2014: CTFS-ForestGEO in Review

2014 has been a year of growth and continued success for CTFS – ForestGEO. 2014 has seen the acquisition of six new global forest plots, collaborations through many different workshops, and funding of research projects through the research grants program. Highlights from 2014 include: 

Workshops

CTFS-ForestGEO hosted an international Biodiversity Workshop in Xishuangbanna, China, funded by the National Science Foundation, USA, and the National Natural Science Foundation, China. The workshop was held at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The goal of the workshop was to understand how tree and animal biodiversity—species, trait, genetic, and evolutionary diversity -- contribute to healthy forest ecosystems. 

Created with flickr slideshow

The workshop provided in-depth training to 55 students, early-career professors, and research associates from 15 countries. Participants collaborated on new research projects with peers and advanced scientists across multiple forest plots. This year, 50% of the participants were attending the workshop for the first time. 

The workshop has led to several extended benefits. For example, Chinese research groups have duplicated the workshop in local training activities. The workshop’s international recognition helped CTFS – ForestGEO gain funding for additional Chinese forest plots. 

Find the original blog announcement here. 

CTFS – ForestGEO hosted a database-training workshop in Singapore. The workshop provided basic and advanced support for plot managers in Asia. Techniques learned at the workshop allow plot managers to independently and confidently manage their local, high-quality forest data. Among the forest plot countries represented at this workshop were Brunei Darussalam, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. 

The workshop also facilitated the development of several new database initiatives. Our database team has been developing new systems for generic data entry, data uploading, and data validation, which include tools such as double data entry and screening as well as geographic data mapping. 

Find original blog announcement here.      

                                                                        

María Natalia Umaña and her team
 photocourtesy of maumana.wix.com 

This NSF-funded program provided an opportunity for a PhD student from Colombia, María Natalia Umaña, who is currently at Michigan State University, to work in the Xishuangbanna China forest plot. She conducted research on rare plants. The Xishuangbanna China plot contains more than 400 plant species, many of which are rare. She collected data on tree seedling species with the help of several local field assistants (Zhigang Chen, Lang Ma, Zhilin Mu, and Yongzheng Shen) and researchers with the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. 

Find original blog announcement here.       

Grants Program

CTFS – ForestGEO awarded six research fellowships to young scientists. CTFS –

ForestGEO awards competitive small fellowships to students and young researchers from across the network to facilitate independent study using the forest plots and promote networking and scientific capacity across geographic boundaries. In 2014, six of 35 submitted research projects were supported.

Find more information about the annual CTFS-ForestGEO Research Grants Program here. 

PHOTO	NAME CAREER STAGE	FOREST PLOT(S) LOCATION	PROJECT TOPIC
A	Jan Ng PhD student	Yosemite United States	Fire effects on tree distributions
B	Matthew Craig PhD student	multiple United States	Understanding forest soil carbon dynamics
C	Yoshiko Iida Postdoctoral fellow	Pasoh Malaysia	General flowering in diverse forests
D	Carlos Jaramillo staff scientist	Amacayacu Colombia	Pollen flora across geological times scales
E	Jiang Zhang postdoctoral fellow	Dinghushan China	Drone technology potential in forests
F	Owen Lewis associate professor	Wanang Papua New Guinea	Insect and flora data using seed traps

Expanding the CTFS-ForestGEO Global Reach

The Department of Energy (DOE) called on CTFS – ForestGEO to be a major player in a global forest ecosystem initiative. Stuart Davies, PhD, Director of CTFS – ForestGEO, was appointed Chief Scientist for the new, international initiative. The DOE initiated a large-scale project through five National Labs called the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment – Tropics. The project is designed to build new Earth System Models to understand future climate impacts, including elevated CO2, on tropical forests. CTFS-ForestGEO will be a critical data source and expert knowledge resource for a major, new science initiative.

