Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in degraded and recovering Amazonian and Atlantic forests

退化和恢复的亚马逊和大西洋森林的生物多样性和生态系统功能

• 批准号: NE/K016385/1
• 负责人: Yadvinder Malhi
• 金额: $ 38.99万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FK016385%2F1
• 关键词: Biodiversity; ecosystem; functioning; degraded; recovering

Tropical forests hold more species of plant and animal than any other kind of terrestrial environment, and store large amounts of greenhouse gases in their trees and soils. Yet most of us are aware that they are also highly threatened by human activities, with media attention often focussing on deforestation - when forests are replaced with alternative land-uses, such as agriculture and cattle ranching. However, forests are also being modified in other ways, when trees are felled for the commercial extraction of timber, or when forest burn in abnormally dry years. These events are known as forest degradation, and affect a larger area of land than deforestation alone.The widespread nature of forest degradation means it is very important to understand whether these human-modified forests are performing similar roles as intact primary forests. How much carbon and nitrogen do they hold, and are these nutrients cycled between the leaves and the forest floor at similar rates as in primary forests? Can these ecosystem processes by predicted by characteristics of the vegetation itself (such as leaf shape and format, and the rate it carries out photosynthesis). And crucially, what are the implications of these changes for the future of these forests - are they able to resist additional modification? This project will answer these questions in two separate Brazilian biomes, the Atlantic Forests of Sao Paulo and the Amazon forests near the city of Santarem. The data we collect in two years of fieldwork will be used to improve our understanding of forest functioning, and can help develop computer simulations of forests. These simulations can then be used to examine how forests may respond to changes in climate, or other human impacts such as logging or fire.These forests are also crucial for biodiversity conservation, as many rare and endemic species are only found in landscapes where forests have already been heavily modified by humans. It is important to assess to what extent they help conserve these species, and what factors could be managed to improve their conservation value. Tropical forests hold a bewildering number of species, and so many of these species are yet to be described. It is therefore important to focus on groups of species which are well known, making birds and plants are two ideal species groups. The detailed work on forest functioning will take place in a limited number of forest plots, as we are limited by the many precise measures that need to be taken over time. In contrast, biodiversity is much quicker to sample, allowing us to examine much larger areas of around one million hectares in the Amazon and in the Atlantic Forest. As well as examining biodiversity in these landscapes, this project will also assess changes in species traits, which are characteristics that link species to the many tasks they perform in nature. By doing so, we will be able to examine the extent to which human-modified forests are losing key ecosystem processes, such as pollination from long-beaked hummingbirds, or the ability of trees to assimilate and store large quantities of carbon. This will provide us with a much better idea of how the many different kinds of human activity are affecting biodiversity, which is important if we are to design landscapes that help protect the many species of conservation concern. For too long, important scientific knowledge has remained locked away in learned journals, and has failed to inform and influence policies. We are determined not to let this happen with our research, as we believe it will produce important insights that can help us preserve the ecological stability of tropical forests and the biodiversity they contain. To facilitate these impacts, we will make every effort to disseminate our findings. These activities include producing a series of short films for YouTube, linking with local schools, and writing policy briefs.

