Recovery Of Biodiversity Research Articles

Soil Mesofauna Response to Cover Crops and Mycorrhizal Inoculated Plantation on Limestone Quarry Revegetation

Cover crops establishment followed by mycorrhizal inoculated tree plantation accelerate limestone quaryy restoration. Soil mesofauna is a useful indicator for assessing biodiversity recovery, as they are sensitive to human disturbance and involved in ecological processes. In this research, soil mesofauna presence used to evaluate limestone quarry restoration by cover crops and mycorrhizal inoculated tree esatblisment. Soil mesofauna are measured using individual density, species diversity, richness and important value. The study was conducted in four types of areas on limestone postmining lands are open areas/natural conditions without planting, cover crop area, non mycorrhizalinoculated plant area and mycorrhizal-inoculated plant area. The result showed The higher individual density, diversity and species richness of soil mesofauna on cover crops and mycorrhizal inoculated plant area than other areas are indicators of limestone quarry restoration rate. Furthermore the presence of Formicidae family that dominated on cover crops and mycorrhizal inoculated plant area, and emergence of Acari group only on mycorrhizal inoculated area also an indicator of limestone quarry restoration.

Representative sampling of natural biofilms: influence of substratum type on the bacterial and fungal communities structure

In situ biofilm sampling is a key step for the study of natural biofilms and using methodologies that reflect natural diversity is necessary to guarantee representative sampling. Here, we focalise on the impact of the type of substrata on which biofilms grow on bacterial and fungal communities’ structure. The indirect molecular approach, Denaturing Gel Gradient Electrophoresis (DGGE) of a gene fragment coding for either 16S rRNA or 28S rRNA, for bacteria or fungi respectively, was used to evaluate the variability of microbial community structures among different biofilm substrata: natural (pebbles, live plants, wood and sediment), or artificial (glass, Plexiglas® and sterile wood), in a small river (the Loiret, France). Multivariate statistics, band richness and diversity indexes (Shannon and Simpson) were used to highlight variations in community structure between substrata. Results showed variations of bacterial and fungal diversity between different substrata according to substratum properties/origin (natural or artificial, organic or inorganic) but there was no optimal substratum for sampling, and artificial substrata were not significantly less applicable than natural substrata. Pooling 4 different substrata types allowed a higher bacterial and fungal biodiversity recovery. Point contact sampling may thus gain in robustness by increasing the number of substrata considered. Fungal species richness was similar to the bacterial one on most substrata which suggested they should be more frequently considered in riverine biofilm studies.

Active restoration facilitates bird community recovery in an Afrotropical rainforest

Active restoration of rainforests is essential in enhancing the recovery of biodiversity in many tropical regions suffering from deforestation. However, the value of actively restored rainforests for birds is still relatively poorly understood because of the short history of active restoration programs. Here, we studied the recovery of bird communities in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We sampled birds along a restoration gradient consisting of six restoration areas (3–16years old) and used five primary forests as reference areas. We found that bird community compositions changed in an orderly fashion along the restoration gradient. The abundance of arboreal insectivore frugivores and forest specialists increased, while that of foliage-gleaning insectivores, granivores and forest visitors decreased towards older sites. The similarity of the bird communities of the restored forests to those of the nearby primary forests increased linearly with time. If this recovery rate is extrapolated to the future, the bird communities could reach a pre-disturbance state after only approximately 20years of active restoration. However, previous studies have shown that recovery is typically a non-linear process, and the time needed for bird communities to recover is more likely longer than this. Nevertheless, our study provides evidence that bird communities benefit from active rainforest restoration after human-induced deforestation.

Modest recovery of biodiversity in a western European country: The Living Planet Index for the Netherlands

We calculated a Living Planet Index (LPI) for the Netherlands, based on 361 animal species from seven taxonomic groups occurring in terrestrial and freshwater habitats. Our assessment is basically similar to the global LPI, but the latter includes vertebrate species and trends in population abundance only. To achieve inferences on trends in biodiversity more generally, we added two insect groups (butterflies and dragonflies) and added occupancy trends for species for which we had no abundance trends available.According to the LPI, the state of biodiversity has slightly increased from 1990 to 2014. However, large differences exist between habitat types. We found a considerable increase in freshwater animal populations, probably because of improvement of chemical water quality and rehabilitation of marshland habitats. We found no trend in the LPI for woodland populations. In contrast, populations in farmland and open semi-natural habitats (coastal dunes, heathland and semi-natural grassland) declined, which we attribute to intensive agricultural practices and nitrogen deposition, respectively. The LPI shows that, even in a densely populated western European country, ongoing loss of animal biodiversity is not inevitable and may even be reversed if adequate measures are taken. Our approach enabled us to produce summary statistics beyond the level of species groups to monitor the state of biodiversity in a clear and consistent way.

