For some days now I’ve been scratching my head over the identification of some shrubs that are most likely in the guava genus, Psidium, of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae). Until that post is ready, I thought you might be interested in an item at scientificblogging about efforts to regenerate tropical forests.
The method certainly seems straightforward:
Two procedures are used to help nature along: pruning of foliage to free up space for trees and planting the desired tree species.
But different species naturally respond differently to the light and space freed up. The article is about a model developed by a Ph.D. student, Marijke van Kuijk, that would help predict forest regeneration. He put his observations of a tropical forest in Vietnam together and called them the PHOLIAGE model. If you’re interested in regenerating a natural area in your own area, you might want to look at the pdf file – which itself is just a summary, but which goes into more detail than the blog post – describing van Kuijk’s work.
