LTREB Renewal: Long-Term Studies of Seedling and Small Sapling Community Dynamics in a Neotropical Forest

LTREB 更新：新热带森林幼苗和小树苗群落动态的长期研究

• 批准号: 1242622
• 负责人: Liza Comita
• 金额: $ 44.98万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2014-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1242622&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: LTREB; Renewal; Long; Term; Studies

Tropical forests possess the most diverse plant communities on earth. How hundreds of similar species can coexist, without a few dominant species outcompeting all others, is a major unresolved question in ecology. Processes occurring early in a tree?s life are thought to be critical for allowing such large numbers of species to coexist. This project extends a twelve-year study that tests multiple hypotheses proposed to explain plant species coexistence through long-term measurements of seedlings and saplings in lowland tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The fate of over 100,000 seedlings of 350 tree, shrub and woody vine species will be followed within a mapped forest inventory plot.Tropical forests provide critical ecosystem services upon which humans depend, but nonetheless are being lost at an alarming rate. Results from this study will help to predict and to mitigate the effects of global change on forests and their critical ecosystem services. Data collected on regeneration requirements for hundreds of tropical plant species will be useful in silviculture, forest management and biodiversity conservation. The project promotes international scientific collaboration and provides training and jobs for undergraduate and graduate students and early career biologists.

热带森林拥有地球上最多样化的植物群落。 数百个相似物种如何共存，而又不让少数优势物种超越所有其他物种，是生态学中尚未解决的主要问题。人们认为，树木生命早期发生的过程对于允许如此大量的物种共存至关重要。该项目延续了一项为期十二年的研究，通过对巴拿马巴罗科罗拉多岛低地热带森林中的幼苗和树苗进行长期测量，测试了旨在解释植物物种共存的多种假设。 350 种乔木、灌木和木本藤本植物的 100,000 多棵幼苗的命运将在绘制的森林清查图中进行跟踪。热带森林提供人类赖以生存的关键生态系统服务，但它们正在以惊人的速度消失。 这项研究的结果将有助于预测和减轻全球变化对森林及其关键生态系统服务的影响。收集的数百种热带植物物种再生需求的数据将有助于造林、森林管理和生物多样性保护。该项目促进国际科学合作，并为本科生、研究生以及早期职业生物学家提供培训和就业机会。