LTREB: Dynamics of Stream Ecosystem Responses Across Gradients of Reforestation and Changing Climate in a Tropical Dry Forest

该项目的科学和教育努力侧重于通过对大规模气候现象和森林恢复对当地生态影响的长期研究，促进我们对热带溪流及其流域的了解。该项目在哥斯达黎加西北部的瓜纳卡斯特保护区(ACG)建立了几条中小型溪流。ACG包括生态上截然不同又相互关联的各种生境，包括原始干燥森林、云雾森林和热带雨林。干旱森林具有重要意义和利益，因为它是一个受到全球威胁的生物群，与公众普遍认为热带环境潮湿的看法形成鲜明对比。它还包括砍伐森林的地区，这些地区现在是热带地区最大的森林恢复项目。ACG溪流流入太平洋和加勒比海，范围从常年到间歇，从温暖到凉爽，从大到小。这项研究将深入了解河流对热带干燥森林恢复和成熟的反应、降雨量的短期和长期变化(例如干旱或气候变化)以及人类用水的短期和长期抽水量(整个热带地区已经是一个问题)。在处理研究主题和假说时，长期视角是至关重要的，因为它突出了随时间的变化以及有助于定义当前和未来热带环境的极端环境。这个为期五年的项目建立在干流研究中心14年ACG溪流数据库的基础上，将在ACG LTREB数据的管理和通过互联网向公众提供数据摘要方面做出重大努力。这将加强斯特劳德研究人员研究的温带和热带地点之间的联系(包括宾夕法尼亚州的LTREB地点)，并使世界各地的学生和公众能够观察和研究ACG季节性干燥森林的条件和活动。

The scientific and educational efforts in this project focus on advancing our understanding of tropical streams and their watersheds through the long-term study of the local ecological impacts of large-scale climatic phenomena and forest restoration. This project establishes several small to intermediate size streams of the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. The ACG includes a wide variety of habitats that are ecologically distinct as well as interconnected, including virgin dry forest, cloud forest and rain forest. The dry forest is of importance and interest because it is a globally threatened biome that contrasts markedly from the general public perception that tropical environments are wet. It also includes deforested areas that now represent the largest forest restoration project in the tropics. ACG streams flow to both the Pacific and Caribbean and range from perennial to intermittent, warm to cool, and large to small. The research will provide insight into stream responses to the recovery and maturation of tropical dry forests, short- and long-term variation in rainfall (e.g., droughts or climate change), and short- and long-term water withdrawals for human uses (already an issue throughout the tropics). A long-term perspective is essential in addressing the research topics and hypotheses because it highlights changes over time and the environmental extremes that help define present and future tropical environments. This five-year project builds upon the Stroud Water Research Center 14-year database for ACG streams, and a significant effort will be made in management of ACG LTREB data and making data summaries available to the public via the Internet. This will strengthen the connection between the temperate and tropical sites studied by Stroud researchers (including a LTREB site in Pennsylvania), and allow students and the public around the world to observe and study conditions and activities in the seasonal dry forests of ACG.