Mortality of girdled trees and survival of seedlings in canopy gaps after logging in a terra firme forest in Brazilian Amazonia

Resumo

Post harvest silvicultural practices in managed forests are seldom applied in the Amazon region. To tackle this problem an experiment was established in 700 ha of terra firme dense forest of the Brazilian Amazon aiming to test the main silvicultural treatments applied elsewhere in the tropics in order to select the most promising ones and recommend their application as part of forest management practices in the region. The experimental area is located in the Rio Capim Forest Management Unit, municipality of Paragominas (2^o25’-4^o09’S, 46^o25’-48^o54’W), State of Pará, Brazil, where some post-harvest silviculture activities are performed such as tree girdling, planting in gaps and assistance of natural regeneration in gaps, which were discussed in the present paper. Large sized trees had higher mortality rates corroborating with some studies carried out in Amazonia and elsewhere. In general survival of planted seedlings was considerable high (over 75%). Prospects of success of this approach as post harvest silviculture are very promising. Survival of seedlings from natural regeneration of commercial species, mainly light-demanding, was high in the gaps created by logging, suggesting that natural regeneration can establish stands of commercial value.