A new partnership between CTFS – ForestGEO, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is expanding science and education programs surrounding tropical forest research. CTFS – ForestGEO and NTU will jointly hire a well-established university professor to advance forest research and increase the international visibility of NTU’s Asian School of the Environment. The partnership stems from a broader initiative to develop terrestrial and marine science in Southeast Asia, which is home to some of the most diverse and endemically species-rich tropical forests in the world.                                                       

New plots joined the network in 2014

Six new forest plots in Asia, North America, and Europe provide new research sites for local scientists and build on the diverse forests found in CTFS – ForestGEO plots. Half of the new plots are in China, including two subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved forests (Baishanzu and Badagongshan), as well as a forest that spans a temperate and subtropical climate in Central China (Baotianman). CTFS – ForestGEO gained a third European plot in Speulderbos, Netherlands, which is a temperate Beech forest. Two North American sites include a forest plot with the University of Michigan and an urban forest plot with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

                                                                    
Research Methods

Camera traps are the latest tools used by CTFS – ForestGEO researchers to monitor the elusive vertebrate wildlife in and around the forest plots. Camera-trap data is combined with tree, climate, and human land-use change data to address biodiversity management concerns. In 2014, two species new to the survey were caught on tape in Soberania National Park—coyote and grison, a carnivorous mammal native to South and Central America. The nocturnal Africa civet (Civettictis civetta) was captured on camera in Korup National Park, Cameroon for the first time in three years. Some of this research is done in partnership with the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM).

Courtesy of Smithsonian Wild

CTFS- ForestGEO now contributes its vertebrate data to Smithsonian Wild, a Smithsonian Initiative that collates camera-trapping photos online (siwild.si.edu) from Smithsonian research all over the world. Future plans include the acoustic monitoring of birds, bats, and amphibians and the live trapping of small mammals and their parasites and pathogens.

Find the original blog announcement here.                                                                                

The Smithsonian established a CTFS – ForestGEO inspired marine network. The CTFS – ForestGEO network has become a model for other global biodiversity observatory and monitoring systems. The Smithsonian's new initiative for a MarineGEO program is a good example if this. After several years of developing the idea of a marine counterpart to ForestGEO, the new marine network has formally been established. It will focus on a global understanding of coastal marine ecosystems and is led by long-time professor of ecology and evolution, Emmet Duffy, PhD. 

                                                                     

Recognition for Excellence in Science 

CTFS – ForestGEO researchers Stuart Davies, William McShea, and Stephen Hubbell received globally-recognized awards in forest science. Stuart Davies, Director of CTFS – ForestGEO was awarded the Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Prize award, a distinguished honor highlighting the importance of his book The Ecology and Conservation of Seasonally Dry Forests in Asia, written in collaboration with William McShea.

Dr. Hubbell accepts his award at 2014 IUFRO

A co-founder of CTFS – ForestGEO, Stephen Hubbell, was recognized for his unprecedented advances in forest science at the XXIV World Congress 2014 by the International Union of Forest Research Organization. He was presented a Scientific Achievement award in October

for his “visionary” research and “unparalleled contributions to understanding the biological diversity and ecology of tropical forests.” Hubbell is currently a Distinguished Professor at UCLA.

Read original announcement here.

Scientific Initative Highlights

Automated dendrometer bands measure hourly changes in tree growth to investigate
tree responses to changing climatic conditions. Tree stem diameter is a fundamental
forest data measurement. It tells researchers about tree growth and potential carbon storage.

However, in the past, the data has been too time consuming to collect more than every one to five years. CTFS – ForestGEO scientists are developing two methods to circumvent this data collection problem. Using automated dendrometer bands called “TreeHuggers” and analyzing photos from digital field cameras, researchers can study forest – climate interactions with very high precision. The bands and photos capture the hourly shrinking and swelling of tree stems during
water transpiration.

The methods are being prototyped at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute CTFS – ForestGEO forest plot in Virginia, USA by scientists Kristina Anderson-Teixeira, Sean
McMahon, and Geoffrey Parker. The methods are being combined with advanced, treewatering experiments at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to test drought effects on tree growth.