A global meta-analysis on the ecological drivers of forest restoration success.

Two billion ha have been identified globally for forest restoration. Our meta-analysis encompassing 221 study landscapes worldwide reveals forest restoration enhances biodiversity by 15–84% and vegetation structure by 36–77%, compared with degraded ecosystems. For the first time, we identify the main ecological drivers of forest restoration success (defined as a return to a reference condition, that is, old-growth forest) at both the local and landscape scale. These are as follows: the time elapsed since restoration began, disturbance type and landscape context. The time elapsed since restoration began strongly drives restoration success in secondary forests, but not in selectively logged forests (which are more ecologically similar to reference systems). Landscape restoration will be most successful when previous disturbance is less intensive and habitat is less fragmented in the landscape. Restoration does not result in full recovery of biodiversity and vegetation structure, but can complement old-growth forests if there is sufficient time for ecological succession.

Quantifying carbon and amphibian co‐benefits from secondary forest regeneration in the Tropical Andes

AbstractTropical land‐use change is a key driver of global declines in biodiversity and a major source of anthropogenic carbon emissions, yet there is a substantial shortfall in the funding available to tackle these issues. We urgently need mechanisms that can simultaneously tackle both biodiversity and carbon losses, with carbon‐based payments for ecosystem services (e.g. REDD+) of particular interest. A critical question is whether such payments offer strong carbon–biodiversity co‐benefits via the regrowth of forests on abandoned farmlands (carbon enhancements) for amphibians, which are the most threatened vertebrate group and reach the greatest richness of threatened and small‐ranged species in the montane tropics (>1000 m a.s.l.). Here, we study changes in amphibian communities across a typical Andean habitat transition from cattle pasture through secondary forests (8–35 years) to primary forest. As secondary forests mature, they recovered the abundance, species richness, species composition and Red‐listed (near threatened and threatened) species typically found in primary forest. By contrast, cattle pasture contained much lower richness of Red‐listed species and a different species composition compared to forest. We then reveal positive relationships between carbon stocks and amphibian species richness and abundance, Red‐listed species richness and abundance and the similarity of communities to primary forests, confirming significant carbon–biodiversity co‐benefits. Our results underscore the high conservation value of secondary forests and the strong potential for carbon and biodiversity recovery. Using carbon‐based funding initiatives to support the regrowth of forests on marginal agricultural land is therefore likely to conserve threatened biodiversity in the Tropical Andes.

Why biodiversity increases after variable retention harvesting: A meta-analysis for southern Patagonian forests

Effects of forest harvesting on biodiversity can be varied and complex to understand. We provide a meta-analysis of 553 studies plants, insects and birds to identify the general responses to Variable Retention harvesting (VR) 1–8years post-harvest in Nothofagus pumilio forests of southern Patagonia. The analysis is focused on: (i) richness and abundance, (ii) origin and habitat (native forest specialist species, native species of other habitats, alien species), and (iii) temporal trends after harvesting. Our objective was to evaluate why biodiversity increases after variable retention harvesting, by assessing the effects on (i) species richness and abundance in general, (ii) native forest specialists, native generalist species and alien species, and (iii) the recovery of biodiversity toward original conditions. Forests managed with VR supported higher overall richness and abundance of plants, insects and birds in aggregate and dispersed retention than unmanaged stands, but with similar values each other. However, origin and habitat of species affected responses to VR. Aggregates support higher native forest specialist plant and lower plants of habitats other than dispersed retention. However, both retention treatments increased alien plants, although its richness and abundance was higher in dispersed retention. Native forest specialist insects were reduced in comparison to unmanaged forest, while insects of other habitats showed a positive response to both aggregate and dispersed retention as well as did for bird species richness and abundance compared to unmanaged forests. We found evidence for recovery of original conditions for native forest specialist plants and insects, and plants of other habitats. In contrast, alien plants and native insects of other habitats increased continuously in the studies included through those representing 8years post-harvest. Major differences among both retention patterns included significantly higher richness and abundance of alien plants and native insects of other habitats in dispersed retention. Our synthesis shows recovery toward original conditions for some taxa, but demonstrates long-term establishment of alien plants as well as insect species not associated with native N. pumilio forests. These have emerged as a main potential threat to conservation of forests under VR prescription, at least at the stand level. Retention forestry could play a fundamental role for conservation in productive temperate forests, but the influence of retention pattern and aggregate size are still unclear.

