RUI:LTREB: Enhancement and Dissemination of Long-term Datasets on Tropical Montane Forest Nutrient Dynamics in Monteverde, Costa Rica

与许多其他生境和生态系统组成部分相比，人们对热带云雾林及其冠层群落的长期生态过程知之甚少。拟议研究的主要目标是建立在过去十年在哥斯达黎加蒙特韦德云雾森林保护区收集的一套独特数据的基础上。拟议的工作包括测试关于冠层成分在森林养分循环和动态中所起作用的两个假设。他们将通过有效地捕获异体大气营养物质，将其保留在冠层中，然后将其转移到其他生态系统部分，从而解决使活的和死的冠层成分在这片森林中充当营养电容器的过程。这项研究还将支持参与正在进行的凋落物和茎干分解的长期多站点研究。预期的结果包括关于热带云雾林和冠层生态长期方面的新信息，综合了十多年来在现场进行的描述、实验和建模工作，并与蒙特韦德地区正在进行的研究、教育和保护活动相结合。

9615341 Nadkarni Long-term ecological processes in tropical cloud forests and their canopy communities are poorly understood relative to many other habitats and ecosystem components. The major objective of the proposed research is to build upon a unique set of data that has been gathered over the past decade at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica. Proposed work includes testing of two hypotheses concerning the role that canopy components play in forest nutrient cycling and dynamics. They will address processes that allow live and dead canopy components to serve as nutrient capacitors in this forest by efficiently capturing allogenic atmospheric nutrients, retaining them in the canopy, and then transferring them to other ecosystem parts. This research will also support participation in the ongoing long-term multi-site study of litter and stem decomposition. Anticipated results include new information on long-term aspects of tropical cloud forest and canopy ecology, synthesis of more than a decade of descriptive, experimental, and modeling work at the site, and integration with ongoing research, educational, and conservation activities in the Monteverde region.