Workshop: Diversity and dynamics of herbaceous plant communities in forest ecosystems

我们对森林运作方式的大部分理解都建立在树木的基础上，因为它们是森林中最大、最明显的生物。然而，在许多森林中，树木只占所有植物物种的不到四分之一。藤本植物、附生植物(“气生植物”)以及蕨类植物和野花等小植物更常见，也和树木一样多样。因此，我们对森林生物学的了解是有限的，因为这些其他植物往往与树木有很大的不同。小型的非木本植物往往有不同于树的生活、生长和繁殖方式。此外，它们对光、水、营养物质和人类活动的变化的反应也可能截然不同。这些与树木的差异意味着我们仍然无法回答有关植物多样性的重要问题。例如，森林地表的多样性如何随着气候和地理位置的变化而变化？降雨量的差异如何影响哪些植物可以生长？如果我们知道这些问题的答案，我们也可以回答这样的问题，比如什么条件允许非本土的“入侵”植物传播？森林地面上的植物将如何应对气候变化带来的气温上升或更严重的干旱？为了解决这种缺乏理解的问题，研究人员将举办一个研讨会，在研讨会上他们将确定哪些问题应该优先考虑，并考虑到可行性(即，什么是容易摘到的果实？)和紧迫性(即，养护和管理方面的关键知识差距是什么？)研讨会将汇集不同的早期职业和经验丰富的研究人员，他们拥有草本植物分类学和分类学、草本植物生态学、森林生态学、生态采样技术、统计建模、保护和政策方面的专业知识。参与者将从温带和热带地区的各种机构和国家中挑选出来。讲习班将向科学界公开提供资源，包括审查最近的重要研究以及最重要的基础和应用研究问题。此外，研讨会参与者将提出在现有森林监测网络中嵌入草本植物清单的标准化方法，使许多其他研究人员能够在广泛的森林生境中一致地采样草本植物，以解决已确定的研究优先事项。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Much of our understanding of how forests work is based on trees because they are the largest and most obvious organisms in forests. However, trees make up less than one quarter of all the plant species in many forests. Vines, epiphytes ("air plants"), and small plants like ferns and wildflowers are more common and just as diverse as trees. Therefore, our understanding of forest biology is limited because these other plants are often quite different from trees. Small, non-woody plants tend to have different ways of living, growing, and reproducing tree than trees. Also, they may respond quite differently to changes in light, water, nutrients, and human activities. These differences from trees mean that we are still unable to answer important questions about plant diversity. For example, how does diversity on the forest floor change with climate and geographic location? And how do differences in rainfall affect what kinds of plants can grow? If we know the answers to these questions, we can also answer questions such as what conditions allow non-native ‘invasive’ plants to spread? And how will plants on the forest floor respond to increasing temperatures or more intense droughts predicted with climate change? To address this lack of understanding, the researchers will run a workshop where they will determine which questions should be prioritized, accounting for feasibility (i.e., what are the low-hanging fruit?) and urgency (i.e., what are critical knowledge gaps for conservation and management?). The workshop will bring together a diverse group of early-career and experienced researchers, with expertise in herbaceous plant taxonomy and systematics, herbaceous plant ecology, forest ecology, ecological sampling techniques, statistical modeling, conservation, and policy. Participants will be selected from a variety of institutions and countries in temperate and tropical regions. The workshop will result in resources made openly available to the scientific community, including a review of recent important research and top fundamental and applied research questions. Additionally, workshop participants will propose standardized methods to embed inventories of herbaceous plants within existing forest monitoring networks, allowing many other researchers to sample herbaceous plants consistently across a wide variety of forest habitats to address the identified research priorities.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.