The legacy of deer overabundance: long-term delays in herbaceous understory recovery

Decades of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) overpopulation have dramatically homogenized forests across much of the eastern United States, creating depauperate forest understory communities. The rate at which these communities recover once deer browsing has been reduced remains an open question. We evaluate overbrowsing legacy effects by examining how forest herbaceous layers respond in terms of biodiversity, density, and community composition over 11 years using exclosures and control plots within a mature beech–maple forest. Although little recovery occurred in the first 5 years, total density and preferred browse density rebounded substantially during the final years of the study. Although community composition began to diverge between exclosure and control plots after 5 years, diversity failed to recover even after 11 years of excluding browsers. Our findings show that vulnerable species can increase after excluding browsers but only if those species were initially present. Biodiversity recovery may be extremely slow because preferred browse species have been nearly extirpated from many forests and thus are unable to recruit into refugia. We empirically demonstrate the extent of the ghost of herbivory past or legacy effect of browsing, i.e., the substantial time delay between herbivore abatement and community response after decades of high deer densities.

Trade-off relationship between modern agriculture and biodiversity: Heavy consolidation work has a long-term negative impact on plant species diversity

Human-driven land-use changes often cause a decline in biodiversity. Although traditional agricultural practices maintained biodiversity at high levels, recent land-use changes may have negative consequences on species composition. In this study, we examined the hypothesis that land consolidation, which is a major recent land-use change in agricultural areas, decreases plant species diversity over the long term (the so-called negative legacy). To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationships between consolidated areas and the occurrence of threatened plant species across Japan and at the prefecture scale. Twenty-three threatened plant species were selected, all of which were formerly common. Our results show that areas containing records of threatened plant species rarely experienced consolidation at whole-country and prefectural scales. Breakdown analysis showed that unconsolidated agricultural areas contained significantly more threatened species than consolidated agricultural areas. These results suggest that threatened plant species require unconsolidated agricultural areas (i.e., these species could not grow in consolidated areas). Thus, we propose that consolidation history could be used as an indicator of the potential for biodiversity recovery. We also suggest that consolidated agricultural areas should be used for food production rather than for the restoration of biodiversity, for reasons of cost efficiency.

Threatened herbivorous insects maintained by long-term traditional management practices in semi-natural grasslands

Biodiversity declines have been driven by land-use changes in semi-natural grasslands worldwide. This is thought to be because threatened species are unable to compete with generalist species, which are better adapted to the new environments created by modern land-use management. Many studies have separately examined biodiversity declines resulting from land abandonment and intensified use, however few have examined their unified effects on biodiversity. In addition, we still do not fully understand the relative importance of decreasing habitat area in comparison to changes in land-use practice with regard to biodiversity. To clarify the roles of these interconnected variables, we compared the diversity of threatened and common herbivorous insects and plants among four land-use types (traditional, annual burning, annual mowing, and abandoned) during 2012 and 2013. Next, we examined whether a relationship exists between herbivorous insects and environmental variables (species richness of plants, as well as current and historical grassland areas). We showed that land-use changes (annual burning, annual mowing and/or land abandonment) diminished the diversity of threatened butterflies, orthopterans, and plants. Herbivorous insects were affected by land-use practices rather than grassland area. Our results suggest that to conserve threatened species in semi-natural grasslands, we should reintroduce traditional land-use practices in areas that currently experience modern practices, such as annual mowing and burning. The reintroduction of traditional management practices would allow for the recovery of plant biodiversity, thereby increasing herbivorous insect diversity.