Publications

In 2014, 41 scientific articles and two book chapters were published using data from CTFS-ForestGEO. Just in 2014, publications affiliated with CTFS – ForestGEO data have been cited in research articles more than 3,000 times (google scholar).

Many articles were published by researchers and countries that face increased obstacles (e.g., language, financial, and scientific barriers) when publishing in globally recognized science journals. In addition, many of the papers have multiple authors and use data from two or more CTFS – ForestGEO plots. This cross-network collaboration exemplifies CTFS – ForestGEO’s vision to promote research that may only be understood when investigating forests across many countries and biomes.

Many notable scientific findings resulted from research published in 2014. An article by Ryan Chisholm and 28 CTFS – ForestGEO researchers highlights collaborative research efforts across 12 of the CTFS – ForestGEO forest plots. The paper highlights that tree population sizes are more stable in forest plots that are high in tree biodiversity. This finding has direct consequences for understanding forest carbon storage in both temperate and tropical climates.

A publication by Nate Stephenson, PhD resulted in news reports from sources including Nature, Archangel Ancient Tree Archives, csi-fm.org, foresteurope.org, and Science Daily. Stephenson and colleagues discovered that, contrary to popular belief, tree growth does not slow down with age. In fact, the growth of a tree often speeds up with maturity. The paper has already sparked discussion about forest management and the future of the world’s forests.

Two papers led by Kristina Anderson-Teixeira, PhD and Richard Condit, PhD detail the breadth of the last 33 years of CTFS – ForestGEO research, the protocols and data sources that are available, and the methods used to handle extremely complex and big datasets of field measurements.

For a full list of the CTFS-ForestGEO material, visit the publications homepage here. 

Michigan Big Woods is the latest plot in the CTFS-ForestGEO network

The University of Michigan’s Edwin S. George Preserve, (aka Michigan Big Woods Plot) is the latest temperate forest to join the CTFS-ForestGEO network. Dr. Christopher Dick is the director of the preserve and said what makes this stand in Livingston County important is that researchers from the University of Michigan have been researching these trees intensively since the 1930s. What this means for researchers is that they now have a standardized way of comparing data from forests around the world. They are currently studying the trees to see what is happening to forests as a result of increased atmospheric carbon.

"At the global level, this forest will now be part of a network of plots used to monitor how biomass and tree mortality change as carbon dioxide continues to increase, as well as the role of forests in taking up some of that excess carbon dioxide," Dr. Dick said. "So this network will be an invaluable tool for tracking forest responses to climate change."

What they expect to see is that a lot of forests, whether tropical or temperate, will experience increased production of wood and increased growth rates. Since the reserve was established in the 1930 , more than 475 research papers have been published using studies carried out wholly or partly at the reserve. More than 80 doctoral dissertations and more than 30 master's theses have resulted from graduate studies at the reserve. Long-term studies at the reserve include decades-old investigations of turtle life histories and reproductive success, a demographic study of the resident white-tailed deer herd, and a study of amphibian communities in 37 ponds on the property.

Visit the CTFS-ForestGEO website to learn more 

CTFS Co-Founder Steven Hubbell receives high honors at the 2014 IUFRO

Dr. Steven Hubbell, Co-Founder of the Center for Tropical Forest Science was presented a Scientific Achievement award at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) opening ceremonies on October 6, 2014. Dr. Hubbell is the first American to be presented with the honor in 40 years.

Dr. Hubbell was chosen for this year’s award because a he's a “visionary scientist who has made unparalleled contributions to understanding the biological diversity and ecology of tropical forests.” He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1983, among many other things. He joined the UCLA faculty in 2007 and is now a Distinguished Professor.

In a 2011 interview, Dr. Hubbell said "We need much better data on the distribution of life on Earth, We need to rapidly increase our understanding of where species are on the planet. We need citizens to record their local biodiversity; there are not enough scientists to gather the information. We also need much deeper thought about how we can estimate the extinction rate properly to improve the science behind conservation planning. If you don't know what you have, it is hard to conserve it.”

