Seven Censuses over 30 years on BCI

Three decades after Stephen Hubbell and Robin Foster established the first plot in what would become the CTFS-SIGEO network, researchers and field technicians recently completed the seventh census of the 50-ha plot on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. The 1980 census on BCI marked the beginning of CTFS-SIGEO, pioneering the use of long-term large-scale tree-censusing techniques that researchers have replicated in forests across the globe. Today, CTFS-SIGEO comprises a network of 40 plots in 21 countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The network involves hundreds of scientists and dozens of institutions around the world working together to study the growth and survival of 4.5 million trees of 8,500 species.

The following figures based on seven censuses (1980-2010) at BCI illustrate the extraordinary scale and intensity of CTFS-SIGEO’s research program.

1,836,533 diameter measurements of stems ≥1 cm

391,278 individual trees counted

174,435 tree deaths

155,955 trees recruited

17,500 person-days of fieldwork

85 person-years of fieldwork

130 people involved in the 7 censuses

This enormous undertaking could not have been possible without the hard work of the many people who have worked at BCI over the past 30 years. Congratulations to all involved!

Publications: Aug – Oct 2010

Baltzer, JL, and SC Thomas. 2010. A second dimension to the leaf economics spectrum predicts edaphic habitat association in a tropical forest. 2010. PloS ONE 5(10): e13163.
Full Text

Jones, FA, and LS Comita. 2010. Density-dependent pre-dispersal seed predation and fruit set in a tropical tree. Oikos 119(11): 1841-1847.
Abstract

Malhado, ACM, GF Pires, and MH Costa. Cerrado conservation is essential to protect the Amazon rainforest. 2010. AMBIO 39(8): 580-584.
Abstract

Ogden, FL, RF Stallard, H Elsenbeer, and J Hall. 2010. Panama Canal Watershed Experiment—Agua Salud Project. AWRA Summer Specialty Conference Proceedings, 30 Aug - 1 Sep.
Full Proceedings

Stallard, RF, FL Ogden, H Elsenbeer, and J Hall. 2010. Panama Canal Watershed Experiment—Agua Salud Project. Water Resources IMPACT 12(4): 17-20.

Weerasinghe, SM, C Chandrasekara, G Seneviratne, CVS Gunatilleke, and IAUN Gunatilleke. 2010. Growth variations of edaphic specialist species in a reciprocal pot experiment in Sri Lanka. Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka 38(3): 171-179.
Abstract

Students Study Secondary Forest Succession in Panama Canal Watershed

by Dylan Craven

Enmeshed in a mosaic of land uses, young secondary forests provide vital ecosystem services to the cities of Panama City, San Miguelito, and Colón, as well as to the Panama Canal. Under the auspices of the Agua Salud Project, a collaborative research project of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute sponsored by the HSBC Climate Partnership, a group of students from Yale and Harvard spent the summer investigating plant functional traits, functional diversity, and community assembly processes in the young secondary forests of the Panama Canal Watershed.

An extensive series of 0.10 ha transects (10 ha in total) has been established across this human-dominated landscape, where all trees, lianas, and palms have been inventoried yearly since 2008 (~450 tree species, ~150 liana species). Using demographic information from these transects, Dylan Craven (Yale F&ES), Grant Tolley (Yale F&ES), and Julian Moll-Rocek (Harvard) identified and sampled 56 of the most abundant tree species, which represent approximately 75% of basal area of transects between 0 and 20 years old. By looking at varying aspects of species-specific plant function – leaf morphology, physiology, and nutrient content – in combination with abundance and mortality data, these students hope to gain insights about how habitat filtering, niche differentiation, and functional diversity vary with secondary succession.

For more information, please contact Dylan Craven at dylan.craven@yale.edu.

CTFS Awarded NSF Grant to Study Diversity and Forest Change

The US National Science Foundation’s Dimensions of Biodiversity initiative has awarded CTFS $631,640 over five years to study the taxonomic, genetic, and functional dimensions of tree diversity and their impact on forest structure and function. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University will manage the grant, and the Chinese National Science Foundation will provide matching funds.

The research will combine long-term temperate and tropical forest studies across entire tree communities to parameterize models that incorporate functional and genetic variation among species to test predictions about current and future changes in forests. Integration of multiple dimensions of biodiversity will significantly increase understanding of how forests are structured‹a critical and necessary step toward predicting how these systems will respond to global change.

The project will involve many partners sites of the global CTFS-SIGEO network.

