RAINFOR-AMAZONICA Newsletter Dec 2013 | No 10 In this issue TAKING THE PULSE OF THE WORLD'S RAINFOR Features: BIGGEST TROPICAL FOREST RAINFOR Ecologists help uncover ‘hyperdominant’ tree The Amazon plays a key role in our planet’s biosphere, with more life, species in the Amazon water, and carbon than any other forest on Earth. RAINFOR partners share a long-term dedication to understanding Amazon ecosystems from Hans ter Steege et al the ground up, applying standardized techniques to measure, monitor, ‘The Ecosystem Dynamics of and interpret their behaviour. Amazonian and Andean Forests’ David Galbraith et al RAINFOR website and social media links ATBC Conference in Cairns – Stay involved with our social media links, via our Facebook group Call for Symposia (rainfor.project), Twitter page (@ForestPlots) and read up on all news and William Laurance field campaigns on the website at http://www.rainfor.org Ecological collapse in forest fragments RAINFOR Field Campaigns across Amazonia William Laurance Colleagues across South America have been leading new field campaigns to RAINFOR People Profiles: monitor forests across the neotropics. In this newsletter we report on some of the latest work in Brazil and Peru, all part of RAINFOR’s aim to understand forest Esteban Alvarez Euridice H. Coronado dynamics and changes in the world’s richest ecosystem. Rosa Goodman Wendeson Castro Field Campaign Reports: Andes, Peru; Andes, Peru 2013 Mato Grosso, Brazil AMAZONICA update: AMAZONICA News Emanuel Gloor Publications Researchers and assistants from Wageningen and Oxford Universities observing the T-LiDAR unit as it scans at a rate of 1 million points per minute. Photo by Harm Bartholomeus. Mato Grosso, Brazil 2013 1 RAINFOR People Field Campaigns: Esteban Álvarez Our colleague Antonio Rigoberto Peña Cruz posts an impressive and Jardín Botánico de Medellín, amusing video on the RAINFOR Facebook page, which we would like to share Colombia with you all (Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, June 2011): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200169459696701&comment_id=6 677875&offset=0&total_comments=2 May - Nov 2013 – Andes, Peru Chambasa (Challenging Attempt to Measure Biotic Attributes along the Slope of the Andes) - the local slang in Peru for ‘a lot of work’ - is the name of a new project that is underway in the Andes. Led by Yadvinder Malhi (Oxford), Brian Enquist (University of Arizona), and Greg Asner (Carnegie Institute), this NERC- and ERC-funded project aims to build and validate a ¿Cuándo te uniste a RAINFOR? predictive framework for plant community and ecosystem function by integrating information drawn from plant functional traits, airborne remote En el año 2004 cuando Sandra Patiño regresó a Colombia, y sensing and metabolic scaling theory. Ultimately, the project aims to facilitate organizamos la primera expedición 1) the use of trait-based approaches to predict ecosystem productivity, RAINFOR-Colombia al Parque allocation and nutrient cycling at the plot scale, as well as 2) use hyperspectral Nacional Amacayacu (PNNA) en la Amazonia Colombiana. Luego de 10 remote sensing data to ecosystem productivity, allocation and nutrient cycling años de haber sido establecidas, at the landscape scale. Trait data are being collected from a series of ten localizamos y recensamos en la parte Sur del PNNA las parcelas existing 1 ha forest dynamics plots along an elevation transect from lowland Agua Pudre 1 y 2, cerca del rio rainforest (Tambopata – 190 m asl) to the edge of the Puna grasslands Amacayacu, y en la parte Norte del (Acjanaco – 3579 m asl) through the Kosñipata Valley. Trait data includes PNNA las parcelas Lorena 1 y 2, cerca del rio Cotuhé. Desde ese measurement of morphological, chemical, photosynthetic and hyperspectral año he participado activamente en properties of a subset of tree species in each plot. los proyectos de RAINFOR en Colombia. The team in the field is led by Lisa Patrick Bentley, Alexander Shenkin, and ¿Cuáles son tus intereses de Norma Salinas with the hard work and dedication of nearly 20 Peruvian field investigación? assistants! When all is said and done, they will have measured more than 30 Contenido y dinámica de carbono chemical, structural, physical and anatomical traits on nearly 1000 trees…truly de los bosques tropicales; patrones ‘a lot of work’! espaciales y determinantes ambientales de la diversidad de plantas tropicales; implementación de proyectos REDD en Colombia; cuantificación y monitoreo de Yadvinder Malhi and Greg Goldsmith múltiples servicios eco sistémicos Oxford University, UK de los bosques tropicales. ¿En qué proyectos estás involucrado? Desde el 2001 coordino la Red de Monitoreo del Bosque en Colombia, un proyecto liderado por el Jardín Botánico de Medellín y otras instituciones colombianas como la Universidad del Tolima, la Universidad Nacional de Colombia y la Universidad de Antioquia, entre otras. Entre el 2010-2012 trabajamos en el recenso de 20 parcelas en Colombia, mediante una convenio entre con la Universidad de Leeds y el JBMED. En el 2011 participé en el proyecto