Dry forest biomes in Brazil: biodiversity and ecosystem services

该提案旨在满足将拉丁美洲的生物多样性、碳储量、碳平衡、树木生长和树木死亡率监测范围从热带雨林扩展到干旱生物群落的迫切需要。对热带地区生物多样性和生态系统功能的大多数关注都集中在热带雨林上，但这忽略了一个事实，即全球50%的低地热带地区是气候季节性的，具有干燥森林或稀树草原的天然植被。特别是在南美洲，亚马逊雨林垄断了研究和保护，但干燥的森林和木质的稀树草原可以容纳相同数量的植物物种，其中许多是特有的。我们需要更好地了解这些干燥的生物群落如何对全球生物地球化学循环做出贡献，以及它们独特的物种如何对环境变化做出反应。特别是，人们对干燥的森林如何应对气候变化知之甚少。像RAINFOR这样的倡议已经非常成功地连接了在新热带雨林中建立了永久库存地块的科学家的大型网络。总的来说，分布在亚马逊流域的数百个地块对于描述整个盆地的生物多样性模式以及森林如何参与全球生物地球化学循环至关重要。在巴西或在新热带地区，干旱生物群系没有相应的网络在大地理尺度上连接大量样地。该项目旨在启动一个过程，将已经在这些生物群落中建立了数十个库存地块的研究人员联系起来。我们建议：1。使用RAINFOR网络商定的方法，对巴西巴西州10个0.2公顷的热带干燥森林地块进行了重新普查，以了解碳储量、地上生物量(C)增益、树木生长、树木死亡率和生物多样性。2. 向ForestPlots.net数据库提供巴西里约热内卢州现有的5个1公顷干旱森林样地和邻近森林生物群落的数据，以及巴西其他地区的约100个干旱森林样地的数据，从而使其可供全球研究界使用。我们将优先考虑干旱森林，但我们也有来自Mata atlatlntica雨林（未被RAINFOR覆盖）和巴西中部塞拉多（cerrado）热带稀树草原生物群落的基于绘图的数据，我们还希望启动一个将这些信息添加到ForestPlots.net的过程。3. 召开一次研讨会，将RJ和巴西各地在干旱生物群落中建立了库存地块的主要工作人员聚集在一起，鼓励他们加入一个可以在整个大陆范围内推进干旱森林监测的新网络。本次研讨会将在巴西RJ州Campos dos Goytacazes的北弗鲁米嫩塞大学（Universidade Estadual do north Fluminense）举行。本次研讨会之前，将有一个为期两天的系统发育和系统发育多样性培训课程，由Dexter和Pennington在2010年的Escola de botnica提供，随后将有一个由Antje Ahrends（爱丁堡皇家植物园）教授的生态位建模课程。此外，还将向在英国的巴西合作伙伴提供培训，以建立由Meir和Grace领导的进行一些简单生长、叶面积和呼吸测量的能力，并利用由利兹的Gabriela Lopez领导的ForestPlots.net设施进行地块管理和分析培训。比较RJ干旱森林和邻近雨林之间的系统发育多样性，以确定这些干旱森林是否拥有独特的谱系多样性，从而为它们的保护提供进一步的论据(7)。此外，我们将研究景观历史和破碎化对这些干旱林系统发育多样性和系统发育群落结构的影响。5. 建立大西洋热带半落叶季节性森林的关键功能特征、环境参数、主要碳储量和碳通量、结构、区系和系统发育数据库。

This proposal aims to meet the urgent need to extend monitoring of biodiversity, carbon stock, carbon balance, tree growth, and tree mortality in Latin America beyond rain forests and into dry biomes. Most concerns about biodiversity and ecosystem function in the tropics focus on rain forests, but this neglects the fact that 50% of the lowland tropics globally is climatically seasonal, with a natural vegetation of dry forest or savanna. In South America in particular, the rain forests of Amazonia monopolise research and conservation, but dry forests and woody savannas can house equal numbers of plant species, many of which are endemic. We need to understand far better how these dry biomes contribute to global biogeochemical cycles and how their unique species react to environmental changes. In particular, little is known about how dry forests will respond to climate change.Initiatives such as RAINFOR have been highly successful in connecting a large network of scientists who have established permanent inventory plots in Neotropical rain forests. Collectively, hundreds of plots distributed across Amazonia have been central to describing patterns of biodiversity across the basin, and how the forest participates in global biogeochemical cycles. No corresponding network connecting a large number of plots over broad geographic scales exists in Brazil or more widely in the Neotropics for dry biomes. This project aims to start a process of connecting researchers who have established dozens of inventory plots in these biomes.We propose to:1. Re-census, using methodologies agreed by the RAINFOR network, 10 permanent 0.2Ha plots in tropical dry forest in Rio de Janeiro state for carbon stock, above ground biomass (C) gain, tree growth, tree mortality, and biodiversity. 2. Contribute data for five existing 1 Ha plots in dry forests and neighbouring forest biomes in Rio de Janeiro state and c. 100 dry forest plots from elsewhere in Brazil to the ForestPlots.net database, thereby making it available to the global research community. We will prioritise dry forests, but we also have plot-based data from the Mata Atlântica rain forests (not covered by RAINFOR), and from the tree-savanna biome of the cerrado in Central Brazil, and we hope additionally to start a process of adding this information to ForestPlots.net. 3. Convene a workshop to bring together key workers from RJ and across Brazil who have established inventory plots in dry biomes to encourage them to join a new network that can take forward dry forest monitoring at a continental scale. This workshop will be held in the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense (UENF), Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil. This workshop will be preceded by a two day training course in phylogenetics and phylogenetic diversity delivered by Dexter and Pennington at the Escola de Botânica in Rio, and will be followed a course for the same student pool on ecological niche modelling taught by Antje Ahrends (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh). In addition, training will be provided to Brazilian co-Is in the UK to build capacity to make some simple growth, leaf area and respiration measurements, led by Meir and Grace, with plot curation and analysis training using the ForestPlots.net facility, led by Gabriela Lopez in Leeds.4. Compare phylogenetic diversity between dry forests and neighbouring rain forests in RJ to determine if these dry forests house unique lineage diversity, thereby adding a further argument for their conservation (7). Additionally, we will examine the impact of landscape history and fragmentation on phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic community structure in these dry forests. 5. We will develop a database of key functional traits, environmental parameters and principal carbon stocks and fluxes, and of the structure, floristics and phylogeny of Atlantic tropical semi-deciduous seasonal forest.