Can a tropical forest mend itself? After trees are cut down and wildlife flees, do microbes on the dank, leafy floor and woody giants with epiphyte-laden crowns come back; do the pollinators, seed dispersers and entangled webs of predator and prey return? And how, exactly, does it happen? A new ambitious research project is trying to find out. Based out of the 15,000-hectare (37,000 acre) Canandé Reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Forest, the aptly named Reassembly Research Unit is documenting how the forest recovers after clearing. The results, by a joint German and Ecuadorian team, so far indicate that many species assemblages return within a few decades, though the full forest community, including mature trees, takes longer to reestablish. These answers shed light on intricate ecosystem processes. They are also of immense conservation value, potentially in the tropics worldwide. “Unfortunately, most of the tropical forests are becoming secondary forest, especially in this part of the tropics,” says María-José Endara, a researcher with Reassembly and evolutionary ecologist at the University of the Americas in Quito. “If we want to keep having a forest, then we have to be prepared to let this forest regenerate. And we need the knowledge and the understanding of how this process will go.” The lush forests of the Ecuadorian Chocó. Image courtesy of Reassembly. Ecuador’s Chocó The Chocó ecoregion is astounding, one of the 10 most biodiverse spots on Earth. Lying west of the Andes, it stretches through Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, covering a huge elevation range.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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