Collaborative Research/LTREB Renewal: Successional Pathways and Rates of Change in Tropical Forests of Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico

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This is a long-term project to study regeneration in tropical forests. The neoSelvas project unites six independently developed studies in a coordinated effort to understand and predict vegetation change during regeneration of tropical forests following pasture abandonment or shifting cultivation in Central and South America. It compares temporal variation in forest structure and species composition within plots with spatial variation observed among plots of different ages (a chronosequence). Over the coming five years, annual inventory data will be used to calculate rates of recruitment and mortality of tree and shrub species in different stages of regeneration and to characterize changes in the functional characteristics of tree species across plots and study areas and over time. At the end of this project, the accumulated data will provide a deeper understanding of the factors affecting species colonization, dispersal, functional trait distributions, and community assembly during succession. Project results will provide new insights into mechanisms of regeneration in tropical forests. Datasets from the project supply essential information to guide forest restoration, carbon storage, and biodiversity conservation, and to enhance ecosystem modeling and global change predictions. These are all topics of direct societal relevance. Study plots provide collaborative opportunities for over 30 undergraduate, masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral researchers from Brazil, Costa Rica, US, Mexico, and The Netherlands.