@Article{Gloor_etal2009,
author="Gloor, M.
and Phillips, O.L.
and Lloyd, J.J.
and Lewis, S.L.
and Malhi, Y.
and Baker, T.R.
and Lopez-Gonzalez, G.
and Peacock, J.
and Almeida, S.
and de Oliveira, A.C.A.
and Alvarez, E.
and Amaral, I.
and Arroyo, L.
and Aymard, G.
and Banki, O.
and Blanc, L.
and Bonal, D.
and Brando, P.
and Chao, K.J.
and Chave, J.
and Davila, N.
and Erwin, T.
and Silva, J.
and Di Fiore, A.
and Feldpausch, T.R.
and Freitas, A.
and Herrera, R.
and Higuchi, N.
and Honorio, E.
and Jimenez, E.
and Killeen, T.
and Laurance, W.
and Mendoza, C.
and Monteagudo, A.
and Andrade, A.
and Neill, D.
and Nepstad, D.
and Vargas, P.N.
and Penuela, M.C.
and Cruz, A.P.
and Prieto, A.
and Pitman, N.
and Quesada, C.
and Salomao, R.
and Silveira, M.
and Schwarz, M.
and Stropp, J.
and Ramirez, F.
and Ramirez, H.
and Rudas, A.
and ter Steege, H.
and Silva, N.
and Torres, A.
and Terborgh, J.
and Vasquez, R.
and van der Heijden, G.",
title="Does the disturbance hypothesis explain the biomass increase in basin-wide Amazon forest plot data?",
journal="Global Change Biology",
year="2009",
publisher="WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC",
volume="15",
number="10",
pages="2418--2430",
optkeywords="Amazon rainforest",
optkeywords="carbon sink",
optkeywords="disturbance",
optkeywords="mortality",
optkeywords="power law",
abstract="Positive aboveground biomass trends have been reported from old-growth forests across the Amazon basin and hypothesized to reflect a large-scale response to exterior forcing. The result could, however, be an artefact due to a sampling bias induced by the nature of forest growth dynamics. Here, we characterize statistically the disturbance process in Amazon old-growth forests as recorded in 135 forest plots of the RAINFOR network up to 2006, and other independent research programmes, and explore the consequences of sampling artefacts using a data-based stochastic simulator. Over the observed range of annual aboveground biomass losses, standard statistical tests show that the distribution of biomass losses through mortality follow an exponential or near-identical Weibull probability distribution and not a power law as assumed by others. The simulator was parameterized using both an exponential disturbance probability distribution as well as a mixed exponential-power law distribution to account for potential large-scale blowdown events. In both cases, sampling biases turn out to be too small to explain the gains detected by the extended RAINFOR plot network. This result lends further support to the notion that currently observed biomass gains for intact forests across the Amazon are actually occurring over large scales at the current time, presumably as a response to climate change.",
optnote="ISI:000269577800006",
optnote="exported from refbase (http://php.ecofog.gf/refbase/show.php?record=196), last updated on Wed, 04 May 2011 11:48:26 -0300",
issn="1354-1013"
}