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

热带干燥森林具有独特的生物多样性和巨大的固碳潜力，但由于森林砍伐，其面积已大大减少。在像哥斯达黎加这样的国家，经过几个世纪的放牧，干燥的森林现在正在再生。该项目的目标是确定热带干森林碳动态（即光合作用等向生态系统添加碳或分解碳的过程）如何取决于植物特征、干扰历史和环境因素。这些方法包括幼苗生长和性状的实验研究，在不同土壤和林龄的样地观察森林水平的碳动态，以及碳动态的计算机模拟。这些研究的结果将：1)提供干燥森林碳动态的基准长期数据集；2)通过外推到更粗的时空尺度，预测全球热带干燥森林如何应对气候和土地利用的变化。教育活动包括通过实地课程培训高级本科生了解热带生态学，通过编写本科生非专业课程的积极学习材料提高生态素养，编写热带干林生态学材料，分发给数千名哥斯达黎加学童。

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.