Biodiversity: The development of Rainforests

[BadgerJelly]

I have a preset idea about how quickly a rainforest could develop. I would naively imagine that it would take millions of years for a rainforest to develop from a wasteland.

Let us say that we destroy our rainforests and are only left with a "handful" of species to redevelop a rainforest. What are the time estimates for a return to previous levels of biodiversity among flora? I understand that th evolutionary process can take place over a very short period or a very long period. What time scale could we expect from an artificially planted forest becoming relevatively indistinguishible from a natural forest? Would tropical climates develop towards a "norm" more quickly or simply appear to due to relative differences in biodiversity between tropic and temperate climates? (Am I being naive in assuming the "tropics" always possess more diversity?)

[doogles]

This research suggests that 65 years results in a plausible regrowth of the main forest BadgerJelly, but that 4000 years may be needed for all the fine details to come back. Actually, I would imagine that in 4000 tears all of our rainforests may change in their ecological balance due to natural, if not anthropological, climate changes - https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn ... egenerate/

[BadgerJelly]

4000! ?

I find that hard to swallow tbh! I was talking about pristine jungle so I find it hard imagine that the same extent of biodiversity would return in a few millenia?

Are really suggesting that if the amazon was gone overnight and then we replanted some trees that they would evolve into distinct species over 4000 years? I doubt that? Am I gravely mistaken in by saying millions of years? I could possibly accept 100's of 1000's of years.

I should've made clear I am talking about starting from a limited number of species. Let us say if there was a global distaster and we had to literally grow a rainforest from a few saved species (discounting the complexity of the ecosystem including fauna - let us assume the birds and insects can be readily introduced for simplicities sake).

[doogles]

With a limite3d number of species, my guess is that the rainforests would never come back in their pristine states as we know them.

They would be subject to the survival of the fittest of all the opportunist species that subsequently arrived on the scene.

[BadgerJelly]

I meant equivilant to