CAREER: Drivers of tropical tree seedling dynamics and species coexistence along environmental gradients

职业：热带树苗动态和物种沿环境梯度共存的驱动因素

• 批准号: 1845403
• 负责人: Liza Comita
• 金额: $ 62万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-05-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1845403&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Drivers; tropical; tree; seedling

The tropics contain the highest diversity of plants on earth, with hundreds of tree species existing within a single forest. Understanding how such a diversity of plants can exist in these areas, without a handful of species taking over, remains a long-standing issue in ecology. Processes acting on seedlings may be particularly important for determining the number and types of plants found in these forests. The present study will examine how factors such as light and water availability, and the types and number of neighboring plants influence seedling survival and help maintain plant diversity. Understanding how diversity is maintained is important for conserving and managing forests and preserving the services they provide. This project will integrate research with educational activities, including classroom-based and field trip courses on tropical forest ecology and conservation. Videos for online training programs targeting environmental decision makers will also be developed.The project will take advantage of a strong rainfall gradient in central Panama to investigate how the relative importance of different drivers of seedling growth and survival shift with changes in rainfall and dry season severity. In addition, the project will examine how species characteristics -traits like wood density and leaf area- determine seedling responses to their local environment. Data collected at field sites in Panama will be used to develop new computer models that simulate forest dynamics over multiple generations in order to assess the relative contribution of abiotic and biotic drivers of seedling performance to tree species coexistence. This integration of field data and novel forest simulation models will significantly advance understanding of the key mechanisms shaping tropical tree communities and will provide a framework for predicting changes in tropical forest diversity and species composition in response to shifts in climate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

热带地区拥有地球上最丰富的植物多样性，一片森林中就有数百种树木。了解如何在这些地区存在如此多样的植物，而没有少数物种接管，仍然是生态学中的一个长期问题。 作用于幼苗的过程可能对确定这些森林中发现的植物的数量和类型特别重要。本研究将探讨如何因素，如光和水的可用性，以及类型和数量的邻近植物影响幼苗存活，并帮助维持植物多样性。了解多样性是如何维持的，对于养护和管理森林以及保护森林提供的服务十分重要。 该项目将把研究与教育活动结合起来，包括关于热带森林生态和养护的课堂课程和实地考察课程。 该项目将利用巴拿马中部强降雨梯度的优势，调查不同的幼苗生长和存活驱动因素的相对重要性如何随着降雨量和旱季严重程度的变化而变化。此外，该项目将研究物种特征-木材密度和叶面积等特征-如何决定幼苗对当地环境的反应。在巴拿马实地收集的数据将用于开发新的计算机模型，模拟多代森林动态，以评估幼苗表现的非生物和生物驱动因素对树种共存的相对贡献。野外数据和新的森林模拟模型的整合将大大促进对形成热带树木群落的关键机制的理解，并将为预测热带森林多样性和物种组成对气候变化的反应提供一个框架。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过利用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估来支持的搜索.

项目成果

Differences among species in seed dispersal and conspecific neighbor effects can interact to influence coexistence

物种间种子传播的差异和同种邻居效应可以相互作用，影响共存

• DOI: 10.1007/s12080-020-00468-5
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Theoretical Ecology
• 影响因子: 1.6
• 作者: Stump, Simon Maccracken;Comita, Liza S.
• 通讯作者: Comita, Liza S.

Shifts in taxonomic and functional composition of trees along rainfall and phosphorus gradients in central Panama

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13442
• 发表时间: 2020-07
• 期刊: Journal of Ecology
• 影响因子: 5.5
• 作者: M. Umaña;R. Condit;R. Condit;Rolando Pẽrez;Benjamin L Turner;S. Wright;L. Comita;L. Comita

Long-term seedling and small sapling census data from the Barro Colorado Island 50 ha Forest Dynamics Plot, Panama

巴拿马巴罗科罗拉多岛 50 公顷森林动态地块的长期幼苗和小树苗普查数据

• DOI: 10.5061/dryad.05qfttf85
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Dryad
• 作者: Comita, Liza;Aguilar, Salomón;Hubbell, Stephen;Pérez, Rolando
• 通讯作者: Pérez, Rolando

Foliar disease incidence in a tropical seedling community is density dependent and varies along a regional precipitation gradient

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.14259
• 发表时间: 2024-01
• 期刊: Journal of Ecology
• 影响因子: 5.5
• 作者: V. Milici;L. Comita;R. Bagchi

Increased mortality of tropical tree seedlings during the extreme 2015-16 El Niño - dataset and code

2015-16 厄尔尼诺极端事件期间热带树苗死亡率增加 - 数据集和代码

• DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14204258.v1
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: figshare
• 作者: Browne, Luke;Markesteijn, Lars;Engelbrecht, Bettina M.;Andrew Jones, F. Jones;Lewis, Owen T.;Manzané-Pinzón, Eric;Wright, S. Joseph;S. Comita, Liza Comita
• 通讯作者: S. Comita, Liza Comita