Eastwood, R., P. Kongnoo, and M. Reinkaw. Collecting and eating Liphyra brassolis (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in southern Thailand. The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera (2010) 43: 51-61.
Full text
Kraft, N. J. B., M. R. Metz, R. S. Condit, and J. Chave. 2010. The relationship between wood density and mortality in a global tropical forest data set. New Phytologist, 188: 1124–1136.
Abstract
December 23, 2010
December 21, 2010
HSBC Volunteers Working with CTFS in Singapore on Climate Change
Non-scientists actively contributing to science—that is what Climate Champions from HSBC are doing in Singapore. This 10-week program is a collaboration between CTFS and HSBC-Singapore. More than 100 HSBC staff are tagging trees, putting dendrometer bands on trees to measure growth, and collecting leaf samples for species identification. The work is being done in forests surrounding MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore. The program started with just 9 volunteers in the first session and has grown to 23 at the latest session on 11 November 2010.
This study complements the ongoing research done in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR), where CTFS researchers have installed 1500 dendrometers as a part of their study to understand the response of forests to climate change. BTNR has mostly hilly terrain, while the MacRitchie site is flat, and each site has a different suite of species. The main objectives of this program are to compare carbon stock differences between the two reserves, and also to create greater awareness within HSBC about climate change issues.
This study complements the ongoing research done in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR), where CTFS researchers have installed 1500 dendrometers as a part of their study to understand the response of forests to climate change. BTNR has mostly hilly terrain, while the MacRitchie site is flat, and each site has a different suite of species. The main objectives of this program are to compare carbon stock differences between the two reserves, and also to create greater awareness within HSBC about climate change issues.
December 15, 2010
Loss of Two Philippine Friends
CTFS and the scientific community lost two friends and colleagues on 15 and 16 November 2010. Leonardo Co was shot and killed by the Philippine army while doing field work on Leyte Island, Philippines, and Dr. Daniel Lagunzad died of liver cancer, which he had been nursing quietly for some time. Leonardo was a long-time employee of Conservation International Philippines and Daniel was on the Biology faculty at the University of the Philippines, Diliman campus. The two men were prominent leaders of plant biology and biodiversity science in the Philippines.
For the past 17 years, CTFS has been working with Leonardo and Daniel and other colleagues in the Philippines to manage a 16-ha forest dynamics plot in the Palanan area of northeastern Luzon. As the lead field botanist on the project, Leonardo identified all trees in the 16-ha plot, and Daniel led the local plot administration. Together they trained many of the students and interns involved in the Palanan field work. They were the plot’s two Principal Investigators.
Their deaths are great losses not only to the Philippines and to CTFS, but also to the worldwide botanical community. All at CTFS pass on their deepest condolences to Leonardo’s and Daniel’s families and friends.
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| Leonardo Co and Daniel Lagunzad. |
For the past 17 years, CTFS has been working with Leonardo and Daniel and other colleagues in the Philippines to manage a 16-ha forest dynamics plot in the Palanan area of northeastern Luzon. As the lead field botanist on the project, Leonardo identified all trees in the 16-ha plot, and Daniel led the local plot administration. Together they trained many of the students and interns involved in the Palanan field work. They were the plot’s two Principal Investigators.
Their deaths are great losses not only to the Philippines and to CTFS, but also to the worldwide botanical community. All at CTFS pass on their deepest condolences to Leonardo’s and Daniel’s families and friends.
December 3, 2010
25 Years of Research at Pasoh
Researchers from around the world assembled at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) in early November for a symposium to celebrate 25 years of research on the Pasoh Forest Reserve in Peninsular Malaysia. The 50-ha Pasoh plot was the second in the CTFS network. It was established in 1985 under the leadership of Dr. Wan Razali Wan Mohd (FRIM), Dr. Peter Ashton (Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University), and Dr. Stephen Hubbell (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute). Since then, Pasoh has become the best-studied rainforest in Southeast Asia.
The CTFS-Arnold Arboretum Asia Program plays a key role in working with FRIM to develop Pasoh’s scientific programs and conduct leading forest research. The plot contains 814 species and represents 25% of the tree species of Peninsular Malaysia. The 6th census is underway.
The CTFS-Arnold Arboretum Asia Program plays a key role in working with FRIM to develop Pasoh’s scientific programs and conduct leading forest research. The plot contains 814 species and represents 25% of the tree species of Peninsular Malaysia. The 6th census is underway.
November 30, 2010
Large-Scale Throughfall Measurement System Installed at Agua Salud
by Frank Base
Following the long-term approach of the Agua Salud Project, researchers recently installed three automatic-logging trough systems to measure throughfall in a 5-year-old secondary succession forest at Agua Salud. The purpose of the permanent trough system is to document the temporal changes in throughfall as the secondary forest grows and develops.
