LTREB: Long-term Studies of Herbivore and Pathogen Damage to Tropical Trees

他们建议收集热带雨林中35种植物的幼叶被食草动物和病原体损害率的长期数据。 对于热带耐荫物种，超过70%的叶片生命期损害发生在叶片扩展的短窗口期间。 为了了解热带植物的防御机制，他们必须关注嫩叶。 很少有研究量化了食草动物对嫩叶的损害，也没有一项研究对损害进行了超过1年的跟踪。 甚至更少的研究包括病原体，尽管事实上，在潮湿的热带地区，它们可能几乎和食草动物一样具有破坏性。 长期的、多物种的研究对于理解叶子防御至关重要。 植物防御取决于一个给定的植物物种是否受到许多物种或只有少数物种，专家或通才，病原体或食草动物的攻击。 每年的损失有多大变化？ 这几年的经济不景气是造成大部分损失的原因吗？ 每年的主要参与者都是相同的吗？或者，每种病原体或食草动物造成的损害每年都有变化？ 为了回答这些问题，他们将监测损坏率并确定罪魁祸首。 大部分的损害可以归因于个别物种的食草动物或病原体，我们还将量化植物物候，以获得同步性的措施，并确定何时发生的主要时期叶生产的每一个物种。 这项工作将在巴拿马科罗拉多岛（BCI）的巴罗的一片低地雨林中进行。 他们在BCI方面的丰富研究经验以及几项长期研究增强了他们所提出的项目的价值。 35个研究物种代表20个不同的家庭，以确保他们样本的多样性损害模式。 由于嫩叶的扩张速度与损害的相关性最好，它们将包括具有快速和缓慢扩张嫩叶的物种。 最后，为了使他们的数据对其他研究人员尽可能有用，他们将在BCI的森林动态图中包括14个最常见的物种。

They propose to collect long-term data on the rates of damage to young leaves by herbivores and pathogens for 35 species of plants in a tropical rainforest. For tropical shade- tolerant species, over 70% of the lifetime damage to a leaf occurs during the short window of leaf expansion. To understand plant defenses in the tropics, they must therefore focus on the young leaves. Few studies have quantified herbivore damage to young leaves, and none have followed damage for more than 1 year. Even fewer studies have included pathogens, despite the fact that, in the humid tropics, they may be almost as destructive as herbivores. Long-term, multi-species studies are critical for understanding the leaf defenses. Plant defenses depend on whether a given plant species is attacked by many species or only a few, by specialists or generalists, by pathogens or by herbivores. How much variation is there in damage from year to year? Do the few bad years account for most of the damage? Are the major players the same each year, or is there annual variation in the damage attributed to each spe cies of pathogen or herbivore? To answer these questions, they will monitor damage rates and identify the culprits. Much of the damage can be attributed to individual species of herbivores or pathogens, we will also quantify plant phenology to obtain a measure of synchrony and to identify when major periods of leaf production occur for each species. The work will be carried out in a lowland rainforest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), in Panama. Their extensive research experience on BCI coupled with several long-term studies enhance the value of their proposed project. The 35 study species represent 20 different families to ensure that they sample the diversity of damage patterns. As the rate of expansion of young leaves is the best correlate with damage, they will include species with both fast- and slow-expanding young leaves. And finally, so that their data are as useful as possible to other investigators, they will include the 14 most common species in the Forest Dynamics Plot on BCI.