CAREER: Ecosystem processes in regenerating tropical dry forests: linking plant functional traits, stands, and landscapes

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Tropical dry forests have unique biodiversity and high potential for carbon sequestration, but they have been greatly reduced in area by deforestation. In countries such as Costa Rica, dry forests are now regenerating following centuries of grazing. The goal of this project is to determine how tropical dry forest carbon dynamics (i.e. processes like photosynthesis that add carbon to the ecosystem or decomposition that remove it) depend upon plant characteristics, disturbance history, and environmental factors. The methods include experimental studies of seedling growth and traits, observations of forest-level carbon dynamics in plots that vary in soils and forest age, and computer modeling of carbon dynamics. Results of these studies will: 1) provide benchmark, long-term datasets of carbon dynamics in dry forests, and 2) by extrapolating to coarser spatial and temporal scales, forecast how tropical dry forests worldwide may respond to changes in climate and land use. Educational activities include training advanced undergraduate students in tropical ecology through a field course, increasing ecological literacy by development of active learning materials for undergraduate non-majors courses, and developing materials on tropical dry forest ecology that will be distributed to thousands of Costa Rican school children.