For decades, conservation and research initiatives in tropical forests have focused almost exclusively on old-growth forests because scientists believed that these pristine" ecosystems housed superior levels of biodiversity. WithSecond Growth, Robin L. Chazdon reveals those assumptions to be largely false, bringing to the fore the previously overlooked counterpart to old-growth forest: second growth.
Even as human activities result in extensive fragmentation and deforestation, tropical forests demonstrate a great capacity for natural and human-aided regeneration. Although these damaged landscapes can take centuries to regain the characteristics of old growth, Chazdon shows here that regeneratingor second-growthforests are vital, dynamic reservoirs of biodiversity and environmental services. What is more, they always have been.
With chapters on the roles these forests play in carbon and nutrient cycling, sustaining biodiversity, providing timber and non-timber products, and integrated agriculture,Second Growth not only offers a thorough and wide-ranging overview of successional and restoration pathways, but also underscores the need to conserve, and further study, regenerating tropical forests in an attempt to inspire a new age of local and global stewardship.
Industry Reviews
"Second Growth combines an in-depth review with an eloquent case for the importance of understanding, promoting, and managing forest regeneration in contexts ranging from climate change to provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. In doing so, it may help to meet those challenges by providing evidence to ensure that the value of secondary forests is recognized. It will certainly stimulate the science needed to support practical action."--Valerie Kapos "Science"
"Second Growth provides broad coverage of a subject that, despite its importance, has received less popular attention than 'old growth' tropical rain forests. Chazdon does an excellent job of synthesizing key ideas and bringing together recent research on tropical forest regeneration. . . . Chazdon's work is a valuable resource, providing both a solid review for those with knowledge in the field and a starting point for those new to the topic. . . . Highly recommended."--B. D. Orr, Michigan Technological University "Choice"
"A complete review covering topics from ancient forest management to the effect of global economy on the fate of local forests. . . . Chazdon states in the preface that she wants to deliver an urgent message about forests: they are regenerating and this regeneration is malleable and it can be for our benefit. The message is remarkably delivered. This book integrates patterns that occur in the entire gradient from wet to dry forests. . . . Second Growth has answered most of my questions and has raised a thousand more, as good books and research always do. . . . This well-produced book . . . will be enormously useful for students, professors, and practitioners of forest restoration and management."--Cristina Martinez-Garza, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico "Ecology"
"A tremendous survey. Chazdon draws on paleobotany, ecology, natural history, and policy and forest management to make the case for the potential of forest regeneration. Second Growth is astounding in its breadth and depth."--S. Joseph Wright "Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute"
"As policy makers come to grips with . . . ecological uncertainty, they are finding Chazdon's recent book, Second Growth, all the more valuable. Five years in the writing and published last year, the tome is a kind of guide to restoration, synthesizing decades of research and explaining how tropical forests can come back on their own--and what to do if they don't. 'It's an opus; it covers all you would want to know and could imagine you want to know about secondary forests, ' says Thomas Rudel, a rural sociologist at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in New Jersey. 'There's nothing quite like [it].' The book . . . arrived at a timely moment, just as large-scale forest restoration was gaining momentum."--Elizabeth Pennisi "Science"
"At last, an authoritative and very readable account of the most neglected aspect of tropical forest ecology: the vast areas of second growth that if restored and managed properly will yield enormous human and conservation benefit. Chazdon's book fills a yawning gap in tropical ecology and land management. A great and important work, Second Growth will be an enduring scholarly masterpiece."--Thomas E. Lovejoy, George Mason University "Senior Fellow, the United Nations Foundation"
"Impressive and very timely given the growing recognition of the importance of secondary forests in conserving biodiversity. Second Growth provides a very thorough review of the human impacts on tropical forests over several centuries and more recently, and on the ecology of forest regeneration after a range of disturbances. It is a well-researched and valuable contribution to the literature on tropical secondary forests."--Karen D. Holl "University of California, Santa Cruz"
"Throughout the book, Chazdon returns to the central theme that tropical forests are highly resilient ecosystems whose recent histories are inextricably intertwined with people. Contrary to the dichotomous view of 'primeval' old-growth versus 'degraded' second-growth forests, Chazdon repeatedly and convincingly makes the case that today's tropical forests reflect legacies of human interactions dating back hundreds or even thousands of years. . . . Second Growth is truly extraordinary in its breadth, depth, and synthesis of a voluminous literature. The book covers regenerating forest ecology, dynamics, and socioecological linkages throughout the tropics and is exhaustively researched; there are over 100 pages of references."--Nicole L. Michel, University of Saskatchewan "Conservation Biology"
"What a wonderful book! Secondary forests have been ignored for too long, and Second Growth brings together a wealth of material from across the Latin American, African, and Asian tropics to provide a synthesis of what we know about how they can develop and what influences their succession. Sadly, even optimists must accept that primary or old-growth forests will continue to shrink. This means secondary forests are likely to replace them in the future as the main repositories of biodiversity and sources of many ecosystem services. This book is destined to become a key text for those protecting and managing these new forests."--David Lamb "University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia"
