Regeneration of vochysia ferruginea (palo de mayo), a tree of the rain forests of Nicaragua whipped by hurricanes and fires: a mould matrix of translation

Abstract

In 1988, hurricane Joan caused sever struggles to rain forests of the Nicaraguan Atlantic Coast. After this natural disturbance the species Vochysia ferruginea (Palo de mayo), experienced an exceptional pattern of regeneration, in which almost all its adult individuals died with the storm and then its regeneration was by way of its seedlings present in the understory, until reach the highest abundance after the hurricane. In order to get more insight into this commercial species its population behavior and structure were studied and simulated by application of standards matrix models analysis using height as input variable. This analysis was compared with results of the height diameter matrix model assessed by Boucher and Mallona (1997). Those comparations indicate, among other things, that the species is near to a stable population growth after the hurricane of 1988, drought and fire occurrence in El Niño period of 1997-98.