Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are a global priority for conservation because they host exceptional concentrations of biodiversity but are severely threatened by uncontrolled logging, deforestation and climate change. Secondary forests (those arising after complete removal of the original forest) dominate the TMCF landscapes of Mexico. Planned selective logging and locally adapted silvicultural and management approaches could contribute to increasing the value of the forest and generate revenue while maintaining critical ecosystem functions, such as regulation of the hydrological and nutrient cycles, soil retention and biodiversity conservation. However, to my knowledge, there are no secondary TMCF with a timber-harvesting plan currently in implementation. Management of secondary TMCF could benefit local communities by incorporating multiple use approaches that integrate timber and non-timber forest resources.

The goal of this project is to advance our understanding of secondary TMCF dynamics in order to design management approaches with a multiple use vision while strengthening local capacities in the context of forest and biodiversity management.

Faced with global climate change, biodiversity management and conservation strategies must consider the future, as well as the current distribution of tree species, in response to rising temperatures. Assisted migration is a mitigation climate change strategy to overcome the uncoupling between forest species populations and the climate. However, limited field information exists about the responses of tree species to such movement along gradients of elevation.

Tropical Montane Cloud forests (TMCF) rank among the most threatened ecosystems at global level. Recent evaluations report shifts in the distribution of many TMCF species to higher elevations, but there is limited information about the impacts of increasing temperatures on tree recruitment. Given the predicted consequences of climate change scenarios for TMCF, conservation efforts should take into account not only the current but also the potential higher elevation distribution of tree species.

Evaluation of seedling establishment along a gradient of elevation can contribute to our understanding of the capacity of species to respond to observed or predicted effects of climate change, the influence of environmental factors on early seedling establishment and the potential response of species to assisted migration to higher elevations.

In this project we are analysing seedling survival, growth, herbivory and leaf functional traits in 13 TMCF tree species in nine enrichment plantings along an elevation gradient (1250 to 2517 m a.s.l.) in southern Mexico.