Reassembly of a tropical rainforest: A new chronosequence in the Chocó tested with the recovery of tree attributes

From hunting and foraging to clearing land for agriculture, humans modify forest biodiversity, landscapes, and climate. Forests constantly undergo disturbance–recovery dynamics and understanding them is a major objective of ecologists and conservationists. Chronosequences are a useful tool for understanding global restoration efforts. They represent a space-for-time substitution approach suited for the quantification of the resistance of ecosystem properties to withstand disturbance and the resilience of these properties until reaching pre-disturbance levels. Here we introduce a newly established chronosequence with 62 plots (50 ✕ 50 m) in active cacao plantations and pastures, early and late regeneration, and old-growth forests in the extremely wet Chocó rainforest. Plots were located across a 200 km2 area, with a total area of 95 km2 within a 1-km radius. Our chronosequence covers the largest total area of plots compared to others in the Neotropics with 15.5 ha. Plots ranged from 159–..., Our assessment of trees on each plot occurred from February 2022 to July 2023 and comprised tree species identification and labeling of all individuals ≥ 25 cm of circumference at 1.3 m above the ground (≥ 7.95 cm diameter at breast height, DBH), including palms and lianas. We also measured the height of each tree using a laser rangefinder/hypsometer (Forestry Pro II, Nikon). , Nikon). Given that the terrain in the area is irregular and some height measures could be overestimated, any tree > 50 m was limited to this height. If a tree had more than one stem ≥ 25 cm circumference, we counted and measured up to the four thickest stems. , , # Reassembly of a tropical rainforest: A new chronosequence in the Chocó tested with the recovery of tree attributes

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rgb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rgb)

**Description of the data and file structure**

This dataset is associated with Sebastián Escobar, Felicity L. Newell, María-José Endara, Juan E. Guevara-Andino, Anna R. Landim, Eike Lena Neuschulz, Ronja Hausmann, Jörg Müller, Karen Pedersen, Matthias Schleuning, Constance J. Tremlett, Edith Villa-Galaviz, H. Martin Schaefer, David A Donoso, Nico Blüthgen. Ecosphere. In press.

In this study, we introduce a newly established chronosequence with 62 plots (50 ✕ 50 m) in active cacao plantations and pastures, early and late regeneration, and old-growth forests in the extremely wet Chocó rainforest. We surveyed all trees with a circumference at breast height of 25 cm (DBH: 7.95 cm) within the 62 plots, including wild and cultivated trees, and took measurements of trees. We then tested how si...