CRB: Restoration of Logged Rain Forests in Sabah, East Malaysia

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This project addresses (1) means of hastening recovery of logged secondary rain forests, which buffer remnant primary forests from species losses, and (2) ways to enhance economic value of forestry lands, to relieve pressure on uncut forests, and prevent forest conversion to uses incompatible with maintaining biodiversity. Experiments investigate potentially key roles of pioneer trees in recovery of Sabah Malaysia's tropical rain forests after selective logging. In three post-logging disturbance regimes, seed addition experiments assess the extent to which pioneer patchiness after logging reflects seed availability versus site specificity of pioneers. Other studies in recently logged areas address seasonality of seed delivery, impact of seed predators on pioneer seeds, and effects of herbivore exclusion on succession. Date on vine-host interactions will help evaluate the effectiveness of specific plant traits in shedding vines that retard post-logging succession. Other experiments focus on later successional stages and favorability of pioneers as "nurse plants" for recolonization by persistent dipterocarps. Experiments compare dipterocarp germination and survivorship in pioneer and primary forests. Enrichment plantings of dipterocarp seedlings with and without trenching quantify below-ground competition from pioneers. Moderate liberation thinning of pioneers over dipterocarps will help assess responses of different sized dipterocarps to release from light competition.