As you may have heard, the Luquillo LTER Program was asked by NSF to submit
an addendum to our grant proposal submitted in February. While the comments
on our proposal from the review panel were mainly positive, it was necessary
to clarify certain details, particularly related to the proposed Canopy Trimming
Experiment. This addendum was submitted to NSF yesterday and we expect a response
from the Program Director, Henry Gholz, sometime early next month. We will keep
you posted. A copy of the addendum willbe posted on the web site as soon as
possible. Another result of the proposal review was that it was necessary to
take steps to strengthen the intellectual leadership of our LTERprogram. To
do this, we have elevated Whendee Silver and Bill McDowell to the level of Principal
Investigators of the LTERgrant. Their strong backgrounds in decomposition studies
and biogeochemistry are very much in line with the new emphasis on detrital
dynamics. In addition, Nick Brokaw will take the role of Lead Principle Investigator,
running the program on a day-to-day basis. With few other duties to distract
him, we feel this change will improve program administration overall. Ariel
Lugo and I will continue as PI's with Bob Waide and Jean Lodge continuing to
participate as additional members of the Program's Executive Committee.
I welcome these changes. Whendee and Bill helped us a great deal in preparing
the proposal and, with Nick, took charge of preparing the addendum. Their role
in the leadership of the program needed to be recognized. As has been apparent,
Nick has been helping me with the management of the LTER since he arrived in
Puerto Rico. Now, I will be his assistant. Meanwhile, freed from much of the
day-to-day management of the LTERProgram, I can better focus on the needs of
the Institute and its future, as well as my own research and teaching. As a
practical matter, all future correspondence regarding the direction of the LTER
Program should be directed to Nick, but, for the time being, copied to me.
From Nick Brokaw
STUDIES ON THE LUQUILLO
FORESTDYNAMICS PLOT
Forest Modeling
Charlie Canham, of the Institute for Ecosystem Studies (IES),
and Jill Thompson are censusing seedlings, assessing light, and
conducting other studies on the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot
(LFDP) for input to the SORTIE forest dynamics model. At the
Association for Topical Biology meeting n Panama this July,
Maria Uriarte, of IES, will present results from the model concerning
the effects of interactions between neighboring trees on tree growth
and survival.
Coarse Woody Debris
Angelina Samreny, an REU student from Florida, is carrying out a study
of coarse woody debris (CWD) on the LFDP. The goal is to measure
biomass and size-class distribution of CWD and to see if these differ
according to land use history. Her project is directed by Jill Thompson and
Nick Brokaw.
Heliconia
Elvia Meléndez is directing an REUstudent's study on the effects of
hurricane disturbance on intraspecific genetic variation in Heliconia
caribaea.
NEW BOOK OF INTEREST
M. Guariguata, and G. Kattan (eds.). 2002. Ecología y
Conservaciónde Bosques Neotropicales. Libro
Universitario Regional, Cartago, Costa Rica.
This book of more than 600 pages covers many topics in tropical
forest ecology. The first chapter is by Fred Scatena, presenting a
hierarchical perspective on tropical forest. There are also chapters by
LTER post-doc John Barone, on herbivory, and by UPR professor
Carla Restrepo, on frugivory. And there are sidebars by Lars Walker,
on species interactions during succession, and by Nick Brokaw, on
plants in tropical forest fragments. The book is in Spanish.
*An environmental outreach poster: A tropical island river continuum: Protect our native plants and animals was just completed (funded by the USDA Forest Service IITF) and sent to the printer. Thanks to everyone for their input. The printer will send 500 copies to the IITF in Puerto Rico by the end of May and the posters will be available for distribution by the time of our June meeting at El Verde.
* With Alan Covich - Invited Member, National Academy of Sciences Committee "Assessing and valuing the services of aquatic and related terrestrial ecosystems." (meets four times throughout 2002-2003).
* Member, Research Advisory Committee for the Organization for Tropical Studies, meets biannually.
Jamie March,who did his dissertation research on streams of Luquillo(Ph.D University of Georgia, Institute of Ecology 2000), just accepted a tenure track Assistant Professorship with Washingtonand Jefferson College(Washington, PA- just outside of Pittsburg). He and his wife Sarah March (formerly Sarah Benstead - i.e. sister of Jon Benstead) will be moving there in July.
