2013 CTFS-SIGEO Workshop

The 2013 NSF-funded CTFS-SIGEO Workshop was held last month at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservational Biology Institute at Front Royal, VA. It was the third of five annual research workshops over the period 2011 to 2015 focused on "Diversity and Forest Change: Characterizing functional, phylogenetic and genetic contributions to diversity gradients and dynamics in tree communities". The program is co-supported by the Dimensions of Biodiversity Program of the US National Science Foundation (DEB-1046113) and the National Science Foundation of China.

Over 55 scientists from 20 countries worked in small groups to address specific research topics. The focus was on both individual plot analyses and cross-plot comparisons, and included studies of forest carbon dynamics, spatial patterns in species diversity, and forest growth and mortality. The workshop culminated in the presentation of over 40 different research projects on the final day of the workshop. Manuscripts derived from the work are now being prepared.

The gathering of many partners from across the CTFS-SIGEO network also provided an important opportunity to advance current and future collaborations on the science of the world’s forests. While in Virginia, scientists also enjoyed a tour and hike in the forests of the Shenandoah National Park, and a visit to the SCBI 25-hectare plot.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Boreal Forests join the CTFS-SIGEO Newtwork as the Global Plot Count Reaches 50.

The Scotty Creek Forest Dynamics Plot is located in the Hay River Lowlands at 61^o81 north, west of Yellowknife, and just south of Fort Simpson, in Canada.This is the first plot in boreal forest in the CTFS-SIGEO network, and pushes the total CTFS-SIGEO plot count to 50. The plot is 21 hectares and is located in a remote expanse of pristine boreal peatland, which has been the focus of hydrological research since the late 1990s.

An interesting feature of Scotty Creek is that the site is characterized by discontinuous permafrost which creates habitat heterogeneity across the plot. The most abundant species is black spruce, and larch. High-density patches of Betula glandulosa(American dwarf birch) reaching measurable size are also frequent in the plot. Other common species include Alaskan paper birch, trembling aspen, white spruce, and alder and several willow species. The most common large mammals include moose, black bear, and woodland caribou.

To learn more, visit www.ctfs.si.edu

CTFS- SIGEO and Smithsonian Institution represented at The Prince of Wales' meeting in London

CTFS-SIGEO Director, Stuart Davies, and Senior Staff Scientist and leader of the CTFS-SIGEO Functional Traits Initiative, Joe Wright, represented the Smithsonian Institution and STRI in a two-day workshop on "Critical Challenges and Opportunities for Tropical Forest Science" coordinated by Prince Charles’ Charities’ International Sustainability Unit. It was held in London at the Royal Society and St. James’s Palace, Clarence House. 

The science group agreed on a memorandum that describes a series of concerns and initiatives required to halt the loss and degradation of tropical forests. This memorandum, the "St James’s Palace Memorandum on Tropical Forest Science", was presented to Prince Charles, senior representatives of Governments, and leaders from civil society and the private sector. Prince Charles is extremely motivated and supportive of this initiative. He has been working for a number of years towards building a strategy on curbing global deforestation.

The meeting culminated in a series of short presentations by Prince Charles, scientists, several representatives of government (UK, US, and Germany), and the business community. Stuart had the opportunity to talk about the mission of CTFS and the value of the large plot network while Joe was able to discuss restoration and conservation with the group. The US Ambassador to the UK, Barbara Stephenson, who had two stints as Ambassador to Panama, spoke very enthusiastically of her introduction to tropical forests at STRI in Panama.

For a link to the Memorandum, click here 

  

For further information, see: http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/news-and-diary/red-isu-meeting

CTFS-SIGEO Network Article Published In current volume of PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) has published an article in the latest volume, called

Species distributions in response to individual soil nutrients and seasonal drought across a community of tropical trees, 

written by CTFS- SIGEO researchers Richard Condit, Bettina M. J. Engelbrecht, Delicia Pino, Rolando Pérez, and Benjamin L. Turner

Find full article here.

Find commentary on the article here.

Abstract:

Tropical forest vegetation is shaped by climate and by soil, but understanding how the distributions of individual tree species respond to specific resources has been hindered by high diversity and consequent rarity.

To study species over an entire community, we surveyed trees and measured soil chemistry across climatic and geological gradients in central Panama and then used a unique hierarchical model of species occurrence as a function of rainfall and soil chemistry to circumvent analytical difficulties posed by rare species.

The results are a quantitative assessment of the responses of 550 tree species to eight environmental factors, providing a measure of the importance of each factor across the entire tree community.

