Abstract Detail

Conservation Biology

Loveless, Marilyn [1], Grogan, James [2].

Flowering phenology and its implications for tropical forest management: the case of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla).

Flowering phenology constrains mating in a plant population,and generates the resource landscape for pollinator movement. But for no tropical timber species do we have a multi-year understanding of population- and individual-level flowering patterns. Sustainable timber extraction is predicated on reproduction by unlogged individuals to restore pre-logging population structure for future logging cycles. But current practices typically do not consider the population ecology of a species in prescribing extraction plans, harvest densities, or minimum cutting diameters. We describe population and individual floral phenology for mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) in southern Para¡, Brazil, over five consecutive years. Individual trees show strong between-year correlation in flowering order. Only trees larger than 30 cm in diameter have predictable annual or supra-annual flowering, but logging of large individuals drastically reduces total flower production by the post-logged population, and interplant distances between co-flowering trees increase dramatically following conventional logging. We consider the implications of these components of reproductive biology for sustainable management of tropical tree species.

Broader Impacts:

Related Links:
Big-Leaf Mahogany in Brazil and South America

1 - THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER, Department Of Biology, 931 College Mall, WOOSTER, OH, 44691, USA
2 - Yale University , School of Forestry and Environmental Science, New Haven, CT, USA

Keywords:
phenology
plant mating systems
Tropical forest management
Swietenia macrophylla
Sustainable forestry
gene flow.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 30
Location: Union C/Hyatt
Date: Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Time: 11:15 AM
Number: 30005
Abstract ID:599