NASA Institutional Research Award on Land Management in the Tropics

This project examines how land-use changes in Puerto Rico over the last 50 years have affected plant
and animal communities, streamflow and sediment yield, soil and water chemistry and microbiology,
and "greenhouse gas" emissions to the atmosphere.  During this period, large areas of agricultural land
in Puerto Rico have been abandoned and forests have been allowed to regenerate naturally.  A series
of aerial photographs of the entire island and Geographical Information System (GIS) overlays of
climate, soils, and other factors allows us to select sites that are quite similar, except that they have
undergone different periods of natural succession.  Coordinated studies at those sites are leading to the
development of models of how land use changes can affect biological communities and the other
environmental factors listed above.  This information will help us to predict environmental consequences
of tropical land-use changes in the Caribbean and beyond.  Researchers from the UPR Rio Piedras
Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies and Biology and Chemistry Departments, U.S.D.A. Forest
Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Catholic University of Humacao, and the University of
Illinois collaborate on this project, with substantial collaboration by both undergraduate and graduate
students.