Fortalecimiento de la capacidad Institucional, Técnica y Científica para apoyar proyectos REDD en Colombia para afinar las metodologías e interpretación de la información relacionada con cambios en los stocks de biomasa de bosques naturales, para disminuir la incertidumbre en los datos básicos para la estimación de las emisiones de Gases de Efecto 2 Invernadero (GEI). Proyecto cofinanciado por el Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible de Colombia (MADS) y la Fundación Oct - Nov 2013 – Peru Moore. En el 2012 (hasta el 2014) con cofinanciación del JBMED, Colciencias y el apoyo de la Universidad de Leeds trabajamos A group of researchers from Wageningen and Oxford Universities have teamed en el Proyecto “Dinámica del up to use laser detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology to produce extremely bosque tropical: crecimiento y tasas de fijación de carbono en un detailed 3-D maps of 5 RAINFOR/GEM plots across an altitudinal gradient in gradiente ambiental complejo en the Amazon and the Andes region of Peru. LiDAR works by sending out laser Colombia”. Vinculado a la ANDEAN pulses and, after the laser reflects off of leaves, wood or other material, FOREST MONITORING NETWORK en la que participan measuring the time delay of the reflected pulses millions of times. This is one of varias instituciones de América, the first times a terrestrial LiDAR system has been deployed in tropical coordinadas por CONDESAN forests,.The data from this campaign will be applied to various topics in forest (http://www.condesan.org/). Vinculación a la red Global structure research. Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) en el 2012, coordinado por la Universidad de Oxford. Vinculación en el 2013 a la red DRYFLOR (Latin American Alexander Shenkin Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest Oxford University Floristic Network) con instituciones de Latino América, coordinadas por el Jardín Botánico de Edinburgo. ¿En qué proyectos estás involucrado? A corto plazo voy a coordinar el Reflectors are Proyecto de Establecimiento de una painstakingly placed Red de Parcelas de Monitoreo en el between neighbouring Choco con la financiación de scan positions to USAID (United States Agency for spatially link the data International Development) como with sub-centimetre parte de un macro - proyecto accuracy. liderado por el profesor Sasaan Satchi del Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Este proyecto está dirigido a cuantificar y monitorear los stock de carbono en los bosques más lluviosos del planeta (7000 a 11.000 mm/año). Actualmente estamos negociando la financiación de otros dos proyectos en Colombia. Uno sobre Servicios Ecosistémicos en la Alta Montaña Neo tropical y otro sobre los Impactos del Cambio Climático en la productividad Agrícola y Forestal en Antioquia. Estos proyectos serán co financiado por diferentes instituciones incluyendo el Jardín Botánico de Medellín (JBMED), la Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia (EIA), la Universidad CES, Colciencias, la gobernación de Antioquia y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). A cross-section of a T-LiDAR point cloud from the Tambopata 05 plot, colour coded by intensity of laser return. Wood has a stronger return (yellow) than leaves. While the understory in Tambopata can be dense, the T-LiDAR manages to reach the top of the canopy. Graphic by Harm Bartholomeus. 3 Nov 2013 – Mato Grosso, Brazil RAINFOR People Euridice Honorio Coronado Adriane Esquivel Muelbert (University of Leeds) helped our Xavantina Instituto de Investigaciones de la colleagues Bia and Ben Hur Marimon to install two new permanent forest plots Amazonia Peruana (IIAP), Perú and recensus a 14-year old plot in a transition region between the Amazon forest and the Brazilian savannah. She gave talks on forest conservation for the local community and on Functional Ecology and about her PhD thesis on Floristic and Functional Dynamics in Amazonian Forests to an audience at the University of Mato Grosso, Brazil. She spoke about her PhD thesis in two further Brazilian universities: the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. When did you join RAINFOR? I joined RAINFOR in Sept 2003 when I participated in re- measurements of plots in Madre de Dios, southern Peru. Fernando Elias da Silva climbing to What are your main research collect a voucher in a new forest plot on interests? the transition Amazonia-Cerrado in Mato My research focuses on tropical Grosso, Brazil. ecology and I am interested in understanding the ecological and historical processes determining tree species distributions in Amazonia. I am also interested in the carbon dynamics of tropical forests, particularly within the poorly-studied swamp forests of western Amazonia. What projects are you involved in? I have recently finished my PhD studies at the University of Leeds, New cerrado plot at UK (Oct 09 – May 13) including lab the transition work at the Royal Botanic Garden Amazonia-Cerrado Edinburgh, UK. My PhD was funded by the Peruvian Government in Mato Grosso, (FINCyT) and the University of Brazil.