Integrating plant‐ and animal‐based perspectives for more effective restoration of biodiversity

Ecological restoration of modified and degraded landscapes is an important challenge for the 21st century, with potential for major gains in the recovery of biodiversity. However, there is a general lack of agreement between plant‐ and animal‐based approaches to restoration, both in theory and practice. Here, we review these approaches, identify limitations from failing to effectively integrate their different perspectives, and suggest ways to improve outcomes for biodiversity recovery in agricultural landscapes. We highlight the need to strengthen collaboration between plant and animal ecologists, to overcome disciplinary and cultural differences, and to achieve a more unified approach to restoration ecology. Explicit consideration of key ecosystem functions, the need to plan at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and the importance of plant–animal interactions can provide a bridge between plant‐ and animal‐based methods. A systematic approach to restoration planning is critical to achieving effective biodiversity outcomes while meeting long‐term social and economic needs.

Abandonment of croplands: problem or chance for grassland restoration? case studies from hungary

In Central‐ and Eastern Europe, the collapse of socialist regimes resulted in a transformation of state‐owned agricultural cooperatives to privately owned lands from the early 1990s onwards. These socioeconomic processes resulted in landscape‐scale changes in biodiversity, ecosystem services and agricultural production. In parallel, large‐scale abandonment of croplands, especially on sandy, salty or frequently inundated areas, became common. Abandoned croplands are usually sensitive to species invasions, and are hotspots of noxious weeds, posing threats both to agriculture and nature conservation. Grassland restoration on former croplands can be an effective strategy for suppressing these species. Thus, a common goal of nature conservation and agriculture can be the restoration of grasslands on former croplands to (1) suppress weed and/or invasive species in line with the policy “Good Farming Practices”, (2) support animal husbandry by creating meadows or pastures, and to (3) recover biodiversity and ecosystem services. In the present paper we report “best practices” of grassland restoration projects from Hungary. Our aim was to compare the effectiveness of spontaneous grassland recovery vs. active grassland restoration by seed sowing in terms of the recovery of biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as weed control and biomass production. Our results showed that grassland restoration on abandoned fields offers a viable solution for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services. Seed sowing ensures higher weed control and biomass production, but results in lower biodiversity compared to spontaneous recovery. Both restoration methods can be cost‐effective, or even profitable even within a relatively short period of a nature conservation project.

Quandaries of a decade‐long restoration experiment trying to reduce invasive species: beat them, join them, give up, or start over?

We evaluate the outcomes and consequences of a decade‐long restoration project in a Hawaiian lowland wet forest as they relate to long‐term management actions. Our initial study was designed both to promote native biodiversity and to develop knowledge that would enable land management agencies to restore invaded forests. Our premise of success followed the prevalent perception that short‐term management, such as removal of invasive species, ideally translates into long‐term and sustainable restoration. We were therefore disappointed and perhaps discouraged in our results—little recovery of native biodiversity despite ongoing and labor‐intensive management. Not only did we fail to return the invaded forest to a native‐dominated system but also our efforts lead to recruitment of new non‐native species assemblages. The sobering truth of many restoration projects in Hawaii and elsewhere is that we can never completely walk away and “consider the job finished,” or we have to accept that some ecosystems cannot be returned to an all‐native state. Essentially, costs of restoration may outweigh the accomplishment. This setback gave us an opportunity to reconsider and modify our initial approach. By starting over with a new direction using both native and non‐invasive but non‐native species, we have adopted a new philosophy of “join them.” In our revision, we changed the players in the game by following invasive species removal with outplantings of native and non‐invasive non‐native species that will functionally fill missing roles in the ecosystem. We link social interest in the new experiment to changing attitudes about naturalness.

Establishment of Community Managed Fisheries’ Closures in Kenya: Early Evolution of the Tengefu Movement

Community-based management (CBM) could be an essential tool to prevent the depletion of marine resources in the Western Indian Ocean region. In Kenya, political pressure to strengthen local governance, has led to adoption of CBM as a way of reducing over-exploitation and managing the competing uses and impacts on the marine environment. Several communities in Kenya have embraced CBM and have set aside or closed previously fished areas to enhance recovery of fisheries and biodiversity. These community fisheries closures (locally called tengefu), despite being degraded, may recover to finfish abundances and biodiversity levels similar to established MPAs or above thresholds for maintaining some ecological services. Communities see their direct involvement and control of these tengefu as more likely to result in benefits flowing directly to them. Community closures are also important for articulating and resolving community values and strengthening their management capacity. Here, we describe the evolution of the tengefu movement in Kenya and combine information from focus group discussions, interviews, underwater surveys and boundary marking to evaluate the current status, opportunities and challenges facing these tengefu. We show that in some cases community closures suffer from slow and incomplete national and local legislative processes, challenges to compliance, and weak management.