He developed his love for ecology at an early age. "When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time doing non-macho things like collecting butterflies and turning over rocks,” he said. “The only way we’re going to save nature is by making sure future generations experience nature.

People who have never seen wild nature don’t miss it and don’t realize how impoverished their lives have become due to its loss. I worry about the loss of a conservation ethic among the public. Go to the tropics. Experience a rain forest — while you still can.”

"I deeply appreciate being nominated for and receiving the IUFRO Scientific Achievement Award,” Dr. Hubbell said. “It is a real pleasure to receive this unexpected honor.”

To learn more about CTFS-ForestGEO, visit our website.

New CTFS-ForestGEO Program Manager

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Kristin Powell as the Center for Tropical Forest Science-Forest Global Earth Observatory (CTFS-ForestGEO) network Program Manager.  Kristin recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, where she researched biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in tropical forests. Prior to her fellowship, she earned her doctoral degree in Ecology and Evolution and her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Kristin’s interest in science coordination and management stems from her past work on several education and plant research initiatives with the Chicago Botanic Garden and Morton Arboretum, the Botanical Society of America, and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning.  When she is not helping to run the CTFS-ForestGEO network at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., you can find her wandering the forest in Shenandoah National Park, running through the D.C. city streets, and rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals during baseball season. Kristin can be reached at PowellK@si.edu. 


To learn more about CTFS-ForestGEO, click here.

Review: CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

CTFS-ForestGEO Scientists, along with 78 global collaborating institutions and global partners published "CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change" in Journal Global Change Biology. The publication highlights the impacts of global climate change on the worlds forests, and the monitoring methods used to collect climate change data. The CTFS-ForestGEO network now monitors 60 plots in 24 countries, monitoring approx. 4.5 million trees. “We look forward to using the CTFS-ForestGEO network to continue to understand how and why forests respond to change, and what this means for the climate, biodiversity conservation and human well-being,” said Stuart Davies, CTFS-ForestGEO network director. 

Below is the abstract of the review: 

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. 

Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. 

Within very large plots (median size 25 ha), all stems >1 cm diameter are identified to species, mapped, and regularly recensused according to standardized protocols. 

CTFS-ForestGEO spans 25°S–61°N latitude, is generally representative of the range of bioclimatic, edaphic, and topographic conditions experienced by forests worldwide, and is the only forest monitoring network that applies a standardized protocol to each of the world’s major forest biomes.

Supplementary standardized measurements at subsets of the sites provide additional information on plants, animals, and ecosystem and environmental variables.

CTFS-ForestGEO sites are experiencing multifaceted anthropogenic global change pressures including warming (average 0.61 °C), changes in precipitation (up to !30% change), atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur compounds (up to 3.8 g N m"2 yr"1 and 3.1 g S m"2 yr"1), and forest fragmentation in the surrounding landscape (up to 88% reduced tree cover within 5 km). 

The broad suite of measurements made at CTFS-ForestGEO sites makes it possible to investigate the complex ways in which global change is impacting forest dynamics. 

Ongoing research across the CTFSForestGEO network is yielding insights into how and why the forests are changing, and continued monitoring will provide vital contributions to understanding worldwide forest diversity and dynamics in an era of global change.

For the full review, click here. 

Email CTFS-ForestGEO program assistant, Delaney Rakosnik at rakosnikd@si.edu if you would like the supplemental information.

Click here to learn more about the CTFS - ForestGEO network.

CTFS-ForestGEO grant project report from KC Cushman at Barro Colorado Island, Panama

CTFS-ForestGEO Grants Program recipient, KC Cushman, has been researching her grant proposal “Improving estimates of biomass change in buttressed trees using site-specific tree taper models" in Panama, Thailand, Singapore and Colombia. She recently completed her project and the following is her report:

KC with a buttressed tree in Khao Chong, Thailand

  

"The amount of biomass stored in any tropical forest can change over time as trees grow, produce new seedlings, and die. Measuring how tropical forest biomass changes over time is important for understanding the global carbon cycle; if tropical forests increase in biomass over time they act as a carbon sink (if trees are growing more than they are dying, on average), but if tropical forests decrease in biomass over time they act as a carbon source (if trees are dying more than they are growing, on average).

