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  1. The ecological consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in post agriculture Puerto Rico

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    Author(s): H. Ricardo Grau; T. Mitchell Aide; Jess K. Zimmerman; John R. Thomlinson; Eileen Helmer; Xioming Zou
    Date: 2003
    Source: BioScience. Vol. 53, no. 12 (Dec. 2003): Pages 1159-1168
    Publication Series: Miscellaneous Publication
    PDF: View PDF  (0 B)

    Description

    Contrary to the general trend in the tropics, forests have recovered in Puerto Rico from less than 10% of the landscape in the late 1940s to more than 40% in the present. The recent Puerto Rican history of forest recovery provides the opportunity to study the ecological consequences of economic globalization, reflected in a shift from agriculture to manufacturing and in human migration from rural to urban areas. Forest structure rapidly recovers through secondary succession, reaching mature forest levels of local biodiversity and biomass in approximately 40 years. Despite the rapid structural recovery, the legacy of pre-abandonment land use, including widespread abundance of exotic species and broadscale floristic homogenization, is likely to persist for centuries.

    Publication Notes

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    • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

    Citation

    Grau, H. Ricardo; Aide, T. Mitchell; Zimmerman, Jess K.; Thomlinson, John R.; Helmer, Eileen; Zou, Xioming. 2003. The ecological consequences of socioeconomic and land-use changes in post agriculture Puerto Rico. BioScience. Vol. 53, no. 12 (Dec. 2003): Pages 1159-1168

    Keywords

    Land-use and land-cover change, Puerto Rico, secondary succession, exotic species, globalization

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