LTREB Renewal: Woody seedling dynamics in a wet tropical forest & species coexistence

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

One of the major goals of ecology is to understand the factors that determine the relative abundance and number of species in particular habitats or communities. Wet tropical forests contain a great diversity of tree species and provide unique habitats in which to identify the factors that influence which tree species compose a forest. Survival and growth through the tree seedling stage are critical bottlenecks. The seedling phase of a plant's life cycle is especially sensitive to pathogens and to the availability of light, nutrients, and water. This project extends a twelve-year study of seedling dynamics in five forest stands in Costa Rica. Over the next five years, data collected will be used to construct models of seedling production, dispersion, growth and survival in response to light, soil nutrients, pathogens, and rainfall. The resulting models will distinguish among three major mechanisms responsible for species coexistence, and thus help to account for the unusually high species diversity in tropical forests. An ability to predict forest responses to environmental change is critical to timber production, wildlife habitat, and forest carbon storage. Results from this long-term study will improve understanding of how tropical forests regenerate in response to changes in temperature, rainfall, and nutrient pollution. Graduate, undergraduate, and high school students will participate in the research, receiving valuable field experience. The project will continue to contribute to research infrastructure available at La Selva Station, granting wide access to study plots, data, and taxonomic expertise. Data from the project will be available to the research community.