ArticleThe Journal of ecology2021
Forest structure drives changes in light heterogeneity during tropical secondary forest succession.
Article in The Journal of ecology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- Toward Consistent Canopy Characterization From Low-Cost UAV Imagery.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Soil microbial effects on tree seedling performance during forest secondary succession.Ecology · 2026Article
- Effects of light intensity on the Panax quinquefolius L. growth and soil microbial communities under reduced light spatial heterogeneity: an application to agroforestry systems.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Floristic Composition and Diversity Along a Successional Gradient in Andean Montane Forests, Southwestern Colombia.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Members of the lichen photobiont genus Trebouxia show species-specific photophysiological and transcriptome-level responses to high light.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Article
- Study on the canopy structure and light distribution ofFrontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Drivers and Mechanisms of Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Secondary Tropical Forests.Ecosystems (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal response of photosynthetic characteristics in Epimedium pubescens to understory environmental factors across three agroforestry systems.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Heterogeneous light environments induce plasticity in leaf morphology and photosynthesis of two sympodial bamboo species.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Tree age affects key fine root morphological traits but does not interfere strongly with (ecto-)mycorrhizal traits.Annals of botany · 2025Article
- Demography, dynamics and data: building confidence for simulating changes in the world's forests.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Forest biodiversity increases productivity via complementarity from greater canopy structural complexity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Proximity to forests, fire and plantation characteristics influence understory plant species richness more than phylogenetic diversity in African mahogany plantations.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mutualisms within light microhabitats are associated with sensory convergence in a mimetic butterfly community.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Tree Architecture and Structural Complexity in Mountain Forests of the Annapurna Region, Himalaya.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Temporal stability of forest productivity declines over stand age at multiple spatial scales.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Large-sized trees regulating the structural diversity-productivity relationships through shaping different productive processes in a tropical forest.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Persistent Effects of Landscape Context on Recruitment Dynamics During Secondary Succession of Tropical Forests.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal dominance on taxonomic and phylogenetic beta diversity across vertical strata in a subtropical forest.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Light is a key resource for tree performance and hence, tree species partition spatial and temporal gradients in light availability. Although light distribution drives tree performance and species replacement during secondary forest succession, we yet lack understanding how light distribution changes with tropical forest development.This study aims to evaluate how changes in forest structure lead to changes in vertical and horizontal light heterogeneity during tropical forest succession.We described successional patterns in light using a chronosequence approach in which we compared 14 Mexican secondary forest stands that differ in age (8-32 years) since agricultural abandonment. For each stand, we measured vertical light profiles in 16 grid cells, and structural parameters (diameter at breast height, height and crown dimensions) for each tree.During succession, we found a rapid increase in stand size (basal area, crown area and length) and stand differentiation (i.e. a gradual leaf distribution along the forest profile), which leads to fast changes in light conditions and more light heterogeneity. The inflection points of the vertical light gradient (i.e. the absolute height at which 50% relative light intensity is attained) rapidly moved towards higher heights in the first 20 years, indicating that larger amounts of light are intercepted by canopy trees. Light attenuation rate (i.e. the rate of light extinction) decreased during succession due to slower accumulation of the crown area with height. Understorey light intensity and heterogeneity slightly decreased during succession because of an increase in crown size and a decrease in lateral gap frequency. Understorey relative light intensity was 1.56% at 32 years after abandonment.
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