CTFS-SIGEO/CForBio Analytical Workshop and Symposium in China Underway

Working group participants in Changbaishan Station.

by Tania Brenes 

Between the 13th and 29th of July, 2011 CTFS-SIGEO scientists are participating in an Analytical Workshop and Symposium in China. We are currently staying at the Changbaishan Field Station in the province of Jilin in Northeast China doing analytical work. There are over 60 participants from 16 different countries and regions. For two weeks, different work groups will be focused on analyzing CTFS-SIGEO data  to answer questions about long term changes in forest dynamics, phylogenetics and diversity, functional traits, spatial patterns, carbon and biomass and seedling recruitment. Our analytical work is complemented by informal talks and the exciting cultural diversity of the group.

The workshop will end with a two day symposium in Beijing on “Diversity and Forest Change”. This is the first of a series of five workshops funded by NSF-US and NSF-China, and was organized by CTFS-SIGEO and CforBio.

Participants walk to the field station.

Hong Kong Global Forest Observatory Plot Launches with Workshop and Ceremony

On June 25, the Kadoorie Institute of Hong Kong University celebrated the opening of a new forest dynamics plot in Hong Kong. HSBC’s Hong Kong Bank Foundation donated more than USD 700,000 over three years for the plot, which will enable scientific research on forest dynamics in relation to climate change while providing opportunities for public to engagement in citizen science.

CTFS Director Stuart Davies and Principal Investigator Billy Hau of Hong Kong University (HKU) led a one-day workshop on June 24, training twenty-five participants in plot establishment following the standard CTFS protocols. Participants came from the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, and Hong Kong University’s School of Biological Sciences and Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre.

An official launch of the Global Forest Observatory was held on June 25 at the Kadoorie Institute Shek Kong Centre (KISK) where a 1-hectare training plot is also being established. The opening was presided over by Teresa Au (Head of Corporate Sustainability, Asia Pacific Region, HSBC), Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui (Vice Chancellor and President, Hong Kong University) and Joseph Sham Chun-hung (Assistant Director, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department). The event received attention in the local media, with several news broadcasts and write-ups expressing excitement about the significance of the new research site.

The 20-ha plot is located in a forest ecosystem that has been impacted by humans for over 4,000 years. The initiative will provide valuable insight into the ecology of a regenerating forest at the margin of the tropics, and will provide training opportunities for over 2,000 citizen scientists.

Publications: April – June 2011

Heineman, K.D.,  E. Jensen, A. Shapland, B. Bogenrief, S. Tan, R. Rebarber, S. E. Russo. The effects of belowground resources on aboveground allometric growth in Bornean tree species. Forest Ecology and Management 261 (2011) 1820–1832.
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He, F and S.P. Hubbell. Species-area relationships always overestimate extinction rates from habitat loss. Nature 473 (2011) 368–371.
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Feeley, K. J., S.J. Davies, R. Perez, S. P. Hubbell, and R.B. Foster. Directional changes in the species composition of a tropical forest. Ecology, 92(4), 2011, 871–882.
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McMahon, S. M., Harrison, S. P., Armbruster, W. S., Bartlein, P.J., Beale, C, Edwards, M. E., Kattge, J, Midgley, G,  Morin, X,  and Prentice, I C. Improving assessments of climate-change impacts on global biodiversity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 2011. Vol. 26, No. 5.
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Meegaskumbura, M., S. Meegaskumbura, G. Bowatte, K. Manamendra-Arachchi, R. Pethiyagoda, J. Hanken and C.J. Schneider. Taruga (ANURA: RHACOPHORIDAE), a new genus of foam-nesting tree frogs endemic to Sri Lanka. Cey. J. Sci. (Bio. Sci.) 39 (2): 75-94, 2010
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Norghauer, J.M., A. R. Martin, E. E. Mycroft, A. James, S. C. Thomas. Island Invasion by a Threatened Tree Species: Evidence for Natural Enemy Release of Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) on Dominica, Lesser Antilles. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18790.
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Pringle, E.G., R.I. Adams, E. Broadbent, P. E. Busby, C. I. Donatti, E. L. Kurten, K. Renton and R. Dirzo. Distinct Leaf-trait Syndromes of Evergreen and Deciduous Trees in a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest. 2011. Biotropica 43(3): 299–308.
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Rahbek, C. and R.K. Colwell. Species loss revisited. Nature 473 (2011) 288–289.
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Schnitzer, S.A., J.N. Klironomos, J.  HilleRisLambers, L. L. Kinkel, P. B. Reich, K. Xiao, M. C. Rillig, B.A. Sikes, R.M. Callaway, S. A. Mangan, E.H. van Nes, and M. Scheffer. Soil microbes drive the classic plant diversity–productivity pattern. Ecology, 92(2), 2011, pp. 296–303.
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Uriarte, M., M. Anciaes, M.T.B. da Silva, P. Rubim, E. Johnson, and E.M. Bruna. Disentangling the drivers of reduced long-distance seed dispersal by birds in an experimentally fragmented landscape. Ecology, 92(4), 2011, 924–937.
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Visser, Marco D., E. Jongejans, M. van Breugel, P. A. Zuidema, Y. Chen, A. Rahman K. and H. de Kroon. Strict mast fruiting for a tropical dipterocarp tree: a demographic cost–benefit analysis of delayed reproduction and seed predation. Journal of Ecology, published online 23 Mar 2011.
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CTFS-SIGEO Colleagues Work Towards Real-time Automated Monitoring of Forests and Environmental Change

Workshop participants, back row: Ned Friedman (Arnold Arboretum), Jon Chappell (SAO), Carlos Corrada (UPR), Stuart Davies (CTFS-SIGEO), Christopher Thomas (Oregon State), Biff Bermingham (STRI), Cassidy Rankine (UAlberta), Jess Parker (SERC), Matteo Detto (CTFS-SIGEO), Bill Munger (Harvard), Evan DeLucia (UIllinois), Michael Schindlinger (Leslie), Frank Levinson, Rich Camili (WHOI), Larry Madin (WHOI); front row: David Kenfack (CTFS-SIGEO), Lewis Girod (MIT), Erin Kurten (CTFS-AA), Helene Muller-Landau, Lucy Hutyra (BU), Charlie Harvey (MIT), Scott Gallagher (WHOI).