The trough systems consist of 32 three-meter open tubes (troughs) connected like feathers on the wings of a bird. One wing spreads over an area of 9 m x 3 m. The system in total has an opening of about 12 m². At the center of the construction, a logging tipping bucket catches all drained water and has a capacity of 3 L per tip. Within one hour, 2160 L can be measured. This capacity equals a rain intensity of 195 mm/h, which is sufficient for the strongest rain events in the Agua Salud area based on data from 2008-2010.
Before installing the system, Agua Salud researchers had been using 100 funnels to measure throughfall manually since 2008. The new automatic system now provides continuous measurement of throughfall over the course of the year, enabling us to characterize variations over time and correlate them with rainfall intensity.
Measuring throughfall with trough systems is not new, however. Cuartas et al. (2007) used a trough system covering 1.8 m² with 6-m troughs and a tipping bucket capacity of 125 ml per tip in central Amazonia, Brazil. And McJannet et al. (2007) used 6-m long troughs in a star formation covering an area of 2.4 m² - 3.6 m² in an Australian tropical rainforest. Their tipping buckets had a capacity of 1.8 L - 2.1 L per tip.
Scale is the main difference between the systems used in Brazil and Australia and the one at Agua Salud. We have built, as far as we know, one of the biggest trough systems in the world. Such a large measuring system is necessary to reduce the effect of throughfall on spatial variability caused by extreme structural differences in the canopy of secondary forests. By sampling such a large area, we hope to smooth out the variation caused by canopy structure.
Literature
Cuartas, LA, J Tomasella, AD Nobre, MG Hodnett, MJ Waterloo, and JC Munera. 2007. Interception water-partitioning dynamics for a pristine rainforest in Central Amazonia: Marked differencesbetween normal and dry years. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 145: 69-83.
McJannet, D, J Wallace, and P Reddell. 2007. Precipitation interception in Australian tropical rainforests: I. Measurement of stemflow, throughfall and cloud Interception. Hydrological Processes 21: 1692–1702.
Following the long-term approach of the Agua Salud Project, researchers recently installed three automatic-logging trough systems to measure throughfall in a 5-year-old secondary succession forest at Agua Salud. The purpose of the permanent trough system is to document the temporal changes in throughfall as the secondary forest grows and develops.
 |
| Juan Carlos Briseño, technical assistant, finishing one of the new trough systems. Photo by Frank Base. |
The trough systems consist of 32 three-meter open tubes (troughs) connected like feathers on the wings of a bird. One wing spreads over an area of 9 m x 3 m. The system in total has an opening of about 12 m². At the center of the construction, a logging tipping bucket catches all drained water and has a capacity of 3 L per tip. Within one hour, 2160 L can be measured. This capacity equals a rain intensity of 195 mm/h, which is sufficient for the strongest rain events in the Agua Salud area based on data from 2008-2010.
Before installing the system, Agua Salud researchers had been using 100 funnels to measure throughfall manually since 2008. The new automatic system now provides continuous measurement of throughfall over the course of the year, enabling us to characterize variations over time and correlate them with rainfall intensity.
Measuring throughfall with trough systems is not new, however. Cuartas et al. (2007) used a trough system covering 1.8 m² with 6-m troughs and a tipping bucket capacity of 125 ml per tip in central Amazonia, Brazil. And McJannet et al. (2007) used 6-m long troughs in a star formation covering an area of 2.4 m² - 3.6 m² in an Australian tropical rainforest. Their tipping buckets had a capacity of 1.8 L - 2.1 L per tip.
Scale is the main difference between the systems used in Brazil and Australia and the one at Agua Salud. We have built, as far as we know, one of the biggest trough systems in the world. Such a large measuring system is necessary to reduce the effect of throughfall on spatial variability caused by extreme structural differences in the canopy of secondary forests. By sampling such a large area, we hope to smooth out the variation caused by canopy structure.
Literature
Cuartas, LA, J Tomasella, AD Nobre, MG Hodnett, MJ Waterloo, and JC Munera. 2007. Interception water-partitioning dynamics for a pristine rainforest in Central Amazonia: Marked differencesbetween normal and dry years. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 145: 69-83.
McJannet, D, J Wallace, and P Reddell. 2007. Precipitation interception in Australian tropical rainforests: I. Measurement of stemflow, throughfall and cloud Interception. Hydrological Processes 21: 1692–1702.
November 15, 2010
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!
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!
November 9, 2010
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
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
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