Jonathon 'Boggie' Benstead, who did two summers of field research at Luquillo
(Ph.D University of Georgia, Institute of Ecology 2000), just accepted a 3 year
postdoctoral position at the Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological laboratory.
He will
be doing research (and fly fishing) in arctic Alaska during the summers (working
with Dr. Linda Deegan) and living at Woods Hole on the east coast the rest of
the year.
Effie Greathouseis completing her third season of dissertation research in Puerto Rico this summer on "Natural and human-generated landscape-scale effects of migratory biota in tropical streams."
Jaqueline Farley (MS University of Florida) has been recruited as a new PhD student to work on the Luquillo LTER Project. Jackie will spend two weeks doing site reconnaissance in Puerto Ricowith Effie Greathosue this summer. Jackie and new Masters student, Kelly Crook (B.S. Texas A&M), will begin working at Luquillo in the summer of 2003.
Recent Publications Freeman, M, C. M. Pringle, E. Greathouse, and B. Freeman. In press (2002) Ecosystem-level consequences of migratory faunal depletion caused by dams. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 00: 00-00.
March J. P., C. M. Pringle, M. J. Townsend, and A. I. Wilson. 2002. Effects offreshwater shrimp assemblages on benthic communities along an altitude gradient of a tropical island stream. Freshwater Biology 47: 1-14.
Genereux, D., S. Wood, and C, M. Pringle. 2002. Chemical tracing of interbasin groundwater transfer in the lowland rainforest of Costa Rica. Journal of Hydrology 258: 163-178.
Rosemond, A. D., C. M. Pringle, A. Ramirez, M. J. Paul, and J. L. Meyer. 2002. Landscape pattterns in the effects of phosphorus on detritus-based tropical streams. Limnology and Oceanography 47: 278-289.
Pringle, C. M. 2001.Hydrologic connectivity: A call for greater emphasis in wildernessmanagement. International Journal of Wilderness 7(3):21-26.
Clark, J. S., S. Carpenter, M. Barber, S. Collins, A. Dobson, J. Foley, D.
Lodge, M. Pascual, R. Pielke Jr., W. Pizer, C. M. Pringle, W. Reid, K. Rose,
O. Sala, W. Schlesinger, D. Wall, and D. Wear. 2001. Ecological Forecasts: An
emerging
imperative. Science 293: 657-660.
Pringle,C. M. In press. The fragmentation of aquatic ecosystems and the alteration of hydrologic connectivity: neglected dimensions of conservation ecology.pp. 289-90. In: G. Meffe, M. Groom and R. Carroll (eds.) Principles of Conservation Biology, third edition, Sinauer Associates Inc.
Pringle,C. M. and J. P. Benstead. 2001. The effects of logging on tropical river ecosystems, Chapter 14, pp. 305-325. In: R. Fimbel, A. Grajal, and J. Robinson (eds.) Thecutting edge: conserving wildlife in logged tropical forests. Columbia UniversityPress.
Three students of Dr. Hall (Oscar Abelleira, Mary Gifford and Nancy Harris,
and Dr. Hall for a week) are spending this Summer camped out at El Verde with
a beautiful new LiCor CO2 analyzer studying photosynthesis on two gradients
from the top to the bottom of the Luquillo mountains. The group is taking advantage
of several towers in their studies but also have been trained in the use of
special tree climbing devices for locations along the gradient that do not have
towers. This requires a special large slingshot for shooting a salt water fishing
weight over the top crotch of a tree, Orange flagging and fishing
line is attached to the weight. When the weight is retrieved a small then large
mountain climbing rope is pulled through the top of the tree and they ascend
using technical climbing gear. They then measure photosynthesis and respiration
at various locations in the canopy. They are joined by two scientists from Dr.
Ye Qi's team at Berkeleywho are measuring soil and trunk respiration. Thus the
total photosynthesis and respiration of characteristic cylinders of forest will
be measured along a gradient from the bottom to the top of the mountain.
The Archbold Tropical Research Centre, Springfield House, Dominica, was visited in February 2002. Bromeliads were collected from Morne Trois Pitons and Morne Diablaton, in Tabonuco, intermediate montane thicket and Dwarf forest, to approximate to habitats in the Luquillo Forest. This is part of a collaborative comparitivestudy of bromeliad fauna in Costa Rica ( Diane Srivativa, UBC )and the Caribbean , and it is hoped to extend it to southern Florida, in collaboration with Bruce Rinker at the Marie Selby Botanic Garden.