Methods of facilitating reforestation of tropical degraded land with the native timber tree, Terminalia amazonia

We experimentally compared the effect of fertilization to the effect of interplanting two species of legume trees ( Inga edulis and Gliricidia sepium) on growth of a native tropical tree, Terminalia amazonia (Combretaceae). The experiment was a randomized block design with trees planted in eroded ca...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest ecology and management 2004-12, Vol.202 (1), p.281-291
Main Authors: Carpenter, F. Lynn, Nichols, J. Doland, Pratt, Riley T., Young, Kristin C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gliricidia sepium
Inga edulis
Legume trees
Nurse trees
Reforestation
Synecology
Terminalia amazonia
Terrestrial ecosystems
Tropical degraded land
Tropical timber trees
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We experimentally compared the effect of fertilization to the effect of interplanting two species of legume trees ( Inga edulis and Gliricidia sepium) on growth of a native tropical tree, Terminalia amazonia (Combretaceae). The experiment was a randomized block design with trees planted in eroded cattle pasture in Southern Costa Rica. After 8 years, both block and treatment significantly explained variance in tree growth. Blocks differed in degree of erosion and initial soil nitrate and phosphate. All three factors significantly predicted tree growth, erosion negatively and N and P positively. However, erosion best explained block effect. Fertilizer (10N:30P:10K) had no effect on tree growth. In the treatments with legume trees, I. edulis survived and grew better than G. sepium. Concordantly, plots in which I. edulis was interplanted with T. amazonia showed a stronger positive effect on T. amazonia than plots in which G. sepium was the interplanted species. Possibly I. edulis increased nitrogen availability and-or aided growth by partial shading. A treatment that mixed all three species also improved growth of T. amazonia significantly over controls. This result suggests that fertilizing native trees outplanted for restoration or forestry may be wasted investment. However, intermixing legume trees may increase economic benefits to farmers interested in reforesting degraded land.
ISSN:0378-1127
1872-7042
DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2004.07.040