CAREER: Ecosystem processes in regenerating tropical dry forests: linking plant functional traits, stands, and landscapes

热带干旱森林具有独特的生物多样性和很高的固碳潜力，但由于砍伐森林，森林面积已大大减少。 在哥斯达黎加等国，经过几个世纪的放牧，干燥的森林正在再生。 该项目的目标是确定热带干旱森林碳动力学（即光合作用等过程，为生态系统增加碳或分解去除碳）如何取决于植物特征，干扰历史和环境因素。 这些方法包括幼苗生长和性状的实验研究，在土壤和林龄不同的地块上观察森林水平的碳动态，以及碳动态的计算机建模。 这些研究的结果将：1）提供基准，长期的数据集的碳动态在干旱森林，和2）通过外推到较粗的空间和时间尺度，预测如何热带干旱森林世界各地可能会对气候和土地使用的变化作出反应。 教育活动包括通过实地课程对高年级本科生进行热带生态学培训，通过为本科生非专业课程编写积极的学习材料提高生态素养，以及编写将分发给数千名哥斯达黎加学童的热带干旱森林生态学材料。

Tropical dry forests have unique biodiversity and high potential for carbon sequestration, but they have been greatly reduced in area by deforestation. In countries such as Costa Rica, dry forests are now regenerating following centuries of grazing. The goal of this project is to determine how tropical dry forest carbon dynamics (i.e. processes like photosynthesis that add carbon to the ecosystem or decomposition that remove it) depend upon plant characteristics, disturbance history, and environmental factors. The methods include experimental studies of seedling growth and traits, observations of forest-level carbon dynamics in plots that vary in soils and forest age, and computer modeling of carbon dynamics. Results of these studies will: 1) provide benchmark, long-term datasets of carbon dynamics in dry forests, and 2) by extrapolating to coarser spatial and temporal scales, forecast how tropical dry forests worldwide may respond to changes in climate and land use. Educational activities include training advanced undergraduate students in tropical ecology through a field course, increasing ecological literacy by development of active learning materials for undergraduate non-majors courses, and developing materials on tropical dry forest ecology that will be distributed to thousands of Costa Rican school children.