CTFS plot in Amacayacu, Colombia.
The diameter measurement height of
each tree is marked in yellow paint.

One tool for studying biomass change is measuring tree diameters in forest plots, such as those in the Center for Tropical Forest Science network. Diameter measurements taken at 1.3 m height are converted to an estimate of total biomass using equations developed in previous research. All trees in a plot are remeasured regularly to determine changes in biomass.

Picture of a tree, a 3-D model
of the same tree constructed
from 43 pictures using
Agisoft PhotoScan, and
trunk outlines extracted from
the 3-D model point using the
program Cloud Compare

However, the prevalence of buttressed trees in tropical forests presents some challenges for this approach. Trees with buttresses are not cylindrical at 1.3 m height, so their diameters are measured higher on the trunk. This practice creates a bias because tree trunks tend to decrease in diameter with height, or taper. Therefore, diameter measurements taken above 1.3 m height will be smaller and yield a lower value for biomass. The magnitude of biomass underestimation in a forest can change over time because measurement heights are often moved up a tree as it grows. This is problematic because biomass appears to change, but the change is not caused by real forest processes. In a previous study on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, we found that biomass trends change significantly after correcting for changing measurement heights in diameter data. Biomass decreased over time in uncorrected data but increased over time in corrected data (Cushman et al. 2014).

Walking to the plot in
Huai Kha Khaeng, Thailand

This year, I had the opportunity to follow up on our preliminary study on BCI through research supported by the CTFS-ForestGEO Research Grants Program. I visited four other CTFS plots to compare tree taper in different forests: Amacayacu (Colombia), Bukit Timah (Singapore), Huai Kha Khaeng (Thailand), and Khao Chong (Thailand). In this study, I am also using a novel tool to measure trees by creating 3-D models from digital pictures using Agisoft PhotoScan. I took 30-60 photos of each of approximately 100 trees per plot to create a model of each tree.  I am using these models to measure characteristics of trunk shape at each site, such as how diameter and trunk circularity change with height. Results from trunk shape measurement can then be used to improve estimates of biomass change when diameter measurement heights change over time.

Field Station at
Huai Kha Khaeng, Thailand

I am thankful to have had the opportunity to visit these plots and meet other researchers through the CTFS-ForestGEO network. This work would not have been possible without the support and guidance of collaborators Helene Muller-Landau, Stuart Davies, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Alvaro Duque, Somboon Kiratiprayoon, and Shawn Lum, and the assistance of Pablo Ramos, Paulino Villareal, Emily Francis, Juan Sebastian Barreto Silva, Gabriel, Pitoon Kongnoo, Mohamah Fairoz, Jonathan, and Reuben in the field."

           


To learn more about CTFS-ForestGEO, click here

2014 CTFS-ForestGEO Dimensions of Biodiversity Workshop

The 2014 NSF-funded CTFS-ForestGEO Workshop was held last month at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) in Yannan Provine in China . It was the fourth 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-ForestGEO network also provided an important opportunity to advance current and future collaborations on the science of the world’s forests. While in China, scientists also enjoyed a tour of the Xishuangbanna Plot and a canopy hike in Greestone Forest.

2014 Research Grant Program awardees

The 2014 cycle of the CTFS-ForestGEO Research Grant Program was competitive. Approximately 35 interesting and diverse proposals were submitted from all over of the globe. Each proposal was read by network scientists, and ranked according to scientific merit, contribution to the network, educational contribution, and status of the Principle Investor (PI) to determine an overall rank. 5 proposals were selected for funding. Find a summary of each funded proposal below.  

