Post-Agricultural Regeneration of Tropical Rain Forest in El Peten, Guatemala, and Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua

9815369范德梅尔已经做了很多工作，记录了热带雨林被转换为农田时生物多样性的巨大损失。然而，很少有人知道当农业用地被遗弃，雨林开始恢复时会发生什么。自从智人在该地区生活以来，热带雨林中的农田一直被遗弃，许多生态学家认为，热带雨林中的这种历史干扰制度可以解释该系统中存在的高度多样性。然而，现代农业实践的影响是什么？这个项目将研究这个问题，并询问农业实践的类型是否决定了这些森林需要多长时间才能恢复。更具体地说，它将研究四种农业生态系统类型的后农业演替过程：1）传统农林2）迁移刀耕火种，3）牛牧场和4）现代集约农业。这项研究将在危地马拉的佩滕和尼加拉瓜的加勒比海岸进行。 这项研究将使用现存的农业的不同形式，以辨别的干扰类型如何影响的演替过程，导致特定模式的生物多样性的细节。重要的可能不是农业的事实，而是农业的类型。研究结果将在新热带雨林地区具有实际意义，那里的农业经常被遗弃，生态恢复才刚刚开始。这项研究的结果可能会给新热带雨林的生态学家知识和工具，合理地干预恢复过程。

9815369VandermeerMuch work has been done that documents the tremendous lost of biodiversity when tropical rain forests are converted to crop lands. However, little is known what happens when the agricultural land is abandoned and the rain forest begins its recuperation. The abandonment of crop lands in the tropical rain forest have always been practiced since Homo sapiens have been in that area and many ecologists believe that this historical disturbance regime in the tropical rain forests may explain the high diversity that is present in this system. However, what are the impacts of modern day agricultural practices? This project will examine that question and also ask if the type of agricultural practice determines how long it takes these forests to recover. More specifically it will examine the post-agricultural successional process in four agroecosystem types: 1) traditional agroforestry 2) migratory slash-burn, 3) cattle pasture and 4) modern intensive agriculture. The study will be conducted in the Peten of Guatemala and the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. This research will use the diverse forms of extant agricultural to discern the details of how type of disturbance affects the successional processes that lead to particular patterns of biodiversity. It may not be the fact of agriculture that is important, but what type of agriculture. The results will have practical importance in areas of Neotropical rainforests, where agriculture is so frequently abandoned and restoration ecology is now just beginning. The results from this research may give restorationists in the neotropic rain forest the knowledge and tools to sensibly intervene in the restoration process.