From Fruit to Sapling: An Ontogenetically Integrated, Landscape-level, Community-wide, Long-term Study of Tree Recruitment in Lowland Western Amazonia

该奖项继续了对秘鲁东南部马努国家公园低地热带雨林中森林再生的长期景观水平研究。主要目标是测试关于在这个高度多样化的热带乔木群落中种子坠落和幼树建立之间的关系的假设。初步证据表明，种子传播和食草等动物介导的过程可以对树木群落的空间组织产生深远的影响，并有利于维持热带雨林的高度多样性。拟议的研究将产生一个多因素数据集，使人们能够全面评估被认为影响热带雨林更新过程的主要因素，特别是动物的生态作用。该项目的广泛影响包括收集基线数据，以检查气候变化和人类住区对亚马逊盆地低地热带雨林森林结构和组成的长期影响。更深入地了解影响热带森林更新的过程将是基础科学方面的重大进展，将为当前和未来针对这些生态系统的保护、恢复和管理工作提供信息。该项目将在Cocha Cashu生物站进行，并将提高该地点在热带生态学研究方面的科学价值。该项目将支持杜克大学的一名博士后，并帮助培养下一代秘鲁生态学家和保护科学家--几名秘鲁大学生将协助研究工作，并接受主要研究人员的动手培训。

This award continues a long-term landscape-level study of forest regeneration in the lowland tropical rainforests of Manu National Park in southeastern Peru. The primary goal is to test hypotheses about the relation between seed fall and sapling establishment in this highly diverse tropical tree community. Preliminary evidence suggests that animal-mediated processes such as seed dispersal and herbivory can have a profound influence on the spatial organization of tree communities and favor the maintenance of high diversity in tropical rainforests. The proposed research will generate a multifactorial data set that will allow a comprehensive evaluation of the major factors thought to influence regeneration processes in tropical rainforests, particularly the ecological roles of animals.Broader impacts of this project include the gathering of baseline data for examining the long-term impacts of climate change and human settlement on forest structure and composition in lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin. A deeper understanding of the processes that influence tropical forest regeneration will represent a major advance in basic science that will inform current and future conservation, restoration and management efforts directed towards these ecosystems. The project will be conducted at the Cocha Cashu Biological Station, and will enhance the scientific value of this site for research in tropical ecology. This project will support a postdoctoral student at Duke University and also help prepare the next generation of Peruvian ecologists and conservation scientists - several Peruvian university students will assist in research efforts and receive hands-on training from the principal investigators.