Collaborative Research: LTREB RENEWAL - Long-term studies of flowering, fruiting and seedling recruitment in Neotropical forests: global change, climate variability and mechanisms

热带森林植物的开花、种子生产和幼苗建立在时间和空间上有着巨大的差异，这有助于热带森林丰富的多样性。 这项长期研究量化了波多黎各、厄瓜多尔和巴拿马三个新热带森林的气候变化。 在每个地点使用相同的方法，全年监测开花和种子生产，每年在大型永久性地块内测量幼苗的建立，所有树木都定期绘制地图和测量。高分辨率的条形码识别和完整的成年和幼苗功能性状的测量将增加一个进化的角度，目前的生态学研究。 由此产生的数据将用于检验有关自然气候周期或人为全球变化的年际变化的假设，并评价生殖和建立的时空变化对热带森林多样性的重要性。 了解热带植物再生具有重要的基础和应用价值;热带森林约占陆地植物物种多样性的60%，植物生产力的35%和植物碳储量的25%。本研究中有关繁殖和早期更新的长期定量数据将有助于确定植物繁殖与气候变化之间的关系，并预测长期趋势。数据和相关分析可公开获取。至少有25名本科生和研究生，包括几名拉美裔学生，将在波多黎各大学和南伊利诺伊大学接受培训，并将为来自加州大学戴维斯分校的一名博士后助理的职业发展提供便利。

Flowering, seed production, and seedling establishment of tropical forest plants vary tremendously in time and space, contributing to the rich diversity that characterizes tropical forests. This long-term study quantifies this variation in three Neotropical forests in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and Panama that vary dramatically in climate. Using identical methods at each site, flowering and seed production will be monitored throughout the year and seedling establishment measured annually within large permanent plots where all trees are mapped and measured regularly. High resolution bar code phylogenies and complete measurements of adult and seedling functional traits will add an evolutionary perspective to the current ecological study. The resulting data will be used to test hypotheses relating interannual variation to natural climate cycles or to anthropogenic global change, and to evaluate the importance of spatio-temporal variation in reproduction and establishment to tropical forest diversity. Understanding tropical plant regeneration is of fundamental and applied importance; tropical forests account for approximately 60% of plant species diversity, 35% of plant productivity, and 25% of plant carbon stores on land. The long-term, quantitative data on reproduction and early regeneration from this study will enable identification of relationships between plant reproduction and climate variation, and prediction of long-term trends. Data and associated analyses are publicly accessible. At least 25 undergraduates and graduate students, including several Hispanics, will receive training at the University of Puerto Rico and Southern Illinois University, and the career progression of one post-doctoral associate from the University California, Davis, will be facilitated.