Strawberry guava prevents natural forest generation in Madagascar, project reveals

Rice University biologist Amy Dunham has spent decades studying the mountainous rainforests of Madagascar's Ranomafana National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was designated a national park in 1991. In a project co-led by Dunham and Rice's Matt McCary, together with a team of U.S. and Malagasy researchers, the group published a study showing that strawberry guava, an invasive plant, can prevent natural forest generation in areas of Ranomafana with a history of past disturbance, even decades after deforestation has ended. The findings are published in the journal Biological Conservation.