classification and QSAR modeling.
Vladimir Svetnik,Andy Liaw,Christopher Tong,J. Christopher Culberson,Robert P. Sheridan,Bradley P. Feuston +5 more
TL;DR: It is the combination of relatively high prediction accuracy and its collection of desired features that makes Random Forest uniquely suited for modeling in cheminformatics.
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Dynamics of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change in Tropical Regions
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the complexity of land-use/cover change and propose a framework for a more general understanding of the issue, with emphasis on tropical regions, and argue that a systematic analysis of local-scale land use change studies, conducted over a range of timescales, helps to uncover general principles that provide an explanation and prediction of new land use changes.