We used a principal components analysis (PCA) as a multivariate exploratory technique to detect the variables most significantly related to the BN regeneration density. The PCA included the density (1), number of cycles (2), site area (3), distance to the nearest conspecific adults (4), and fallow age (5). The past agricultural use was included as a Depsipeptide grouping variable (6). After the PCA ordination, we used a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to relate the density separately to the number of cultivation cycles (1–3) and to past agricultural use. An ANOVA also served to relate the number of living sprouts

to the minimum number of times that each BN plant survived slash-and-burn. When an ANOVA detected significant differences, we used Tukey’s test for post-hoc mean comparisons. A linear regression analysis related the regeneration density to the variables fallow age (years) and site area (m2). The extractivists’ decisions to preserve fallows according to the observed BN regeneration density were analyzed using Student’s

t-test. The same test compared differences in height and diameter between BN individuals found within or on the perimeter of the sampled sites. In these cases, the variables were log10 transformed to improve the normality and homoscedasticity of the residuals. In the 40 sampled sites, we located 375 BN plants, including seedlings, saplings, and juvenile trees. The inventory of the nearest productive adult trees surrounding the sites included 74 possible seed sources. All of the sites had at least one productive selleckchem BN tree closer than 100 m to their perimeters with the exception of two pasture sites that were separated from the nearest parent tree by another pasture stretch. The remote sensing analysis based on the available satellite images proved adequate to distinguish between sites of one, two and three or more cultivation cycles, thus enabling us to match these results with information obtained from interviews with landholders. The PCA identified

the number of cultivation cycles as the variable most related to the BN regeneration density according to both the first and the second PCA axes (Fig. 1). The average learn more BN density varied significantly and positively with the number of cultivation cycles (F = 12.04; p < 0.001) ( Fig. 2a). The density also varied significantly according to the past agricultural use (F = 3.703; p = 0.034). Sites used exclusively for SC presented an average density significantly greater (p = 0.03) than that of pastures established directly in the mature forest, but not significantly different (p = 0.529) from the average density of pastures established after SC use ( Fig. 2b). The BN tree exhibited strong resprouting capability. For sites after at least two slash-and-burn cycles, the ratios between resprouted and uncut trees (grown from seed) were 3.