On June 13-14, twenty-three engineers, environmental scientists and ecologists met at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University to discuss the potential for a standardized instrumentation platform for CTFS-SIGEO sites around the world. The proposed instrumentation platform would provide real-time data on tree growth and health, animal sounds and movements, and climatic and other environmental fluctuations. Real-time data of this sort will provide a powerful addition to how CTFS attempts to link fluctuations in physical and environmental conditions with forest change.

Frank Levinson opened the meeting with his vision for developing a forest ecology “tailplate” – a standardized infrastructure that individual investigators could depend on to easily replicate studies across sites.

Participants gave presentations on a wide variety of potential platform components (including meteorological sensors, automated dendrometer bands, eddy flux systems, cameras and hyperspectral sensors, sound recording equipment and associated analysis programs) and the scientific questions these would address. Participants from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) presented on similar instrumentation initiatives for oceanographic measurements, and relevant lessons for developing a terrestrial platform.

There was wide agreement that with recent technological advances, the time is right to develop and deploy such a standardized instrumentation platform for CTFS-SIGEO sites. Standardized, long-term measurements across CTFS-SIGEO sites would enable robust comparisons among sites, quantification of interannual variation, and better detection of any long-term change.

CTFS-SIGEO Program Manager Appointed: Liz Delaney

We are pleased to announce that Liz Delaney has joined the Center for Tropical Forest Science-Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory (CTFS-SIGEO) as Program Manager for the network.

Liz joins CTFS after working at Earthwatch Institute as the Interim Director of Field Centers, and before that as Program Manager for Regional Climate Centers (part of the HSBC Climate Partnership). Before joining Earthwatch, Liz lived for five years in rural Costa Rica where she worked as a science teacher and curriculum developer at a bilingual environmental education center, and has previously worked as an environmental consultant for the EPA. Liz got her Master’s in Science Education from The George Washington University, and her undergraduate degree in Biology from Boston College. Liz is fluent in Spanish and enjoys traveling, running, spending time with her husband and daughter, and the outdoors. She will be based at the CTFS office at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Workshop on Plot Taxonomic Comparison in Manaus, Brazil

by Tania Brenes
 

On April 10, 2011, the CTFS Neotropical Program organized the first Workshop on Taxonomic Comparison Among Amazonian CTFS Plots, hosted in Manaus, Brazil. This workshop had the participation of botanists and ecologists from three CTFS plots in the Amazon: the Amacayacu plot in Colombia, the Manaus plot in Brazil, and the Yasuni plot in Ecuador. In the workshop, botanists worked with interns and students on the problem of standardizing a methodology and a philosophy of taxonomic delimitation in these hyper-diverse plots. This work will serve as the basis for a developing collaborative research project on taxonomy between the three scientific groups. 

Workshop participants in the top photo from left to right (institution): Alvaro Perez (4), Juan Sebastian Barreto (5), Alberto Vicentini (1), Ana Carla Gómez (1), Ana Segalin (1), Rolando Pérez (2), Alexandre de Oliviera (3), Dairon Cárdenas (5), Carla Lang (1), Jose Luis Camargo (1), Marcel Caritá (3), Tania Brenes (2), Juliana Vendrami (3), Adriane Pantoja (1). 

Institutions: (1) PDBFF, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Amazonicas; (2) STRI; (3) Universidad de São Paulo; (4) Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador; (5) Instituto de Investigaciones Amazónicas Sinchi.

Botanists discuss complex plant specimens in the field (left) and at the comparative collection at the BDFFP (right).

HSBC Singapore Collaboration with CTFS-NIE Moves to Phase II

HSBC volunteers with CTFS Research Assistant Ngo Kang Min (right).

by Ngo Kang Min

HSBC Singapore volunteers, in collaboration with CTFS and the National Institute of Education (NIE), have completed the first phase of a forest carbon survey.

The project, a long-term study of the accumulation of carbon in forest trees, will continue in 2011 with the second phase moving to the MacRitchie Reservoir, a primary forest adjacent to the secondary forest in which the first phase was conducted.

HSBC Singapore has donated S$45,000 for the second phase of the carbon survey, which will monitor more than 500 trees in the designated plots. HSBC Climate Champions and staff will continue to be engaged in the field, from putting dendrometer bands on trees to collecting leaf samples.

An HSBC volunteer tags a tree.

This project complements the global HSBC Climate Partnership, where dendrometer bands have been installed in more than 10 sites in the CTFS network, including Bukit Timah in Singapore. This study will enable comparisons between the coastal hill forest of Bukit Timah and the lowland forest of MacRitchie. Carbon stock differences in primary and secondary forests at the two sites will also be examined for a better understanding of carbon sequestration in a matrix of multiple forest communities.