Understanding the recruitment response of juvenile Neotropical trees to logging intensity using functional traits

Selective-logging remains a widespread practice in tropical forests, yet the long-term effects of timber-harvest on juvenile tree (i.e., sapling) recruitment across the hundreds of species occurring in most tropical forests, remain difficult to predict. This uncertainty could potentially exacerbate threats to some of the thousands of timber-valuable tree species in the Amazon. Our objective was to determine to what extent long-term responses of tree species regeneration in logged forests can be explained by their functional traits. We integrate functional trait data for 13 leaf, stem, and seed traits from 25 canopy tree species with a range of life histories, such as the pioneer Goupia glabra and the shade-tolerant Iryanthera hostmannii, together with over 30-years of sapling monitoring in permanent plots spanning a gradient of harvest intensity at the Paracou Forest Disturbance Experiment (PFDE), French Guiana. We anticipated that more-intensive logging would increase recruitment o...