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Hyperdominance and Rarity in Amazonian Secondary Forests
Fernando Elias1, Joice Ferreira2, Erika Berenguer3,4
1Botany Coordination, LEAF, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Global Change Biology
|June 16, 2026
Summary
A few tree species dominate Amazonian secondary forests, controlling abundance and carbon storage. Understanding these hyperdominant species is key for forest restoration and management strategies.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Forest Science
- Tropical Biology
Background:
- Undisturbed Amazonian forests exhibit dominance by a few tree species in abundance and carbon storage.
- This pattern of species dominance in regrowing (secondary) forests after deforestation is not well understood.
- Identifying dominant species in secondary forests is crucial for understanding ecosystem function and guiding restoration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess hyperdominance in tree and palm abundance and carbon storage during secondary forest recovery.
- To compare unweighted and plot-weighted approaches for analyzing dominance patterns.
- To identify consistent hyperdominant species across different regions and successional stages in the eastern Amazon.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 102 plots across four eastern Amazonian regions.
- Applied both unweighted and novel plot-weighted methods to analyze species abundance and carbon storage.
- Examined dominance patterns across various successional stages and stem size classes (including diameter at breast height ≥ 10 cm).
Main Results:
- Secondary forests exhibit high hyperdominance, with 3%-6% of species accounting for over 50% of abundance and carbon storage.
- A consistent core of hyperdominant species (e.g., Annona exsucca, Cecropia palmata) was identified across regions and successional stages.
- Larger-stemmed hyperdominant species (≥ 10 cm DBH) had lower wood density than non-hyperdominant species, indicating distinct ecological strategies.
Conclusions:
- Secondary forest ecosystems are largely structured and function by a limited set of hyperdominant species.
- These findings provide a framework for future research, including ecophysiology and remote sensing of canopy traits.
- The identification of key species can inform effective forest restoration and management planning in the Amazon.
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