Medium-term dynamics of tree species composition in response to silvicultural intervention intensities in a tropical rain forest

Managed forests are important landscape components in tropical regions and may contribute to biodiversity conservation. Yet, managing tropical forests sustainably requires an understanding of ecosystem responses to silvicultural interventions. We investigated how silvicultural intervention intensity affects tree species composition and diversity over 30years in the Brazilian Amazon by comparing them to pre-logging conditions and to an unlogged control. The interventions comprised logging in 1982 and thinning in 1993–1994 and ranged in intensity from 19 to 53% reduction in the original basal area (BA). Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥5cm were measured on eight occasions in 41 permanent sample plots of 0.25ha each. Silvicultural intervention intensity influenced both tree species composition and its trajectory within 30years. In contrast, tree species diversity was not impaired. High intervention intensities (with BA reduction>6.6m2ha−1) had a substantial influence on the community of trees (DBH≥10cm), which did not show signs of return to pre-logging species composition. The reduction of BA through harvesting damage and thinning had a stronger effect on species composition than logging of mature trees itself. Thus, damage should be kept to a minimal level and strong thinning interventions should be avoided. This may enhance ecosystem recovery and maintenance of biodiversity at other trophic levels. Since current permitted harvesting intensities in the Brazilian Amazon are lower than the lowest intensity examined in our study, legal harvesting practices are unlikely to cause substantial, long-term changes in tree species composition.

Opportunities within the Revised EU Common Agricultural Policy to Address the Decline of Farmland Birds: An Irish Perspective

The loss of global biological diversity continues despite on-going conservation efforts. Agriculture is the major terrestrial land use in Europe and any conservation efforts to protect biological diversity must address sustainable use of these food production systems. Using Ireland, within the European Union policy framework, as an example, the declines in farmland birds are discussed. The opportunities afforded to farmland bird conservation as a result of the recent reform to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are outlined. The potential for revised and refined CAP, specifically agri-environment schemes, to deliver benefits for biodiversity and for farmland bird species within Irish agricultural ecosystems is explored. Despite all the efforts to date and the significant resources invested in implementing agri-environment measures and schemes, few attempts have been made to collect monitoring and surveillance data with which to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of schemes, and measures that are designed to assist in the recovery of farmland biodiversity, including bird species, in Ireland.

Recovery of understory vegetation biomass and biodiversity in burned larch boreal forests in Northeastern China

ABSTRACTRecovery of biomass and biodiversity of forest understory vegetation after fire disturbance has been widely studied; however, how this relationship changes and what are the determinants at different post-fire stages in larch boreal forests are still unclear. We investigated a chronosequence of 81 understory plots in larch boreal forests that were disturbed by fires in 1987 (S5), 1992 (S4), 1996 (S3), 2002 (S2), or 2007 (S1). Analysis of variance was conducted to test the differences of biodiversity and biomass among various post-fire stages. Different regression models were used to fit the relationship between biomass and biodiversity, while factors influencing this relationship were identified by boosted regression tree analysis. Results showed that total understory biomass increased from 2.51 t ha−1 in S1 to 8.47 t ha−1 in S3 and declined to 5 t ha−1 in S5. Similar dynamics were also found between species richness and species diversity. Positive linear correlations linked biomass and biodiversity throughout most of the post-fire periods. Slope and stand density were the two most important factors influencing the secondary succession of understory vegetation after fire. Geographical factors and overstory competition determine the orientation of vegetation recovery, and the impacts of climate on vegetation are muted after fire disturbances.

Deep subsurface mine stalactites trap endemic fissure fluid Archaea, Bacteria, and Nematoda possibly originating from ancient seas.

