Simulating growth dynamics in a South-East Asian rain forest threatened by recruitment shortage and tree harvesting

There is increasing evidence that the futurerecruitment in South-East Asian dipterocarp treesspecies depending on mast-fruiting events mightbe endangered by climate change or enhancedseed predation in forest fragments. Especially incombination with the ongoing tree harvesting inthis region the recruitment threat imposes asevere danger on the species richness andforest structure of the whole area. We here assesswith the process-based forest growth modelFormind2.0 the impacts of common tree loggingstrategies in those recruitment endangered forests.Formind2.0 is based on the calculations of thecarbon balance of individual trees belonging to13 different plant functional types. Even singlelogging events in those rain forests threatenedby a lack of recruitment led to shifts in theabundances of species, to species loss, and toforest decline and dieback. The results show thatcurrent logging practices in South-East Asiaseriously overuse the forests especially in thelight of changing climate conditions.