LTREB: Long-Term Woody Seedling Dynamics in a Wet Tropical Forest: Mechanisms of Species Co-Existence

LTREB：潮湿热带森林中的长期木本幼苗动态：物种共存的机制

• 批准号: 0640904
• 负责人: Richard Kobe
• 金额: $ 9万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-02-01 至 2009-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0640904&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Long; Term; Woody; Seedling

A major challenge in ecology is to understand the mechanisms that determine the number and relative abundance of plant species in natural communities. This challenge is particularly extreme in wet tropical forests, which harbor the highest species diversity of any ecosystem globally. All plants ultimately start life as a seedling, a phase that is especially sensitive to pathogens and to the availability of light, nutrients, and water. Seedlings are a critical stage, one that impresses a signature on the species composition of forests, from the understory to the canopy. Plants, and especially trees, can live for much longer than humans and the dynamics of forests play out over even longer times scales, necessitating long-term data to capture important events that would be missed by short-term studies (e.g., seed production may occur every 12 years for some species). This proposal will extend a ~7 year record of seedling surveys in five forest stands in Costa Rica, with the goal of developing forest models based upon how seedlings of different species grow and survive in response to light, soil fertility, and natural enemies. A better understanding of the factors that govern the relative abundance of tree species is not merely an academic exercise but is critical to predict forest responses to human influences, including the deposition of nitrogen, sulfur, and other chemical pollutants from the atmosphere. Furthermore, in tropical areas, exotic tree species of known regeneration requirements often are used for reforestation because potentially-useful native species are not well known, a knowledge gap that this research will help remedy. Research results and data will be shared with the public and other scientists through a project website.

生态学中的一个主要挑战是了解决定自然群落中植物物种数量和相对丰富度的机制。这一挑战在潮湿的热带森林中尤为极端，因为它是全球所有生态系统中物种多样性最高的地方。所有植物最终都以幼苗的形式开始生命，这一阶段对病原体以及光、养分和水的可用性特别敏感。苗木是一个关键阶段，它在从林下到树冠的森林物种组成上留下了印记。植物，尤其是树木的寿命可能比人类长得多，森林的动态在更长的时间尺度上发挥作用，需要长期数据来捕捉短期研究可能遗漏的重要事件(例如，某些物种的种子生产可能每12年发生一次)。这项提议将延长哥斯达黎加五个林地苗木调查的~7年记录，目标是开发基于不同物种的苗木如何对光、土壤肥力和天敌做出反应的生长和存活的森林模型。更好地了解控制树种相对丰度的因素不仅是一项学术工作，而且对于预测森林对人类影响的反应至关重要，人类影响包括大气中氮、硫和其他化学污染物的沉积。此外，在热带地区，已知更新要求的外来树种经常被用于重新造林，因为潜在有用的本土树种并不为人所知，这一知识空白将有助于弥补这一研究。研究结果和数据将通过一个项目网站与公众和其他科学家共享。