Dry-season intensity and soil phosphorus were the strongest predictors, each affecting the distribution of more than half of the species.

Although we anticipated clear-cut responses to dry-season intensity, the finding that many species have pronounced associations with either high or low phosphorus reveals a previously unquantified role for this nutrient in limiting tropical tree distributions.

The results provide the data necessary for understanding distributional limits of tree species and predicting future changes in forest composition.

CTFS-SIGEO Research Grants Program 2013

The Research Grants Program of the Center for Tropical Forest Science - Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory (CTFS-SIGEO) supports research associated with the CTFS-SIGEO network of Forest Dynamics Plots.  A new round of research grants will be awarded in 2013. The majority of the CTFS-SIGEO research grants will fall in the $2,000-$15,000 range.

The program is intended to provide opportunities for senior researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students to utilize existing Forest Dynamics Plots and to conduct research with scientists associated with these plots. Topics can range from working directly in one of the plots, analyzing data, or generating complementary data that strengthens CTFS-SIGEO programs. Funding is restricted to expenses directly related to field research, laboratory research, and data analysis. Examples of eligible expenses include travel, living expenses during fieldwork, supplies, and research assistance. Funds are not available for salary and/or fringe benefits of the applicant, tuition, non-project personnel, or travel to meetings. In addition, the grants program will NOT support indirect costs for institutional support. Priority will be given to early career researchers, researchers with less access to other institutional funds, and to projects that include multiple sites.

The deadline for applications is 15 June, 2013.

For more information, please go to the website: http://www.sigeo.si.edu/Grants. Applications MUST follow grant requirements as outlined at that website.

Real-time Monitoring of Forest Phenology at CTFS-SIGEO Sites Initiated

Webcams or ‘Phenocams’ have recently been installed in several CTFS-SIGEO sites to provide real-time monitoring of the dynamics of leaves, flowers and fruits in the forest. Both Barro Colorado Island and Wind River have volunteered to be part of an phenology web camera network, called ‘The PhenoCam Network’. The network provides automated, near-surface remote sensing of canopy phenology captured by a mounted camera.

BCI’s phenocam was installed March 25^th and the timing of the installation was excellent. Within days the Tabebuia guayacan trees began to flower. The camera is mounted on a tower in the center of the island, and is pointed down at the canopy. Wind River has two cameras, one is in the understorey and the other is focused on the canopy. Every second, images are updated and available online. A link on the CTFS-SIGEO homepage (http://www.ctfs.si.edu) connects directly to the Phenocams.

This is a pilot project. It is hoped that similar cameras will be installed on additional CTFS-SIGEO sites in the future.




Barro Colorado Island canopy

 


Wind River understorey

 


Wind River canopy



                                                

CTFS Publications from April 2012 to April 2013

Chang-Yang, C., Lu, C., Sun, I., and Hsieh, C. 2013. Long-term Seedling Dynamics of Tree Species in a Subtropical Rain Forest, Taiwan . Taiwania, 58:35-43. URL Full Text.

Condit, R., Chisholm, R. A., and Hubbell, S. P. 2012. Thirty years of forest census at Barro Colorado and the Importance of Immigration in maintaining diversity. PLoS ONE, 7:e49826. URL Full Text.

Condit, R., Engelbrecht, B. M., Pino, D., Pérez, R., and Turner, B. L. 2013. Species distributions in response to individual soil nutrients and seasonal drought across a community of tropical trees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110:5064-5068. URL Full Text.

De Cáceres, M., Legendre, P., Valencia, R., Cao, M., Chang, L., Chuyong, G. B., Condit, R., Hao, Z., Hsieh, C., Hubbell, S. P., Kenfack, D., Ma, K., Mi, X., Supardi, M. N. N., Kassim, A. R., Ren, H., Su, S., Sun, I., Thomas, D. W., Ye, W., and He, F. 2012. The variation of tree beta diversity across a global network of forest plots. Global Ecology and Biogeography, :. URL Full Text.

Detto, M., and Muller-Landau, H. C. 2013. Fitting ecological process models to spatial patterns using scalewise variances and moment equations. The American Naturalist, 181:E68-E82. URL Full Text.

DunMei, L., JiangShan, L., Mi, X., Haibao, R., and Ma, K. 2012. Spatial variation in community structure of a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest: Implications for sampling design. Chinese Science Bulletin, Online:. URL Full Text.

