New Publication
This is a recent paper published from their Amazonian work that may be of interest to the LUQ LTER. The paper reports the results of a fertilization experiment on two soil types in a lowland tropical forest with seasonal rainfall patterns:
McGroddy M.E., W.L. Silver, R.C. de Oliveira Jr., W.Z. de Mello, and M. Keller. 2008. Retention of phosphorous in highly weathered soils under a lowland Amazonian forest ecosystem. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, G04012, doi:10.1029/2008JG000756, 2008
E.A. Adair, W.J. Parton, S.J. Del Grosso, W.S. Silver, M.E. Harmon, S.A. Hall, I.C. Burke, S.C. Hart. 2008. Simple three-pool model accurately describes patterns of long-term litter decomposition in divers climates. Global Change Biology 14: 2636–2660.
New Publication
Wagner Rudiger, Richardson Barbara A., and Richardson M. J. 2008. A new psychodid species from Puerto Rican tank bromeliads. Studies on the Neotropical Fauna and Environment. First Article, 1-8.
New Publication
Templer PH, WL Silver, J Pett-Ridge, KM DeAngelis and MK Firestone.
2008. Plant and microbial controls on nitrogen retention and loss in a humid tropical forest. Ecology 89: 3030-3040.
From El Verde Field Station
Developing a Sustainable Education and Research Agenda at El Verde Field Station
Last Oct. 4-5 we held a workshop at El Verde as a first step toward designing a new master plan for the station. The plan will guide development at El Verde for the next 10 years with respect to its role in supporting research and education. The workshop was attended by representatives of the LUQ-LTER, atmospheric scientists, educators, UPR administrators, colleagues from tropical field stations, and members of OBFS. Proposed activities were divided in three major areas: (1) support of current research projects (e.g., LTER), (2) expansion of educational activities, and (3) support of atmospheric research at Pico del Este. The final document will include specific activities under each of these three areas. A draft version of the master plan will be circulated among El Verde users before the end of the year. All comments are welcome.
New LUQ LTER Web site
The new LUQ LTER Web site will finally be in place by the end of this month. LNO's staff members, Marsh White, the web developer, and Inigo San Gil, the EML expert, will visit our offices at ITES to install the new web site in one of our local servers.
This web site will be dynamic allowing authorized users to upload documents and will also allow the public to search for information using pre-defined keywords as well as any text. All information will be in a MYSQL data base which will allow people to search for any information in the web site.
LUQ will be one of the first LTER sites, possibly the first, to use Drupal (1), as the software package with which the web site is designed. The LNO staff is enthusiastic about it, since with the LUQ site they will establish a model web site for other LTER sites to adopt.
A prototype has been established at http://devel.lternet.edu/. I recommend people to browse it and use the attached form to send me recommendations for the CONTENT AND FUNCTIONALITIES (for example, its searching capability). This prototype does not show how the site will look like yet, including photos and other visual aspects that will give the web site a nice and better appearance. Photos and graphs are welcome.
Send me (emelendez@ites.upr.edu) your recommendations in the attached document.