Long-term Studies of Trees in Tropical and Subtropical Rain Forests

热带和亚热带雨林树木的长期研究

• 批准号: 9220672
• 负责人: Joseph Connell
• 金额: $ 25.85万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-03-01 至 1999-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9220672&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Long; term; Studies; Trees; Tropical

A long-term study of tree populations in tropical and subtropical rain forest in Australia has been carried on for 29.5 years. The objective is to elucidate the mechanisms that are responsible for the high diversity of species as well as the variety of population structures (age and size distributions, spatial patterns, life histories) seem in these forests. Trees, saplings and seedlings were identified, tagged and mapped in 1963-65. In subsequent censuses between 1963 and 1992 the growth and mortality of tagged plants were determined, and newly recruited tree seedlings recorded. These data yield rates of recruitment, growth and mortality of all sizes of all species of trees. Other measurements included the timing and location of tree-falls and light gaps and the structure of the overstory canopy. It is planned to continue this study for at least another 2 decades, for the following reasons: 1) to increase the probability of measuring the effects of rate important events (e.g. extremes of weather, population explosions of different species), or of detecting gradual trends, which require long records; 2) to gather information on short-term changes that will help to interpret long-term findings; 3) to obtain information over larger spatial scales to assess the generality off findings. The significance of this research is that it should increase knowledge of the dynamics of rain forest, one of the most complex and diverse ecological communities known, which contains a high proportion of the world's terrestrial species.

热带和热带地区树木种群的长期研究 澳大利亚的亚热带雨林 29.5年。 目的是阐明 负责高度多样性的 物种数量以及种群多样性 结构（年龄和大小分布、空间 模式，生活史）似乎在这些森林。 对树木、树苗和幼苗进行识别、标记 并于1963-65年绘制。 在随后的人口普查中， 1963年和1992年标记植物的生长和死亡率 确定，新招募的树苗 记录。 这些数据产生了招募率， 所有物种的所有大小的增长和死亡率 树 其他测量包括时间和 树倒和光隙的位置和结构 树冠的高度。 计划至少持续进行本研究 再过20年，原因如下：1） 增加了测量影响的可能性， 评估重要事件（例如极端天气， 不同物种的种群爆炸），或 发现需要长时间记录的渐进趋势; 2)收集有关短期变化的信息， 将有助于解释长期结果; 3）获得 更大空间尺度的信息，以评估 发现的一般性。 其意义 研究是，它应该增加知识的 热带雨林的动态，是世界上最复杂， 已知的多种生态群落，其中包含一个 占世界陆地物种的很大比例。