Spatial patterns and dynamics of forest regeneration in Celaque National Park, Honduras

Extensive post-agriculture forest regeneration has been observed in Celaque National Park (CNP) in Honduras. This dissertation used remote sensing analysis, landscape statistics, and ground observations to examine forest recovery dynamics in a montane tropical forest environment in CNP between 1987 and 1998. Results from a multitemporal change detection analysis using a 1987, a 1992, and a 1998 Lansat TM image show that the area of mature forest cover (MF), that is, dense forest at least twenty years old, increased from 35.4% of the study area in 1987 to 46.6% in 1992 to 57.3% in 1998. The largest transition during the study period was from open, degraded forest (OF) to ME 4024 ha of OF developed into either dense young forest (YF) or MF while only 554 ha of YF and MF deteriorated into OF during the study period. The Moran's I measure was used to test the hypothesis that forest regeneration exhibited a completely random spatial pattern. A significant test statistic of 0.606 was obtained indicating a non-random pattern of forest regeneration. A significant correlation was found between patch elevation and regeneration value indicating that the amount and rate of regeneration increased with elevation. A significant model with a good explanatory power was obtained that correlated increase in MF cover to four 1987 indices of landscape pattern. A significant model with a high explanatory power was obtained that correlated a decrease in MF fragmentation to four 1987 indices of landscape pattern. Forest fragmentation decreased during the study period. At the 8-km2 scale, mean nearest neighbor (MNN), a measure of fragmentation, for MF decreased by an average of 69 m over a 112-km 2 area. At the 32-km2 scale MNN for MF decreased by an average of 40 m over a 64-km2 area. In 1987 the southern part of CNP exhibited much higher fragmentation than the northern part. By 1998 the landscape over most of the park had become more homogeneous as fragmentation decreased everywhere in the park. Significant linear correlations were found between TM bands and regeneration stage. The process of regeneration exhibited clear trajectories in the Kauth-Thomas Tasseled Cap feature space.