Urgent equipment requirements to continue long-term research program on tropical food webs

热带雨林拥有世界生物多样性的很大一部分，但受到一系列人为威胁，例如土地利用变化和气候变化。将森林转用于农业等其他土地用途，往往会使原来的连续森林变成小片森林。我在哥斯达黎加瓜纳卡斯特雨林的研究项目研究了森林的破碎化和降雨模式的变化如何影响食物网，即连接物种的捕食者-猎物相互作用的网络。我们发现，森林的破碎化和降雨量的减少都会影响无脊椎动物食物网中的顶级捕食者，引发其他物种的级联变化，并影响生态系统中营养物质和碳循环的速度。然而，破碎化和气候变化是同时发生的，因此，了解它们的综合影响是否不同于它们各自的影响至关重要。在我的哥斯达黎加研究中，我们即将回答这个重要问题，但我的研究计划受到即将失去重要现场设备和人员的威胁。我们对碎片化的研究需要我们在13公里x13公里的地貌区域内旅行，但我们的两个实地车辆已经达到寿命终点，需要立即更换。监测温度和降雨量等气候变量是我们研究气候变化影响的重要组成部分，但公园政策的变化意味着公园管理员不再能够手动记录降雨量。相反，我们迫切需要切换到自动气象站，并通过微气候传感器将这种监测扩展到整个景观。如果不能解决这些设备的优先事项，我的研究项目就会被关闭。这将对参与这项研究的许多研究生、博士后研究员和本科生的培训产生影响，并将阻止我们了解和交流世界上这一重要的生物区域所面临的威胁。

Tropical rainforests contain a large fraction of the world's biodiversity, but are under a range of anthropogenic threats, such as land use change and climate change. Conversion of forests to other land uses, such as agriculture, often results in fragmentation of the original continuous forest into small patches of forest. My research program in the rainforests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, has examined how forest fragmentation and changes in rainfall patterns affect food webs the networks of predator-prey interactions that connect species. We have discovered that both forest fragmentation and reduced rainfall affect the top predators in invertebrate food webs, initiating a cascade of changes in other species and affecting how quickly nutrients and carbon cycle through the ecosystem. However, fragmentation and climate change are occurring simultaneously, and it is therefore critical to know if their combined effects are different from their individual effects. We are on the cusp of answering this important question in my Costa Rican research, but my research program is threatened by impending loss of vital field equipment and personnel. Our studies of fragmentation require us travel over a 13km x 13km area of landscape, yet our two field vehicles have reached the end of their life and require immediate replacement. Monitoring of climatological variables, such as temperature and rainfall, is an essential part of our research on effects of climate change, but changes in park policies mean that park rangers are no longer able to manually recorded rainfall. Instead, we urgently need to switch to an automated weather station, and to extend this monitoring over the landscape with microclimate sensors. Failure to address these equipment priorities will effectively shut down my research program. This would have consequences for the training of the many graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and undergraduates who take part in this research, and would prevent us from understanding and communicating the threats faced by this biologically important area of the world.