热带森林拥有比任何其他类型的陆地环境更多的动植物物种，并在它们的树木和土壤中储存大量的温室气体。然而，我们大多数人都意识到，它们也受到人类活动的高度威胁，媒体的注意力往往集中在砍伐森林上--即森林被农业和养牛场等替代土地用途取代。然而，森林也在以其他方式进行改良，当树木被砍伐以用于商业提取木材时，或者当森林在异常干旱的年份燃烧时。这些事件被称为森林退化，影响的土地面积比单独砍伐森林的面积更大。森林退化的广泛性质意味着，了解这些人为改造的森林是否发挥着与完好的原始森林类似的作用非常重要。它们拥有多少碳和氮，这些营养物质在树叶和森林地面之间的循环速度是否与原始森林相似？这些生态系统的过程是否可以通过植被本身的特征(如树叶的形状和形态，以及它进行光合作用的速率)来预测。最重要的是，这些变化对这些森林的未来有什么影响--它们能够抵抗额外的修改吗？该项目将在圣保罗的大西洋森林和桑塔雷姆市附近的亚马逊森林这两个独立的巴西生物群中回答这些问题。我们在两年的实地调查中收集的数据将用于提高我们对森林功能的理解，并有助于开发森林的计算机模拟。然后，这些模拟可以用来研究森林对气候变化或其他人类影响(如伐木或火灾)的反应。这些森林对生物多样性保护也至关重要，因为许多稀有和特有物种只有在森林已经被人类严重改变的地方才能找到。重要的是要评估它们在多大程度上有助于保护这些物种，以及可以管理哪些因素来提高它们的保护价值。热带森林拥有令人眼花缭乱的物种，其中许多物种还没有被描述。因此，重要的是要把重点放在众所周知的物种群体上，使鸟类和植物成为两个理想的物种群体。关于森林功能的详细工作将在数量有限的林地中进行，因为我们受到需要随着时间推移而采取的许多精确措施的限制。相比之下，生物多样性的采样速度要快得多，这让我们能够研究亚马逊和大西洋森林中约100万公顷的更大面积。除了检查这些景观中的生物多样性外，该项目还将评估物种特征的变化，这些特征将物种与它们在自然界中执行的许多任务联系在一起。通过这样做，我们将能够检查人类改良森林正在失去关键生态系统过程的程度，例如来自长喙蜂鸟的授粉，或树木吸收和储存大量碳的能力。这将使我们更好地了解许多不同种类的人类活动是如何影响生物多样性的，如果我们要设计有助于保护许多受保护物种的景观，这一点很重要。很长时间以来，重要的科学知识一直被锁在学术期刊中，无法为政策提供信息和影响。我们决心不让这种情况发生在我们的研究中，因为我们相信它将产生重要的见解，有助于我们保护热带森林的生态稳定性和它们所包含的生物多样性。为了促进这些影响，我们将尽一切努力传播我们的调查结果。这些活动包括为YouTube制作一系列短片，与当地学校建立联系，以及撰写政策简报。

项目成果

Tree growth and stem carbon accumulation in human-modified Amazonian forests following drought and fire

• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0308
• 发表时间: 2018-11-19
• 期刊: PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
• 影响因子: 6.3
• 作者: Berenguer, Erika;Malhi, Yadvinder;Barlow, Jos
• 通讯作者: Barlow, Jos

21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02771-y
• 发表时间: 2018-02-13
• 期刊: Nature communications
• 影响因子: 16.6
• 作者: Aragão LEOC;Anderson LO;Fonseca MG;Rosan TM;Vedovato LB;Wagner FH;Silva CVJ;Silva Junior CHL;Arai E;Aguiar AP;Barlow J;Berenguer E;Deeter MN;Domingues LG;Gatti L;Gloor M;Malhi Y;Marengo JA;Miller JB;Phillips OL;Saatchi S
• 通讯作者: Saatchi S

Functional susceptibility of tropical forests to climate change

• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01747-6
• 发表时间: 2022-05
• 期刊: Nature Ecology & Evolution
• 影响因子: 16.8
• 作者: J. Aguirre‐Gutiérrez;E. Berenguer;Imma Oliveras Menor;D. Bauman;J. Corral-Rivas;M. G. Nava-Miranda

Tracking the impacts of El Niño drought and fire in human-modified Amazonian forests.

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2019377118
• 发表时间: 2021-07-27
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Berenguer E;Lennox GD;Ferreira J;Malhi Y;Aragão LEOC;Barreto JR;Del Bon Espírito-Santo F;Figueiredo AES;França F;Gardner TA;Joly CA;Palmeira AF;Quesada CA;Rossi LC;de Seixas MMM;Smith CC;Withey K;Barlow J
• 通讯作者: Barlow J

Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly

• DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01776-4
• 发表时间: 2023-09-04
• 期刊: NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE
• 影响因子: 30.7
• 作者: Bennett, Amy C.;Rodrigues de Sousa, Thaiane;Phillips, Oliver L.
• 通讯作者: Phillips, Oliver L.