LTREB Renewal: Multidecadal performance of tropical rainforest canopy trees - climate change, disturbance, and ontogeny

University Of Missouri-Saint Louis, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

Detecting and measuring the impacts of climatic changes on tropical rainforests requires long records of careful annual measurements. Given that tropical forest may harbor 25% of the planet's terrestrial carbon, understanding the effects of changing climate on tropical rainforest trees has global significance. Since 1983, annual growth and survival have been measured for diverse canopy tree species in a lowland tropical rainforest at La Selva, Costa Rica. A major discovery revealed by these unique long-term records is that tropical rainforest tree growth has been slowed by very small increases in yearly temperatures. This five-year project renewal, which will bring the total period spanned by the La Selva measurements to 33 years, will greatly increase scientific understanding of the impacts of warming and of other potentially changing climatic factors on tropical rainforest trees. This study is the longest investigation of annual tropical rainforest performance worldwide. Unprecedented high temperatures are projected to affect all tropical regions in coming years. This study will make it possible to measure directly how tropical trees are responding to these changing conditions. This project has significant societal relevance, as productivity declines by these carbon-rich forests could translate into large carbon-dioxide emissions from the world tropics, thus accelerating global warming. Data from this project are freely available through publication in Ecological Archives. The investigators also maintain a very active program of public outreach.