Mangrove selective logging sustains biomass carbon recovery, soil carbon, and sediment

West Papua’s Bintuni Bay is Indonesia’s largest contiguous mangrove block, only second to the world’s largest mangrove in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh. As almost 40% of these mangroves are designated production forest, we assessed the effects of commercial logging on forest structure, biomass recovery, and soil carbon stocks and burial in five-year intervals, up to 25 years post-harvest. Through remote sensing and field surveys, we found that canopy structure and species diversity were gradually enhanced following biomass recovery. Carbon pools preserved in soil were supported by similar rates of carbon burial before and after logging. Our results show that mangrove forest management maintained between 70 and 75% of the total ecosystem carbon stocks, and 15–20% returned to the ecosystem after 15–25 years. This analysis suggests that mangroves managed through selective logging provide an opportunity for coastal nature-based climate solutions, while provisioning other ecosystem services, including wood and wood products.

Accuracy and Precision of Commercial Thinning to Achieve Wildlife Management Objectives in Production Forests

Tree stocking and the associated canopy closure in production forests is often greater than optimal for wildlife that require an open canopy and the associated understory plant community. Although mid-rotation treatments such as thinning can reduce canopy closure and return sunlight to the forest floor, stimulating understory vegetation, wildlife-focused thinning prescriptions often involve thinning stands to lower tree densities than are typically prescribed for commercial logging operations. Therefore, we quantified the accuracy and precision with which commercial logging crews thinned pre-marked and unmarked mid-rotation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stands to residual basal areas of 9 (low), 14 (medium), and 18 (high) m2/ha. Following harvest, observed basal areas were 3.36, 1.58, and 0.6 m2/ha below target basal areas for the high, medium, and low basal area treatments, respectively. Pre-marking stands increased precision, but not accuracy, of thinning operations. We believe the thinning outcomes we observed are sufficient to achieve wildlife objectives in production forests, and that the added expense associated with pre-marking stands to achieve wildlife objectives in production forests depends on focal wildlife species and management objectives.

An interactive identification key for Atlantic Forest tree species based on macroscopic wood anatomy

The Atlantic Forest is considered a biodiversity hotspot because of its exceptional species richness, endemism, and habitat losses. Commercial logging, industrial forestry, and agriculture represent threats to the Atlantic Forest, and even though it has been protected by law since 2006, forest suppression continues and large volumes of Atlantic Forest wood are traded every year. To promote environmental conservation and prevent illegal logging, the verification of wood species’ identifications is fundamental throughout several stages of the wood supply chain by supervisory bodies, traders, and even consumers. Macroscopic wood anatomy analysis has been shown to be an efficient method for screening, although tools to streamline the efficiency of that process are necessary. We introduce here an interactive identification key for Atlantic Forest tree species, based on standard wood macroscopic features that is now available online at http://gbg.sites.uff.br/lamad/.

Anurans of the Parque Municipal de Piraputangas, on the western border of the Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

We present an annotated list of anuran species found in the Parque Municipal de Piraputangas, a protected area of a semi-deciduous forest located in Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Fieldwork was conducted three times per month between August 2012 and July 2013. We recorded 29 species from six families (Bufonidae, Dendrobatidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Microhylidae, and Phyllomedusidae), representing 30% of the anuran species known to occur in Mato Grosso do Sul and 50% of the anurans recorded in this state’s semi-deciduous forests. Microhylids, leptodactylids, and bufonids were associated with terrestrial substrates, whereas most hylids and phyllomedusids were found perched on vegetation. This study will fill gaps in the knowledge on the anuran fauna of the western border of the Pantanal and will serve as a basis for additional studies that are needed to understand how species respond to habitat loss or fragmentation, such as landscape conversions, commercial logging, or mining.

Reduction of uncertainties in greenhouse gas accounting using Global Forest Watch forest loss database, LiDAR and stand wise inventory data

<p>Global Forest Watch (GFW) provides a global map of forest loss derived from LANDSAT satellite imagery, providing a tool for monitoring global forest change. In managed forests, GFW mainly provides information on commercial logging. This study is part of the INVENT project which aims to improve the National Forest Inventory based estimates of Carbon stock changes in forests reported to the UNFCCC. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using the GFW database to detect carbon stock changes in forest stands, using LiDAR (Light Detecting and Range) data and the stand wise forest database maintained by the State Forest Service (SFS) as additional data sources.</p><p>Only those forest loss areas from GFW database, which were detected according to the national LiDAR survey, were selected for data processing, thus obtaining 3D forest information prior to felling. Information on species composition and number of trees per hectare in the forest was obtained from the SFS stand wise forest database. Living biomass estimates were then calculated for each GFW pixel. For pixels outside the SFS stand wise forest database, living biomass values were determined by extrapolation. The average estimated live biomass per forest loss pixel in GFW database is 6792 kg.</p><p>Keywords: ERA-GAS INVENT, living biomass, carbon stock.</p>

Asymmetric Price Transmission of Hardwood Lumber Imported by China after Imposition of the Comprehensive Commercial Logging Ban in All Natural Forests

