Data from: Transient dynamics reveal the importance of early life survival to the response of a tropical tree to harvest

Exploitation of non-timber forest products can contribute to the
alleviation of poverty. However, overexploitation can also lead to species
decline. Studies on the sustainability of harvest often use stationary
population growth rates to assess harvesting effects. For such frequently
harvested systems, transient analysis can provide new insights into the
response of populations to harvest. To test the prediction that the effect
of harvest differs between transient and asymptotic phases, I used four
years of demographic data to compare the impact of harvesting bark and
foliage on the short- and long-term dynamics of African dry zone Mahogany
Khaya senegalensis in West Africa. The effect of harvest was stronger in
the short term than in the long term, particularly in the moist region.
Patterns of transient elasticities also differed from the elasticities of
long-term growth rates to perturbation of vital rates. Survival at early
life stages was more important for short-term dynamics than for long-term
population dynamics. Synthesis and applications. This study illustrates
that using the asymptotic growth rates to assess the impact of harvest may
underestimate the short-term effects of harvest. Short-term management
plans based on the elasticity analysis of long-term growth rates will be
suboptimal given the relative importance of the survival of
non-reproductive stages for population dynamics in the near term. Managers
should use results from elasticity analysis of both long-term and
short-term population dynamics to develop more realistic management plans.