Community assembly processes in miombo woodland

热带稀树草原林地在全球范围内广阔，为大型动物提供重要的栖息地，储存大量的碳，并为当地社区提供关键资源。Miombo是世界上最大的热带稀树草原，面积达270万平方公里，横跨非洲南部。然而，在miombo没有任何规模的长期生态动态图，更广泛地说，71个森林全球地球观测站（ForestGeo）中只有一个位于热带干旱森林。该项目将赞比亚作为miombo的核心，有三个核心目标。首先，在米翁博建立一个36公顷的长期森林动态图。这将符合ForestGeo标准，包括对所有胸径直径超过1厘米的树木进行绘图、识别、测量和标记，为撒哈拉以南非洲植物学家和更广泛的生态学家提供关键资源。其次，确定干扰如何影响年龄和增长结构的miombo，测试的理论，miombo是一个SUBCLIMAX栖息地类型。第三，量化植物性状和环境因子在决定乔木群落空间结构中的作用。为了实现这些目标，该项目将促进两名主要热带生态学家之间的新的国际合作：英国谢菲尔德大学的Edwards教授和赞比亚世界农林（ICRAF）的Harrison教授。在这样做的过程中，这个研究项目将在我们对miombo植物群落如何运作的理解方面取得根本性的进展，并建立长期监测这些群落的方法，以了解它们将如何受到气候变化的影响。

Tropical savanna woodlands are vast in global extent, providing vital habitat for large animals, stocking substantial carbon, and providing critical resources for local communities. Miombo is the world's largest savanna, covering 2.7 million km2 across southern Africa. Yet, there are no long-term ecological dynamics plots of any size in the miombo, and more broadly, only one of 71 Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGeo) plots is in tropical dry forest. Focusing on Zambia as the core of the miombo, this project has three CENTRAL aims. First, to establish a 36-hectare long-term forest dynamics plot in the miombo. This will meet ForestGeo standards, including mapping, identifying, measuring and tagging all trees over 1 cm in diameter at breast height (DBH), providing a critical resource for sub-Saharan African botanists and ecologists more broadly. Second, to determine how disturbance impacts the age and growth structure of miombo, testing the theory that miombo is a SUBCLIMAX habitat type. Third, to quantify the role of plant traits and environmental factors in determining the spatial structure of miombo tree communities. To deliver these aims, this project will facilitate a new international collaboration between two leading tropical ecologists: Prof. Edwards from the University of Sheffield, UK, and Prof. Harrison from World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Zambia. In doing so, this research project will deliver a fundamental advance in our understanding of how miombo plant communities function and establishes the means for the long-term monitoring of these communities to understand how they will be affected by climate change.