Journal article
Source limitation drives slow compositional recovery in tropical secondary forests
National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, Vol.123(31), pp.1-8
2026
PMCID: PMC13439081
PMID: 42475547
Abstract
Tropical forests can recover diversity, structure, and function rapidly after disturbance. However, plant compositional recovery remains incomplete even after many decades, and the reasons for this lag are poorly understood. We investigated the roles of source, dispersal, and establishment limitation in affecting compositional recovery in Costa Rican forests using long-term data on species composition of trees, seeds, seedlings, and saplings, along with measurements of herbivory and leaf pathogen damage in seedlings and saplings from old-growth (OG) and second-growth (SG) forest plots. We classified tree species into successional groups, including: generalist (similar relative abundance in OG and SG), old-growth specialist (higher relative abundance in OG), old-growth exclusive (detected only in OG), and too rare to classify conclusively. Infrequent species drove community dissimilarity between old-growth and second-growth plots, and 40% of species in old-growth plots were absent as trees in second-growth forests up to 55 y old. Old-growth exclusive species (as trees and seedlings and saplings in OG plots and as seeds in seed traps in OG and SG) have extremely low abundance (11 trees/ha; 1 seedling or sapling/ha; 8 seeds/ha), indicating strong source limitation. Old-growth exclusive species shared seed dispersal traits with old-growth specialists established in SG, providing no evidence of dispersal limitation. Old-growth specialist seedlings and saplings had higher survival in SG than in OG, providing no evidence of establishment limitation. These findings suggest source limitation as the primary driver of delayed compositional recovery in mid-to-late stages of forest succession and underscore the potential for targeted enrichment plantings to accelerate full compositional recovery.
Details
- Title
- Source limitation drives slow compositional recovery in tropical secondary forests
- Authors
- Luísa Genes (Corresponding Author) - Stanford UniversityAmanda Wendt - Earth UniversityBryan Finegan - Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza CatieCristina Barber - Michigan State UniversityDiego Delgado - Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza CatieMarta Peláez - Universidad Politécnica de MadridNohemi Huanca Nunez - Yale UniversityRichard K Kobe - Michigan State UniversityRodolfo Dirzo - Stanford UniversityRobin L Chazdon - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, Vol.123(31), pp.1-8
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2510678123
- ISSN
- 1091-6490
- PMID
- 42475547; PMC13439081
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2026 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
- Grant note
- This project was supported by the American Philosophical Society Lewis and Clark Field Grant, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Seed Grant, Sigma Xi GIAR, and a Stanford University Center for Latin American Studies Field Grant. L.G. was supported by a Stanford DARE (Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence) Fellowship and the Gabilan Stanford Graduate Fellowship. R.L.C. received funding for plot establishment and annual censuses from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NSF DEB-0424767, NSF DEB-0639393, NSF DEB-1147429, NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program, The National Geographic Society, the Costa Rica Debt for Nature Program, and the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. R.D. was supported by unrestricted funds from Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences. M.P. was supported by a Margarita Salas postdoctoral fellowship (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the European Union—NextGenerationEU). R.K. La Selva plots were supported by the NSF (DEB 0075472, 0640904, 0743609, 1256747, 1354414).
- Organisation Unit
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991246154602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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