DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Plant traits as indicators of ecological restoration effectiveness in tropical landscapes

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The majority of tropical forests are regenerating following human disturbance. Some landscapes are so highly degraded that active restoration, such as direct tree planting, is necessary to facilitate forest recovery. In tropical forests requiring active management interventions, a wide range of restoration techniques have been employed to assist forest recovery at various stages of re-growth, although it is not clear how to best select tree species for restoration projects, especially given ongoing changes to the environment. This graduate student project seeks to determine how above- and below-ground plant traits influence the survival and growth of planted trees, to determine if plant traits can be used to efficiently and inexpensively select the best tree species for restoration of Costa Rican tropical dry forests (TDF). These forests are highly endangered, cover an estimated 42% of tropical land area, and are understudied compared to their wetter counterparts. Results from this research have the potential to greatly advance ecological restoration theory, and to aid in the restoration of tropical dry forests, especially those facing significant drought stress due to ongoing environmental change.This project takes a functional trait-based approach to experimentally test the efficiency of using plant traits to select tree species for a large-scale TDF restoration project. Field based quantification of above- and belowground plant traits, as well as genetic analyses of fungal communities associating with plant roots, will be combined with tree seedling growth data to determine the extent to which above- and belowground traits can be used to predict plant performance in a restoration setting. A 6-hectare restoration experiment will be used to determine if species' trait syndromes, grouped by resource acquisition strategies, predict the performance of tree species along successional trajectories. In addition to conducting these projects, the researchers will engage the local conservation, forestry, and farming community in a workshop on TDF adaptive management strategies. These projects will also give undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct independent research projects in collaboration with the researchers. All of this research will be conducted in direct collaboration with TDF restoration practitioners at Horizontes Experimental Forest Station, part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Northwestern Costa Rica.