caa a22 4500 475751671 CHVBK 20180406123525.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1023/A:1009825211430 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1023/A:1009825211430 Forest recovery in abandoned agricultural lands in a karst region of the Dominican Republic [Elektronische Daten] [L.W. Rivera, J.K. Zimmerman, T.M. Aide] This study documents the status of forest vegetation in the karst region of Los Haitises National Park, Dominican Republic, following the abandonment of pastures (≤5 years), young (≤5 years) 'sconucos' (mixed plantings), old (7-30 years) conucos, and cacao plantations (>25 years). We compared these sites to vegetation characteristics of patches of forest in karst valleys ('sold forest'-too old to know their exact land use) and on mogote tops with no recent history of human disturbance. The youngest sites date to when squatters were removed from Los Haitises National Park. Forest structure (density, basal area, and species richness of woody plants ≥1cm DBH) were all significantly affected by land use. Density was highest in intermediate-aged valley sites (old conucos) and mogote tops, while both basal area and species richness tended to increase with age of abandonment. Although cacao plantations had been abandoned for more than 25 years the species diversity was low, due to continued regeneration of this persistent crop. Abandoned pastures had the greatest nonwoody biomass and were dominated by the fern Nephrolepis multiflora which had completely replaced pasture grasses. An ordination of the woody plant communities separated the mogote tops from valleys, emphasizing the strong control that topography has on the forest community in moist and wet tropical forests on karst substrates. Valley sites were arranged in the ordination in order of their age, suggesting a successional sequence converging on the composition of the 'sold forest' sites. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 Caribbean nationallicence Conuco nationallicence Greater Antilles nationallicence Land use nationallicence Los Haitises National Park nationallicence Secondary succession nationallicence Rivera L.W. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut Zimmerman J.K. Institute for Tropical Ecosystems Studies, University of Puerto Rico, 00936-3682, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut Aide T.M. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut Plant Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 148/2(2000-06-01), 115-125 1385-0237 148:2<115 2000 148 11258 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009825211430 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009825211430 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rivera L.W. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zimmerman J.K. Institute for Tropical Ecosystems Studies, University of Puerto Rico, 00936-3682, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Aide T.M. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Plant Ecology Kluwer Academic Publishers 148/2(2000-06-01), 115-125 1385-0237 148:2<115 2000 148 11258 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer