Landscape context explains changes in the functional diversity of regenerating forests better than climate or species richness

Aim A rich literature on forest succession provides general expectations for the steps forests go through while reassembling after disturbance, yet we still have a surprisingly poor understanding of why the outcomes of forest recovery after logging (or other disturbances) vary so extensively. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that regional species pool, system productivity, climate and landscape structure are important drivers of forest reassembly outcomes. Location Transect 1,500 km in length along the east coast of Australia. Time period Survey of 50- to 60-year-old rain forest regrowth and primary forest conducted in 2012 and 2013. Major taxa studied Rain forest plants. Methods In this study, we compare species and functional diversity patterns in pairs of remnant and regrowth (‘secondary’) rain forests spread across a 1,500 km climate and productivity gradient along the east coast of Australia. Our controlled natural experiment was designed to test the importance of reg...