Carlos Jaramillo, a Staff Scientist at STRI, submitted Pollen flora of the Amacayacu 25 Ha Plot: adding a geological time scale dimension to SIGEO plots, The research will take place at Amacayacu National Park, Amazons, Colombia.

Matthew Craig, a PhD student at Indiana University submitted A new framework for quantifying drivers of soil carbon dynamics within and among forests. The research will take place at Lilly Dicky Woods, SCBI, SERC, Tyson Research Center,  Wind River.

Jan Ng, a PhD student at University of California-Davis submitted Assessing shifts in tree spatial patterns following reintroduction of fire disturbance in the Yosemite Forest Dynamics plot. The researched will take place at Yosemite Forest Dynamics Plot in California, USA.

Owen Lewis, an Associate Professor at Oxford University submitted Linking botanical and entomological datasets: A seed trap network for the Wanang 50-ha plot. The research will take place at Wanang, Papua New Guinea.

Jian Zhang, Postdoc at University of Alberta submitted See forests from drones: testing the potentials of drones in CTFS long-term monitoring network. The work will take place in Dinghushan, China.

To learn more about the CTFS-ForestGEO network, visit www.ctfs.si.edu

CTFS-ForestGEO Dimensions of Biodiversity USA - China Student Exchange Program

María Natalia Umaña is a student from Nathan Swenson's Lab who traveled to China to develop a Project in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) funded by CTFS-ForestGEo Dimensions of Biodiversity USA-China Student Exchange Program. The following is a report she wrote about her trip when she returned: 

"Tropical forests, being important hot spots of biodiversity, harbor a significant number of rare species. Most of the plant species in tropical forests exhibit very restricted distributions and low abundances, while only few species are dominant. Why are so many species rare? Is it because rare spaces have different characteristics compared with common species? Are rare species ill-suited to the available habitats or specialized on rare habitats? These are classic questions in ecology and the main motivation of my PhD project.

In order to assess this question I am measuring the intraspecific variation in functional traits across several species with different relative abundances. Recently, as a part of my Ph.D. research, I traveled to the Xishuangbanna Forest Dynamics Plot (FDP) located in the south of Yunnan Province, China where I collected the functional trait data for seedlings in this tree community. In April 2013, 218 seedling plots were established near the 20-ha Xishuangbanna FDP. All the seedlings were monitored for growth and survival every two months. After one year, in April 2014, a team of 5 Chinese field assistants and I quantified functional trait data from every individual.

 
I stayed in the field station near the 20-ha FDP during my visit. This region, shaped by extensive mountains ranges, is home to a diverse tree community with over 400 species in the 20-ha plot with most of them being quite rare. During my visit I had the chance to share some time with local people who helped me with fieldwork. Although I arrived to China knowing only few words in Chinese, we were able to set up a nice team and work collaboratively in harmony. The people I met were always very kind and very hard-working. The field assistants have grown up in close partnership with nature and are very familiar with the hundreds of species located in and around the FDP. After our exhaustive field and lab work we now have an extensive data set including trait and demographic information at the individual level. With this data we will be able to evaluate how variable are traits across species with different relative abundances and how this individual level trait variation links with individual performance.

I would like to acknowledge the financial support of CTFS for this fieldwork. Specifically, the Dimensions of Biodiversity IRCN USA-China NSF grant awarded to Dr. Stuart Davies and Dr. Keping Ma funded my travel and this collaborative opportunity. I would also like to thank all of my new Chinese collaborators that were involved in this project from the laboratory of Dr. Min Cao. Specifically, this work would not have been possible without the help of Dr. Luxiang Lin, Cai Cai Zhang (a PhD student in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden), Dr. Yang Jie, Zhigang Chen(field technician), Lang Ma (field technician), Zhilin Mu and Yongzheng Shen (field technician). Our time together yielded great new working relationships and friendships."

To learn more about Xishuangbanna Forest Dynamics Plot:

http://www.ctfs.si.edu/site/Xishuangbanna