Growth Of Transplanted Timber Species Seedlings In The South Of The Colombian Amazon: A Preliminary Study

Two commonly used timber species in the area of Amacayacu National Park (Quararibea sp. and Minquartia guianensis) were seleted to develop an experiment that compared the early performance of seedlings in mature and old secondary forest. We transplantes seedlings of these species into mature and secondary forest plots and observed height and diameter increments as well as mortality for a period of approximately 70 days. In situ seedling performance under parents trees in mature forest was measured as a control. The structure of both experimental forest was not apparently different. We found similar seedlings performance for both species in the two forest. However , the seedlings hardly showed any relative diameter increment in the short period of measurements. The results show that enriching secondary forest by means of transplanting seedlings from timber species might be a promising way of ecological restoration.En este trabajo se utilizaron plántulas de dos especies maderables comúnmente utilizadas (Quararibea sp. y Minquartia guianensis) para comparar su desempeño en bosques maduros y bosques secundarios en el sur de Colombia (Parque Nacional Amacayacu). Se transplantaron las plántulas en cuatro parcelas de bosque maduro y cuatro de bosque secundario. Se tomaron mediciones periódicas de altura, diámetro y tasa de mortalidad, durante 70 días. El desempeño de las plántulas encontradas in situ bajo arboles parentales en bosque maduro se cuantificó a manera de control. la estructura de ambos bosques experimentales era similar. Las plántulas transplantadas se desempeñaron de forma parecida. Sin embargo, no se observaron incrementos del diámetro y la altura relativa en el período corto de las mediciones. Los resultados demuestran que el enriquecimiento de bosques secundarios con especies maderables es una forma de restauración ecológica prometedora