Biometry of the Selva Maya

Abstract

Despite the best efforts of private landowners in the Selva Maya (Maya Rainforest) to practice sustainable forestry, forest regeneration has been below expectations. To determine which species were thriving or failing, and under what conditions, a three-year growth study was performed on ten commercial tree species across four regions in the Selva Maya, tracking annual growth and several other variables, such as canopy dominance and soil type. The results were passed to the New York Botanical Garden for analysis. The data had several gaps and inconsistencies that made it impossible to assign fully reliable conclusions, but some preliminary results and leads for further investigation were drawn from the data. Analysis using multifactor ANOVAs provide the species' relative growth rates, periods of peak growth, and tolerance to management, canopy cover, and competition. The results support the theory that management is detrimental to shade-intolerant species, though a minority of the results contradict this, and many of the comparisons are based on tentative conclusions. The results also conclude that San Augustin is underperforming in growth rates compared to the other three ejidos, both overall and when comparing the growth rates of Tzalam, the only species to appear in all four regions.