Collaborative Research: LTREB Renewal: RUI: Cyclic vs. anthropogenic causes of long-term variation in the regeneration of tropical forests with contrasting latitude and diversity

合作研究：LTREB 更新：RUI：具有对比纬度和多样性的热带森林再生长期变化的循环与人为原因

• 批准号: 2325528
• 负责人: Jess Zimmerman
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2325528&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; LTREB; Renewal; RUI; Collaborative; Research; LTREB; Renewal; RUI

Successful plant reproduction – flowering and fruiting – is sensitive to environmental conditions, as are the early life stages that follow – seed germination and seedling survival and growth. Plants often use variation in their environment as a cue to reproduce, ensuring, for example, there is adequate energy and moisture for fruit development or that their seeds are dispersed when conditions are favorable for the growth and survival of young seedlings. The reproduction and regeneration of tropical forests are therefore vulnerable to a changing climate. This project, renewed for five more years, uses long-term data to understand how the timing and success of reproduction in tropical plants varies year-to-year as the cues and conditions for flowering, fruiting, and seedling survival vary due to within-year seasonality, multi-year climate cycles such as El Niño, and/or the effects of climate change. The research takes place at three tropical forest study sites (Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Panama) to separate the effects of local site conditions from long-term regional climate patterns. Undergraduates and early career interns participating in this research receive training each year and support for projects that expand on the long-term scope of this work. Tropical forests are globally important because of their high biodiversity and large contributions to carbon storage, and thus a better understanding of the environmental conditions that affect tropical plant reproduction will strengthen our ability to predict the survival of tropical forests and the benefits these forests confer.This research spans forests differing in diversity, seasonality, disturbance, and climate to test hypotheses concerning: (1) environmental cues that induce flowering; (2) effects of multiyear or multidecadal natural climate cycles on reproduction in tropical forests; (3) survival and growth of seedlings from species with different functional traits in response to climatic variation; and (4) how episodic reproduction structures adult populations, effectively closing the demographic gap between studies of early reproduction and the dynamics of sapling and adult tree populations. Standardized methodology used at our three sites includes weekly or biweekly recording of species-specific flower, fruit, and seed rain in permanent traps and annual censuses of all woody seedlings in plots adjacent to the traps. The research take place within large (16-50 ha) mapped forest dynamics plots where all trees 1 cm in diameter are identified and regularly measured. Similar methodology is also employed in multiple temperate and tropical forests, which facilitates cross-site comparisons that broaden the generalizability of our results. This project is jointly funded by the Population and Community Ecology program, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

成功的植物繁殖 - 开花和果实 - 对环境条件敏感，随后的早期生命阶段 - 种子发芽和幼苗生存和生长。植物经常在环境中使用变化作为繁殖的提示，例如确保有足够的能量和水分用于水果发育，或者在条件有利于年轻幼苗的生长和存活时，它们的种子会分散。因此，热带森林的繁殖和再生容易受到气候变化的影响。该项目续签了五年，它使用长期数据来了解热带植物中繁殖的时间和成功范围如何，因为开花，水果和幼苗生存的线索和条件因季节性季节性而变化，多年年度气候周期（如厄尔尼诺尼诺（ElNiño））以及/或气候变化的影响。这项研究在三个热带森林研究地点（厄瓜多尔，波多黎各和巴拿马）进行，以将当地条件与长期区域气候模式的影响分开。本科生和早期职业人士每年都会接受这项研究的培训，并支持扩大这项工作范围的项目。热带森林在全球上很重要，因为它们具有很高的生物多样性和对碳储存的巨大贡献，因此对影响热带植物复制的环境条件有了更好的了解，将增强我们预测热带森林生存的能力，这些森林赋予这些森林所带来的益处。本研究涵盖了在多样性，季节性，季节性，灾难和气候上的差异，遍布环境的范围，该森林的范围是环境的，（1）（1（1）（1）（1）（1）（1）（1）（1）;（1）;（1）;（1）;（1）; （2）多年或多年自然气候周期对热带森林繁殖的影响； （3）响应晶体变异的具有不同功能性状的物种的幼苗的生存和生长； （4）发作繁殖结构如何有效地缩小早期繁殖研究与树苗和成人树木种群的动力学之间的人口差距。在我们三个地点使用的标准化方法包括每周或每两周记录特定于特定的花朵，水果和种子雨，以永久性陷阱和陷阱附近的所有木质幼苗的年度普查和年度普查。这项研究发生在大型（16-50公顷）映射的森林动力图中，其中所有树木的直径为1 cm并定期测量。在多个临时和热带森林中也采用了类似的方法，这些方法的跨站点比较扩大了我们结果的普遍性。该项目由人口和社区生态计划共同资助，启发竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCOR）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，认为通过评估而被认为是宝贵的支持。