Collaborative Research LTREB Renewal: Tropical rain forest ecosystem responses to climate forcings

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

How tropical rain forests respond to rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the air has major implications for global climate change and biodiversity conservation. Over the last 50 years, annual increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have been strongly affected by changes in the amount of carbon stored in the land tropics, with greater tropical carbon dioxide emitted from the forest in warmer years. Warming has been rapid across the tropics and is intensifying, and the next five year period is likely to bring new records. In spite of the global importance of tropical rain forests, there are few field data to assess the sensitivity of these forests to changing climate. The research in this project will extend for a further five years the longest running study of tropical rain forest productivity and dynamics and their relation to climate. The research is located in old-growth lowland rain forest at La Selva, Costa Rica, in a network of plots designed for making measurements at the landscape scale. The measurements are continuous since 1997 and will provide a further five years of annual field measurements of carbon storage in the forests, and of how the forests are responding to changing climate. Previous research in this project has shown strong negative effects of increased temperature and drought stress, while positive effects of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide on forest productivity are by comparison very small. Further measurements will enable researchers to address important and unanswered questions about the future of tropical rain forests on a warmer plant with higher levels of carbon dioxide. The broader scientific impacts of this project include extensive research training and development of unique long-term datasets. Already dozens of undergraduates, graduate students and post-docs have participated. The project has produced almost 100 peer reviewed publications and theses and has provided the datasets needed to stimulate other related research. The next five years will bring continued development of the project website as a principal tool for completely open global access to all of the project data. In addition, the researchers will continue to develop collaborations with educational and non-governmental organizations to encourage use of project data in broader general public settings.