Global land-use change drives rapid vegetation changes. Understanding the first years of succession is important as it may determine divergence in long-term successional pathways. This study evaluates how dispersal-, management- and environmental filters drive tropical forest succession and community assembly on abandoned agricultural fields.
Plots were established on abandoned agricultural fields in Ghana and monitored for 2.5 years. Potential seed dispersal (dispersal filter) was quantified using surrounding landscape forest cover as a proxy. Previous land-use (management filter) was described using interviews. As environmental filters, soil nitrogen and exchangeable bases were measured at the start, and understory irradiance and soil moisture were monitored. The effects of these filters on community assembly were evaluated using a fourth-corner analysis, including seven traits for 116 species and seven life forms.  
In these abandoned subsistence fields, succession proceeded tremendously fast, resulting in a shift from herbaceous to woody vegetation within one year, and concomitant decreases in understory irradiance and soil moisture. Species composition was most strongly determined by stand age, followed by dispersal-, management-, and environmental filters. Over time, small and short-lived herbaceous life forms with acquisitive trait values (e.g., high leaf nitrogen concentration) were replaced by taller longer-lived woody life forms with conservative trait values due to changes in resources. The quality (age) of surrounding forest cover was more important than the quantity. Larger surrounding older forest cover increased the abundance of species with conservative trait values through increasing seed dispersal of late-successional woody species. Sites with a longer previous land-use duration favored species with conservative trait values that can resist or tolerate repeated disturbances.
Forest structure recovers rapidly over time. Dispersal-, management-, and environmental filters strongly determine the recovery of species and functional composition, and thereby the large variation in long-term successional trajectories of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.