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Dimensions IRCN: Diversity and Forest Change: Characterizing functional, phylogenetic, and genetic contributions to diversity gradients and dynamics in tree communities

Project Summary

Understanding diversity’s impact on forest structure and function: The project will bring together two existing forest research networks in the US and China to advance understanding of how taxonomic, functional, and genetic dimensions of diversity structure tree communities and affect their resilience to global change. Together these networks maintain 24 large-scale forest plots in tropical and temperate forests in Asia and the Americas, providing data on the demography, functional traits, phylogenetic relatedness, and environmental preferences of thousands of species. Through a series of symposia, analytical workshops, and international scientific exchanges, these data will be used to ask: (i) what functional traits underlie species demographics and distributions across environmental gradients, (ii) how functional traits and phylogenetic relatedness of communities link to forest function; and (iii) how functional traits and environmental tolerances vary among individuals within species.; and (iv) how gene flow contributes to genetic diversity at local and regional scales. By combining long-term temperate and tropical forest studies across entire tree communities, we will be able to parameterize models that incorporate knowledge about functional and genetic variation among species to test predictions about current and future changes in the forests.

Building capacity in biodiversity research: The project will be implemented through a series of capacity-building and training initiatives that will expand science and enhance collaboration between the US and China. The strengthening of the network of forest research plots in Asia and the Americas will have long-term benefits for American and Chinese researchers examining the role of forests in a changing global environment. Through workshops and symposia focused on the relationships between taxonomic, functional, and genetic dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem processes, we will engage approximately 100 students and early-career scientists over five years. An international scientific exchange program will enable 10 US students and early-career researchers to spend 3 months in collaborating institutions in China. Chinese scientists will have similar opportunities in the US through a parallel proposal to NSF-China. These scientists will be drawn from the US, China, and other developing countries in Asia and the Americas. In addition, the scientific workshops will result in the development of new analytical tools and data compilations that will be made openly available through the web.

Enumeration Progress at Harvard Forest

The census of woody stems within the 35-ha Harvard Forest plot began on 1 June 2010. Using standardized CTFS-SIGEO methodology, Dave Orwig and three 2-person crews measured, tagged, painted, and mapped every stem greater than 1 cm in diameter at 1.3 m. By 27 August, when vegetation sampling for the year ended, 29,908 stems had been tagged, mapped, and measured, representing approximately 13 hectares.

The 3 western columns were particularly dense, containing dense thickets of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Stem densities averaged 2,301/ha and ranged from 1,756 to 3,071/ha. All stems were entered twice into the temporary database during the summer, and Dave Orwig will continue to screen and edit all data for uploading to the database during autumn 2010. In addition, work will proceed with digitally mapping all stems contained on the 1,300 10 x 10 maps produced from the 13 ha of forest.

2010 Research Grants Program Recipients

CTFS is pleased to announce the 2010 Research Grants Program recipients. This year’s cycle attracted 58 proposals requesting more than USD $1,000,000. Out of this pool, 11 proposals were selected for full or partial funding. Thank you to all applicants for your interest in the CTFS network. The deadline for the next grant cycle is 1 April 2011. See our website for application details.

Click here to view the names of the recipients and their proposal titles.

2010 CTFS Research Grants Program Recipients

Lei Chen, “The role of density dependence in community assembly: Implications from adult tree pattern and seedling dynamics in both subtropical and tropical forest.” Gutianshan, China; BCI, Panama.

Neal Enrigh, “Understanding the population dynamics of Nageia motleyi (Podocarpaceae) in lowland tropical rainforests of South-east Asia.” Pasoh, Malaysia.

Gonçalo Ferraz and Cintia Cornelius, “Predicting occurrence of cavity-nesting birds from tree demographic data.” Manaus, Brazil.

David L. Gorchov, Melissa K. McCormick, Dennis F. Whigham, “Exotic Plant Invasion in Temperate Deciduous Forest: Patterns and Processes.” SERC, USA.

Steven W. Kembel, Jessica L. Green, “Quantifying the scaling of bacterial phyllosphere diversity: The role of space, environment, and host plant attributes.”
BCI, Panama.

Madhava Meegaskumbura and Suyama Meegaskumbura, “Determining microclimatic envelopes and monitoring populations of Sri Lankan Shrub-Frogs in Sinharaja 25 ha. plot to understand finer scale determinants of their distribution, reproduction and survival.” Sinharaja, Sri Lanka.

Eadaoin M.I. Quinn, “Does age-related crown thinning occur in canopy-dominant tropical trees?” BCI, Panama.

Siewe Siewe Siewe and Jacqueline Vadjunec, “Degradation and carbon stocks dynamics: An analysis of the anthropogenic impact on deforestation and degradation in the Korup National Park.” Korup, Cameroon.

Erin Spear, “Agents of change: Identifying phytopathogens and their contributions to tree diversity.” BCI, Panama.

Pimonrat Tiansawat, “Ecological significance of seed traits in the genus Macaranga.” Lambir, Malaysia.

CTFS-AA Program Assistant Appointed: Sara Lischynsky

We are pleased to announce that Sara Lischynsky has joined the Center for Tropical Forest Science-Arnold Arboretum (CTFS-AA) Asia Program to serve as Program Assistant.

Sara joins CTFS-AA following a position as Assistant to the Deans of Suffolk University’s College of Arts & Sciences, where she also pursued studies in graphic design. Originally from New York State, Sara earned her BA degree at Emerson College in Boston, studying publishing and communication.

She will be based at the CTFS office at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.