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.

Over hunting means big problems for tropical forests

CTFS-SIGEO scientists have been researching changes in Lambir Hills National Park, and the impacts intensive hunting is having on the forest. The research, which has been ongoing since the early 1990’s, has found hunting to be a leading cause of change in this diverse tropical forest. In South America, up to 90% of tree species depend on animals to disperse their seeds. Lambir Hills National Park was once a thriving home to an array of birds, gibbons, flying foxes, and other animals, but a surge in hunting has left the park with very few large, seed-dispersing animals in the past decade. The forest is now suffering from sapling overcrowding and the loss of diversity, which could be the beginning of drastic changes in this high conservation value forest.

An article about CTFS-SIGEO research was featured in Science Magazine.  Read it here http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/hunting-leads-to-rapid-change-in.html