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

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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.