On the local scale of a single landslide tree biomass recovers within the first 80 years after landslides for most scenarios, but it takes at least 200 years for the post-landslide forest to reach a structure (in terms of stem size distribution) similar to a mature forest. On this scale forest productivity is reduced for most regrowth scenarios. Changes in different tree species characteristics produce distinct spatio-temporal patterns of tree biomass distribution in the first decades of recovery within the landslide disturbed area. These patterns can potentially be used for identifying the dominant processes that drive forest recovery on landslide disturbed sites.
On the larger scale of the landscape overall tree biomass is reduced by 9-15%due to landslide disturbances. Overall forest productivity is only slightly reduced (<6%), but landslides increase landscape heterogeneity and produce hotspots of biomass loss and 鈥榖lind spots鈥?of forest productivity. Thus landslides have a strong impact on the distribution of biomass in tropical montane forests.
This study demonstrates that dynamic forest models are useful tools for complementing field based studies on landslides; they allow for testing alternative hypotheses on different sources of heterogeneity across spatial scales and investigating the influence of landslides on long-term forest dynamics.