The Comprehensive Commercial Logging Ban in All Natural Forests (CCLB) policy, introduced in April 2015, aims to protect all natural forests in China. It has impacted both China’s domestic timber supply and imports. We investigated price transmission in China’s hardwood lumber imports resulting from the implementation of this policy. We selected three hardwood lumber species, i.e., Sapelli (Entandrophragma), Mandshurica (Fraxinus), and Laurel (Terminalia), and used their daily prices from 30 April 2015 to 30 November 2017. Threshold co-integration and threshold error correction models are employed for this analysis. We identified a structural breakpoint on 30 November 2016, and consequently partitioned the data series into two parts for the two subperiods separated by the breakpoint. The empirical results indicated that there was asymmetric price transmission (APT) for both subperiods. Adjustment of positive price deviations to the long-term equilibrium levels was slower than that of negative price deviations. In the short term, the price of high-quality lumber evolved independently, whereas the price of lower-quality lumber tended to return to the equilibrium. The APT reflects a redistribution of welfare, benefiting the exporters more than the importers. We find that positive discrepancies in each price pair were inclined to be more persistent in the first subperiod than in the second subperiod. This could attribute to the fact that the degree of CCLB intervention in the former one was higher than in the latter one.

THE “BORDERS” OF BRITISH HONDURAS AND THE SAN PEDRO MAYA OF KAXIL UINIC VILLAGE

Having fled the violence of the Caste War in Mexico (1847−1901), the San Pedro Maya occupied nearly two dozen small villages in the forests of western British Honduras and the northeastern Peten from the 1850s to the 1930s. With no physically demarcated borders between British Honduras and its neighbors present prior to the late 1880s, archival and archaeological data demonstrate that the San Pedro Maya moved freely through the lightly populated forests of the area. Ultimately, however, the San Pedro Maya's ambivalence toward the border between British Honduras and Guatemala provided the Belize Estate and Produce Company (BEC) with an excuse to evict them from their villages in the 1930s. In this article, we present archival information and archaeological data from Kaxil Uinic, a small San Pedro Maya village in British Honduras, to examine the following issues: the conflicting views of the border held by the San Pedro Maya and their colonial counterparts; the evidence for ties between Kaxil Uinic and Icaiche, Mexico; and the roles chicle smuggling and commercial logging had in the eviction of the San Pedro Maya from BEC lands.

Reconstructing the ecology of a Jurassic pseudoplanktonic megaraft colony

Pseudoplanktonic crinoid megaraft colonies are an enigma of the Jurassic. They are among the largest in-situ invertebrate accumulations ever to exist in the Phanerozoic fossil record. These megaraft colonies and are thought to have developed as floating filter-feeding communities due to an exceptionally rich relatively predator free oceanic niche, high in the water column enabling them to reach high densities on these log rafts. However, this pseudoplanktonic hypothesis has never actually been quantitatively tested and some researchers have cast doubt that this mode of life was even possible. The ecological structure of the crinoid colony is resolved using spatial point process techniques and its longevity using moisture diffusion models. Using spatial analysis we found that the crinoids would have trailed preferentially positioned at the back of migrating structures in the regions of least resistance, consistent with a floating, not benthic ecology. Additionally, we found using a series of moisture diffusion models at different log densities and sizes that ecosystem collapse did not take place solely due to colonies becoming overladen as previously assumed. We have found that these crinoid colonies studied could have existed for greater than 10 years, even up to 20 years exceeding the life expectancy of modern documented megaraft systems with implications for the role of modern raft communities in the biotic colonisation of oceanic islands and intercontinental dispersal of marine and terrestrial species.Significance statementTransoceanic rafting is the principle mechanism for the biotic colonisation of oceanic island ecosystems. However, no historic records exist of how long such biotic systems lasted. Here, we use a deep-time example from the Early Jurassic to test the viability of these pseudoplanktonic systems, resolving for the first time whether these systems were truly free floating planktonic and viable for long enough to allow its inhabitants to grow to maturity. Using spatial methods we show that these colonies have a comparable structure to modern marine pesudoplankton on maritime structures, whilst the application of methods normally used in commercial logging is used to demonstrate the viability of the system which was capable of lasting up to 20 years.

Use of open mobile mapping tool to assess human mobility traceability in rural offline populations with contrasting malaria dynamics

Infectious disease dynamics are affected by human mobility more powerfully than previously thought, and thus reliable traceability data are essential. In rural riverine settings, lack of infrastructure and dense tree coverage deter the implementation of cutting-edge technology to collect human mobility data. To overcome this challenge, this study proposed the use of a novel open mobile mapping tool, GeoODK. This study consists of a purposive sampling of 33 participants in six villages with contrasting patterns of malaria transmission that demonstrates a feasible approach to map human mobility. The self-reported traceability data allowed the construction of the first human mobility framework in rural riverine villages in the Peruvian Amazon. The mobility spectrum in these areas resulted in travel profiles ranging from 2 hours to 19 days; and distances between 10 to 167 km. Most Importantly, occupational-related mobility profiles with the highest displacements (in terms of time and distance) were observed in commercial, logging, and hunting activities. These data are consistent with malaria transmission studies in the area that show villages in watersheds with higher human movement are concurrently those with greater malaria risk. The approach we describe represents a potential tool to gather critical information that can facilitate malaria control activities.