DOI: 10.5061/dryad.02v6wwq8x
title: Data from: Incomplete recovery of tree community composition and rare species after 120 years of tropical forest succession in Panama

description: Determining how fully tropical forests regenerating on abandoned land
 recover characteristics of old-growth forests is increasingly important
 for understanding their role in conserving rare species and maintaining
 ecosystem services. Despite this, our understanding of forest structure
 and community composition recovery throughout succession is incomplete, as
 many tropical chronosequences do not extend beyond the first 50 years of
 succession. Here, we examined trajectories of forest recovery across eight
 1-hectare plots in middle and later stages of forest succession (40 – 120
 years) and five 1-hectare old-growth plots, in the Barro Colorado Nature
 Monument (BCNM), Panama. We first verified that forest age had a greater
 effect than edaphic or topographic variation on forest structure,
 diversity and composition and then corroborated results from smaller plots
 censused 20 years previously. Tree species diversity (but not species
 richness) and forest structure had fully recovered to old-growth levels by
 40 and 90 years, respectively. However, rare species were missing, and
 old-growth specialists were in low abundance, in the mid- and late
 secondary forest plots, leading to incomplete recovery of species
 composition even by 120 years into succession. We also found evidence that
 dominance early in succession by a long-lived pioneer led to altered
 forest structure and delayed recovery of species diversity and composition
 well past a century after land abandonment. Our results illustrate the
 critical importance of old-growth and old secondary forests for
 biodiversity conservation, given that recovery of community composition
 may take several centuries, particularly when a long-lived pioneer
 dominates in early succession.
description: The dataset was collected over a five-year period (2011 – 2016)
 in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument, Central Panama. Eight permanent
 forest plots (1-ha) were established around existing transects (0.32-ha)
 that comprise a secondary forest chronosequence in stands of known ages
 (see Denslow and Guzman, 2000). The
 chronosequence has previously been used to study forest
 structure, diversity, and community compositional recovery through
 succession (Denslow and Guzman, 2000; Dent
 et al., 2013; DeWalt et al., 2003; Jones et al., 2019; Mascaro et al.,
 2012). The 1-ha plots (50 x 200m) were located in the same
 secondary forest stands as close as possible to the original transects,
 but in some cases were reorientated due to the presence of forest edges.
 All tree, palm, and shrub stems ≥ 50 mm DBH (diameter at breast height)
 were censused within the plots by a team of field assistants, following
 ForestGeo protocols (Condit, 1998). Trees, palms, and shrubs were
 identified to a species level where possible (98.3% of individuals
 identified to species). A total of 9,478 stems were censused. The dataset
 has been cleaned following data entry and is ready for analysis.
 <em>References</em>: 
 Condit, R., 1998. Tropical forest census plots: Methods and
 results from Barro Colorado Island, Panama and a comparison with other
 plots. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03664-8 Denslow, J.S., Guzman, S.G., 2000. Variation in stand structure, light and seedling abundance across a tropical moist forest chronosequence, Panama. J. Veg. Sci. 11, 201–212. https://doi.org/10.2307/3236800 Dent, D.H., DeWalt, S.J., Denslow, J.S., 2013. Secondary forests of central Panama increase in similarity to old-growth forest over time in shade tolerance but not species composition. J. Veg. Sci. 24, 530–542. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.01482.x DeWalt, S.J., Maliakal, S.K., Denslow, J.S., 2003. Changes in vegetation structure and composition along a tropical forest chronosequence: implications for wildlife. For. Ecol. Manag. 182, 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(03)00029-X Jones, I.L., DeWalt, S.J., Lopez, O.R., Bunnefeld, L., Pattison, Z., Dent, D.H., 2019. Above- and belowground carbon stocks are decoupled in secondary tropical forests and are positively related to forest age and soil nutrients respectively. Sci. Total Environ. 697, 133987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133987 Mascaro, J., Asner, G.P., Dent, D.H., DeWalt, S.J., Denslow, J.S., 2012. Scale-dependence of aboveground carbon accumulation in secondary forests of Panama: A test of the intermediate peak hypothesis. For. Ecol. Manag. 276, 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2012.03.032
description: # Data from: Incomplete recovery of tree community composition and rare
 species after 120 years of tropical forest succession in Panama
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.02v6wwq8x](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.02v6wwq8x) The dataset contains a census of 9,478 stems from the eight 1-ha plots (50 x 200 m) which make up the Barro Colorado Nature Monument Chronosequence (a space-for-time substitution). All trees, palms, and shrubs with stem diameters ≥ 50 mm DBH (diameter at breast height; 1.3 m) were censused within each 50 x 200 m plot and are included in the dataset. Individual trees were identified to the species level where possible. Using this dataset we calculated forest structural metrics, species diversity and community compositional similarity indices to investigate forest recovery through succession. ## Description of the data and file structure The data are structured within one .xlsx file with three tabs. The first tab, titled “BCNM\_1ha\_plot\_census”, contains all the tree census and plot information. This includes the study plot, species identity, stem diameter (DBH; diameter at breast height), the stand age and the location of the plots. Missing data values are coded by NA. Each column is explained in detail in the “data dictionary” tab. The “data dictionary” includes a description of each column, the type and range of data included in each column, and the units of the column, if applicable. Finally, there is an “Additional references” tab which contains links to papers which have previously been published from the Barro Colorado Nature Monument Chronosequence. These papers, and our linked paper in Biotropica, provide further background information about the chronosequence. ## Access information A version of these data was previously made available at: 1. [http://hdl.handle.net/11667/144](http://hdl.handle.net/11667/144) ## Contact For further inquiries about the data, or help with replicating the analyses within the accompanying article, please contact: Dr Alex Elsy at [alexander.david.elsy@gmail.com](mailto:alexander.david.elsy@gmail.com) or Dr Daisy Dent at [daisy.h.dent@gmail.com](mailto:daisy.h.dent@gmail.com). The authors would also like to be informed of any work resulting from this dataset.