Stalactites (CaCO3 and salt) from water seeps are frequently encountered in ceilings of mine tunnels whenever they intersect water-bearing faults or fractures. To determine whether stalactites could be mineralized traps for indigenous fracture water microorganisms, we analyzed stalactites collected from three different mines ranging in depth from 1.3 to 3.1 km. During sampling in Beatrix gold mine (1.4 km beneath the surface), central South Africa, CaCO3 stalactites growing on the mine tunnel ceiling were collected and observed, in two cases, to contain a living obligate brackish water/marine nematode species, Monhystrella parvella. After sterilization of the outer surface, mineral layers were physically removed from the outside to the interior, and DNA extracted. Based upon 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing, Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya in different combinations were detected for each layer. Using CT scan and electron microscopy the inner structure of CaCO3 and salt stalactites were analyzed. CaCO3 stalactites show a complex pattern of lamellae carrying bacterially precipitated mineral structures. Nematoda were clearly identified between these layers confirming that bacteria and nematodes live inside the stalactites and not only in the central straw. Salt stalactites exhibit a more uniform internal structure. Surprisingly, several Bacteria showing highest sequence identities to marine species were identified. This, together with the observation that the nematode M. parvella recovered from Beatrix gold mine stalactite can only survive in a salty environment makes the origin of the deep subsurface colonization enigmatic. The possibility of a Permian origin of fracture fluids is discussed. Our results indicate stalactites are suitable for biodiversity recovery and act as natural traps for microorganisms in the fissure water long after the water that formed the stalactite stopped flowing.

The potential of smallEucalyptusplantations in farmscapes to foster native woody plant diversity: local and landscape constraints

The major focus of ecological restorations has been on understanding local factors. However, landscape factors such as dispersal limitation of individuals or propagules across the surrounding matrix can also constrain the restoration progress. We investigated to what extent native woody species colonize and thrive in plantations, focusing on both the role of local factors such as grazing and canopy cover as well as on landscape factors. We recorded all native tree and shrub species in 60 smallEucalyptusplantations embedded in an open agricultural landscape at 0.1–12 km from a remnant continuous forest in central Ethiopia. We found a total of 1,571 individuals of native woody plants belonging to 55 species. Number of such species in a plantation increased significantly with the height of the grass sword indicating their sensitivity to grazing. Moreover, the number of woody species in the patches decreased significantly with distance to the forest. Our results illustrate the need for regulating the grazing pressure for a successful regeneration of native species inEucalyptusplantations. In addition, sowing or planting native trees will be necessary in most plantations, as only few remnant natural forests that could act as seed sources occur across the Ethiopian highlands. Another main obstacle might be the prohibition of selling timber of native trees, which indirectly discourage farmers from letting native trees regenerate. Thus, the increasing cover ofEucalyptusseen across the country will not automatically foster a recovery of native woody plant biodiversity, even if managed to optimize local environmental conditions.

Partial recovery of a tropical rain forest a half‐century after clear‐cut and selective logging

Summary The extent to which tropical rain forests recover tree species richness, composition and community structure after clear‐cutting or selective harvest is controversial. Thus, the conservation value of forests regenerated after harvest remains unclear, but critically important for biodiversity. We sampled trees from 164 25 × 25 m quadrats across a 160‐km2 tropical rain forest landscape on Hainan Island, China, which had been clear‐cut or selectively harvested and left to recover without management for up to 50 years. Species richness and species abundance distributions were compared among five successional categories to investigate changes in species richness and species abundance over time. Basal areas and three different species similarity indices were compared to reveal temporal changes in species composition and community structure. Species richness recovered faster than species composition and structure in both selectively logged and clear‐cut forests. Both total number of species and number of rare species tended to increase from younger harvested forests through older harvested forests to old‐growth intact forests. Within 20–40 years after harvest species composition of harvested forests tended towards that of old‐growth forests, community similarity between harvested and old‐growth forests decreased subsequently and basal area did not recover, given even a half‐century of succession undisturbed by anthropogenic forces. Shortly after harvest, pioneer species increased rapidly, but shade‐tolerant species required much more time to recover to former abundances. The shift from pioneer species to shade‐tolerant species indicates significant recovery of logged forests. Selectively logged forests recovered more quickly and had higher conservation values than clear‐cut forests. Synthesis and applications. Our findings indicate that logged tropical forests only partially recovered the characteristics of pre‐harvest, primary forest after a half‐century of succession. Recovery of the original tree biodiversity on such post‐harvest landscapes will be slow at best, if measured by species composition or stand structure. Our study amplifies the importance of conserving tropical forest integrity and developing harvest and management approaches that facilitate full recovery of logged tropical forests.