Resumen

RESTREPO, Héctor Iván; ORREGO, Sergio Alonso  y  GALEANO, Oscar Javier. Structure on lower montane secondary forests and shrublands in northern Antioquia, Colombia. Colomb. for. [online]. 2012, vol.15, n.2, pp.173-189. ISSN 0120-0739.

Tropical montane forests have the highest biodiversity in the world. However, they are being seriously threatened by deforestation, degradation and climate change. Their conservation is also at risk because we know little about their ecology. We established four permanent plots at two successional stages: secondary forest and cultivated areas. Distribution by diameter was analyzed using Hugershoff non-linear models. We estimated biomass of trees above and below-ground along with liana, under bush, understory and epiphyte biomass. In addition we measured necromass of standing dead trees, litter from wood and litterfall. We estimated total carbon in living and dead organic matter and in the soil. All the diametric distributions were of a J-inverted shape. The Hugershoff models successfully explained the behavior of the secondary forest and shrub structure. The biomass, necromass and total carbon were estimated at 185.7 and 29.8 t ha^-1, 9.2 and 3.8 t ha^-1 and 151.7 and 78.2 t ha^-1 respectively for forests and cultivated areas. An interesting finding is the high biomass of trees below-ground, lianas and epiphytes in tropical montane forest. Tropical montane forests provide important environmental services and therefore we have to search for better ways to conserve them.

Palabras clave : standing dead tree; above-ground biomass; liana biomass; below-ground biomass; diametric distribution; Hugershoff model.

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