Secondary forest

The forest in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is generally considered to have second and third growth characteristics. This photo shows regeneration, a tree growing out of the stump of another tree that was felled in 1962 by the remnants of Typhoon Freda.

A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused disturbances, such as timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or equivalently disruptive natural phenomena.[1] It is distinguished from an old-growth forest (primary or primeval forest), which has not recently undergone such disruption, and complex early seral forest, as well as third-growth forests that result from harvest in second growth forests. Secondary forest regrowing after timber harvest differs from forest regrowing after natural disturbances such as fire, insect infestation, or windthrow because the dead trees remain to provide nutrients, structure, and water retention after natural disturbances. Secondary forests are notably different from primary forests in their composition and biodiversity; however, they may still be helpful in providing habitat for native species, preserving watersheds, and restoring connectivity between ecosystems.[2]

The legal definition of what constitutes a secondary forest vary between countries.[3] Some legal systems allows certain degree of subjectivity in assigning a forest as secondary.[3]

  1. ^ Chokkalingam, U.; de Jong, W. (2001-11-12). "Array - CIFOR Knowledge". CIFOR. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  2. ^ Rozendaal, Danaë M. A.; Bongers, Frans; Aide, T. Mitchell; Alvarez-Dávila, Esteban; Ascarrunz, Nataly; Balvanera, Patricia; Becknell, Justin M.; Bentos, Tony V.; Brancalion, Pedro H. S.; Cabral, George A. L.; Calvo-Rodriguez, Sofia; Chave, Jerome; César, Ricardo G.; Chazdon, Robin L.; Condit, Richard (March 2019). "Biodiversity recovery of Neotropical secondary forests". Science Advances. 5 (3): eaau3114. Bibcode:2019SciA....5.3114R. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau3114. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6402850. PMID 30854424.
  3. ^ a b Fiamoncini-Pastório, Fábio; Fiorentin-dos-Santos, Kristiana; Luís de-Gasper, André (2023). "Classification systems for secondary forests in four neotropical countries: Synthesis and conceptual analysis". Bosque. 44 (3). doi:10.4067/s0717-92002023000300469.