Ecological disturbance regimes caused by agricultural land uses and their effects on tropical forest regeneration

AIMS: Across tropical regions, large forest areas have been converted to different agricultural land uses. These uses impose ecological disturbances affecting forest regeneration potential after field abandonment. Finding ways to identify those agricultural land uses limiting forest regeneration is a critical issue for conserving biodiversity in human‐modified landscapes. Here, we developed a fast and inexpensive index, useful for quantifying ecological disturbance regimes associated with agricultural land uses, and tested its power to predict forest regeneration potential. LOCATION: Municipality of Marqués de Comillas, southeast Mexico. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with local farmers to quantify disturbance components (size, duration and severity) associated with agricultural land uses. The scaled values of these disturbance components were added in a simple ecological disturbance index (EDI). In each one of nine recently abandoned fields representing a wide range of EDI values, two 10‐m² plots, one close to and one far from nearby forest remnants, were established. On each plot, all woody plants of 10–100 m in height were counted, identified and measured in four 1‐m² subplots, at the time of field abandonment and 2 yr later. In addition, at each plot, 18 site condition (microclimate and soil) attributes were quantified at the time of abandonment. Plant density, biomass, species richness and species diversity were used as regeneration variables, and EDI and site condition attributes as independent ones. RESULTS: Two years after abandonment, most regeneration variables declined exponentially with EDI. Biomass was not explained by EDI but changed positively with light availability. EDI was strongly correlated to vapour pressure deficit, which also predicted regeneration potential (except biomass). CONCLUSIONS: EDI is a cheap and easy tool for quantifying the ecological disturbance produced by a wide range of agricultural land uses. The index predicted several regeneration variables as well as or better than direct measurements of the site condition at the time of abandonment. EDI can be used to identify biodiversity‐friendly agricultural land uses in human‐modified landscapes.