Gomes, A. C., Andrade, A. C., Barreto Silva, J. S., Brenes-Arguedas, T., Cárdenas López, D., de Freitas, C. C., Lang, C., Oliveira, A. A., Pérez, A., Pérez, R., da Silva, J., Silveira, A. M., Vaz, M. C., Vendrami, J., and Vicentini, A. 2013. Local plant species delimitation in a highly diverse Amazonian forest: do we all see the same species?. Journal of Vegetation Science, 24:70-79. URL Full Text.

Harrison, R. D., Tan, S., Plotkin, J. B., Slik, F., Davies, S. J., Brenes-Arguedas, T., Itoh, A., and Detto, M. 2013. Consequences of defaunation for a tropical tree community. Ecology Letters, 16:1-8. URL Full Text.

Inman-Narahari, F., Ostertag, R., Cordell, S., Giardina, C. P., Nelson-Kaula, K., and Sack, L. 2013. Seedling recruitment factors in low-diversity Hawaiian wet forest: towards global comparisons among tropical forests. Ecosphere, 4:art24. URL Full Text.

Lan Guo, Y., Getzin, S., Wiegand, T., Hu, Y., Zhu, H., Xie, G., and Cao, M. 2012. Spatial distribution and interspecific associations of tree species in a tropical seasonal rain forest of China. PLoS ONE, 7:e46074. URL Full Text.

Ngo, K. M., Turner, B. L., Muller-Landau, H. C., Davies, S. J., Larjavaara, M., Faizu, N. N., and Lum, S. K. 2013. Carbon stocks in primary and secondary tropical forests in Singapore. Forest Ecology and Management, 296:81-89. URL Full Text.

Parmentier, I., Dumenil, J., Kuzmina, M., Philippe, M., Thomas, D. W., Kenfack, D., Chuyong, G. B., Cruaud, C., and Hardy, O. J. 2013. How Effective Are DNA Barcodes in the Identification of African Rainforest Trees?. PLoS ONE, 8:e54921. URL Full Text.

Punchi-Manage, R., Getzin, S., Wiegand, T., Kanagaraj, R., Gunatilleke, C. S., Gunatilleke, I. N., Wiegand, K., and Huth, A. 2013. Effects of topography on structuring local species assemblages in a Sri Lankan mixed dipterocarp forest. Journal of Ecology, 101:149-160. URL Full Text.

Queenborough, S. A., Metz, M. R., Wiegand, T., and Valencia, R. 2012. Palms, peccaries and perturbations: widespread effects of small-scale disturbance in tropical forests. BMC Biology, 12:3. URL Full Text.

Ricklefs, R. E., and Renner, S. S. 2012. Global correlations in tropical tree species richness and abundance reject neutrality. Science, 335:464-467. URL Full Text.

Russo, S. E., Zhang, L., and Tan, S. 2012. Covariation between understorey light environments and soil resources in Bornean mixed dipterocarp rain forest. Journal of Trop, 28:33-44. URL Full Text.

Sautu, A., Deago, J., Hall, J. S., Roman, F., and De Liones, R. 2012. Field Guide for the Propagation of 120 Native Tree species from Panama and the Neotropics. Environment Leadership and Training Initiative. URL Full Text.

Shen, Y., Santiago, L. S., Ma, L., Lin, G., Lian, J., Cao, H., and Ye, W. 2013. Forest dynamics of a subtropical monsoon forest in Dinghushan, China: recruitment, mortality and the pace of community change. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 29:131-145. URL Full Text.

Swenson, N. G., Stegen, J. C., Davies, S. J., Erickson, D. L., Forero-Montana, J., Hurlbert, A. H., Kress, W. J., Thompson, J., Uriarte, M., Wright, S. J., and Zimmerman, J. K. 2012. Temporal turnover in the composition of tropical tree communities: functional determinism and phylogenetic stochasticity. Ecology, 93:490-499. URL Full Text.

Taubert, F., Hartig, F., Dobner, H., and Huth, A. 2013. On the Challenge of Fitting Tree Size Distributions in Ecology. PLoS ONE , 8:e58036. URL Full Text.

Townsend, A. R., and Asner, G. P. 2013. Multiple dimensions of resource limitation in tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110:4864-4865. URL Full Text.

Wiegand, T., Huth, A., Getzin, S., Wang, X., Hao, Z., Gunatilleke, C. S., and Gunatilleke, I. N. 2012. Testing the independent species arrangement assertion made by theories of stochastic geometry of biodiversity. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 279:3312-3320. URL Full Text.

Van Breugel, M., Van Bruegel, P., Jansen, P. A., Martinez-Ramos, M., and Bongers, F. 2012. The relative importance of above- versus belowground competition for tree growth during early succession of a tropical moist. Plant Ecology, 213:25-34. URL Full Text.