A Method for Performing Reforestation to Effectively Recover Soil Water Content in Extremely Degraded Tropical Rain Forests

Abstract

Deforestation continues to be extensive in the tropics, resulting in reduced soil water content. Reforestation is an effective way to recover soil water content, but the recovery depends on the type of reforestation efforts that are implemented. Monoculture of fast-growing species is a common reforestation strategy, because it is an effective means of preventing landslides resulting from the frequent typhoons and heavy rains in the tropics and easy to implement. To quantify whether monoculture plantings can help recover soil water content, we initiated a reforestation project within a 0.2 km2 area of an extremely degraded tropical monsoon forest. We hypothesized that much higher transpiration rate of fast-growing tree species would deplete soil water more than the dominant slow-growing species in the adjacent secondary tropical rain forest during both wet and dry seasons, thereby resulting in much lower soil water content. To test this hypothesis, we compared transpiration rates and key functional traits that can distinguish transpiration rates between fast-growing and dominant slow-growing species in both wet and dry seasons. We also quantified whether soil water content around these species differed. We found that fast-growing species had transpiration rate and transpiration-related trait values that were 5–10 times greater than the dominant slow-growing species in both seasons. We also found that soil water content around dominant slow-growing species was 1.5–3 times greater than for fast-growing species in both seasons. Therefore, reforestation based on monoculture plantings of fast-growing species seems difficult to effectively recover the soil water content. We also provide a simple method for guiding the use of reforestation efforts to recover soil water content in extremely degraded tropical rain forests. We expect that this simple method can be an effective means to restore extremely degraded tropical rain forests in other parts of the world.

Soil fungal community is more sensitive than bacterial to mining and reforestation in a tropical rainforest

“…This region has a tropical monsoon marine climate, with an average annual temperature of 28°C, and the vegetation comprising of broad leaf tropical rainforests (Zhao et al, 2021). The average annual precipitation in Sanya is 1500 mm, ~91% of which occurs between June and October (Liu et al, 2021; Zhao et al, 2021).…”

“…The average annual precipitation in Sanya is 1500 mm, $91% of which occurs between June and October (Liu et al, 2021;Zhao et al, 2021).…”

Penerapan Pertanian Regeneratif pada Perkebunan Kopi

“…Apabila tindakan konservasi lahan kurang diperhatikan dan terjadi degredasi lahan yang parah maka kehilangan biodiversitas semakin meningkat dan tahap suksesi mundur ke arah awal suksesi primer. Pada situasi ini, program reforestrasi memerlukan upaya dan metode yang lebih tepat agar dapat berhasil seperti dilaporkan Liu et al (2021).…”

Generating Multifunctional Landscape through Reforestation with Native Trees in the Tropical Region: A Case Study of Gunung Dahu Research Forest, Bogor, Indonesia

“…There has been a significant increase in the numbers of native species planted at various reforestation sites [3,[18][19][20][21][22][23]]. Yet, for several reasons, the use of exotic species is still dominant as they are relatively easy to produce in the nursery, overvalued, more adaptive, and grow faster in degraded lands [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Lack of knowledge on seed supply and silvicultural aspects are among the difficulties for native species to be used widely in reforestation activities.…”