20 groups of scientists representing a multitude of scientific disciplines summarize major results of their research in this last issue of the TMF Newsletter: They report about science-directed and sustainable land-use systems and present protocols for optimization of sustainable forest and pasture management. Specific reactions of species and of the ecosystem tropical mountain forest (TMF) to increasing loads of nutrient input are shown. The researchers also summarize effects of altered precipitation and temperatures on nitrogen fluxes as well as on plant and animal diversity. They furthermore improved their hydrological models of water fluxes. Landscape parameters and forest dynamics were analyzed to improve landslide models. New animal species and mycorrhiza types are presented, mycorrhiza biomass were determined, and it was analyzed which mycorrhizae foster young trees. How environmental change influences climate and the ecosystem is demonstrated. The milestones achieved in the data warehouse are visualized. The researchers also offer new methods and introduce species to successfully monitor global change impacts.
The speakers give a glimpse on the complex on-site review procedure of the projects which constitute the German part of the new Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Monitoring and Research in South Ecuador. They also report about the Status Symposium which enjoyed a numerous audience.
NCI reports about the application to the UNESCO for the first biosphere reserve in the Ecuadorian Western Cordillera comprising the entire ecological gradient from the Paramo to the Pacific.
The Science News present an investigation of the famers' preferences of land use options for the recultivation of abandoned agricultural areas. An analysis of nitrogen fixation shows why nutrient budgets should include the canopy.
The data manager and the webmaster analyze the usage of the RU's data warehouse.
The Newsletter no 17 presents a summary of five years of research (Speakers’ Corner) and provides insight in latest results of the nutrient addition experiments, the competition between bracken and pasture grass, mycorrhization, climate change research and recent modelings, the advances of the data warehouse and the Laser Scanning Mission as well as achievements in afforestation experiments (Science News). This issue also informs about recent progress of the foundation NCI, the status of the two transfer projects and the biodiversity results of the cooperating partner project.
The vast biodiversity of the tropical mountain forests once attracted German scientists to start the interdisciplinary research in the remote area of the Ecuadorian Rio San Francisco Valley. Now, after a total of 15 years of German-Ecuadorian research, they have unveiled features hitherto unknown regarding ecosystem constitution, functioning, and services. As they observed this unique ecosystem is locally threatened by non-sustainable land uses like pasture farming. Therefore they developed a science-directed sustainable land use portfolio based on their results and the resilience of the ecosystem against environmental changes. Their recommendations after five years of research in the scope of FOR816 include intensification, diversification, restoration and conservation, and to monitor the impacts of ongoing environmental change.
Download the TMF Newsletter no 17
The new structure of the planned research platform is visualized. For the first time scientists report about the income of small farms as well as about their plant and land use which were analyzed by thorough interviews. Members of the Research Unit show how the forest responds to elevated nitrogen deposition and display nitrogen, nitrous oxide and nitric oxide fluxes. They also explain climate-growth-relationships in trees, and describe the factors which are affecting the spatial distribution of trees. The data warehouse manager introduces how to filter and aggregate tabular values. Our partner NCI reports about a mayor breakthrough in the conservation of people and biodiversity in Perú. EDIT partners analyzed the distribution of ants and partners from the UTPL introduce a study that will be conducted to sample geo-information in South Ecuador.
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The special issue of the TMF-Newsletter summarizes past achievements of 14 years of ecosystem and biodiversity research in South Ecuador and outlines future plans for a joint German- Ecuadorian research program starting in 2013. It lists all steps and deadlines for projects on the planned “platform for biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring and research in South Ecuador”. This newsletter by Jörg Bendix and Erwin Beck calls for project proposals. esw
Two scientists are honored for research and one received a conservation award. The 14th Newsletter also reports about the progresses in the new research platform, the Status Symposium, and the inauguration of the first reforestation project. The rubric Science News offers insight into a new convective cloud development, the disconnection of soil microbial structure and function, the three seasons that occur around Loja, the driving factors of decomposition, and the biodiversity of flies and arachnids. New search features in the data warehouse are introduced and a map displays the dimension of the fire that destroyed reforestation areas near the research station.
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Precipitation dynamics are summarized in the second habilitation elaborated in this Research Unit. The Newsletter also covers reports of recent progress concerning the planned book and publications as well as the new research platform. High ranking delegations visited the research station. Progress in the creation of a Bioshere Reserve around Cajas National Park is outlined. The Science News include the fate of epiphytes, forest dynamics and fertilization experiments, water flow patterns as well as biomarkers for carbon sequestration. Counterparts from the Technical University of Loja offer their few on the planned research platform.
A delegation of the Germany Science Foundation (DFG) visited our RU and met people and organizations to take the next steps towards the new Research Platform to monitor global change. News in the science section offer insights into fungi inventories, mycorrhiza communities and bracken compositions, long term climate measurements, pollen rain calibrations, and into the evolution of moths megadiversity, which took place much earlier than previously supposed. One partner from EDIT reports that for some ants habitat may be more important than food. Further topics are how FOR816 datasets should be cited, new members of the RU and an exhibition in which research results of the RU will be displayed in several places in Germany.
The tasks and challenges of the RU in 2011, a summary of the successes of the last year and the visit at a feasible new research site are among the topics. Others cover the fire that destroyed the reforestation plots, science news about precipitation and nutrient availability, effects of transformations from forests to pastures on soils as well as “canopy wetlands” as a novel source of methane. The web-based planning tool “MapViewer” is introduced. News about cooperating partners as well as new people and staff members round off the 11th issue of the TMF-Newsletter.
The tenth TMF Newsletter summarizes what’s new at the approaching Symposium of the Research Unit (RU). It describes how the research permits for the study area in Ecuador may be influenced by the upcoming CBD conference in Nagoya, Japan. NCI informs about a 1.5 Million fund for conservation and bioknowledge. One research group illuminates the competition between bracken fern and Setaria grass. Another group calculated the price which may be able to prevent further deforestation. And the warehouse managers explain how the RU’s database is interrelated with databases from other ecologists and the World Wide Web.
Five groups of the Research Unit (RU) report about their latest results: the transformation of nitrogen, mycorrhizas and reforestation, land use and erosion, modelling and remote sensing and mycorrhizas in seedling development. The ninth TMF Newsletter also summarizes news around the research station, new DFG-cooperation projects, and describes why the RU can be viewed as a model to update the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) protocols of the Convention on Biological Biodiversity (CBD). New cooperation partners from the ABA ECUADOR initiative are about to start field work. And a project plan is introduced to overcome ecological and institutional barriers for restoration of biodiversity and forest utilization potentials.
The 8th TMF Newsletter informs about: Visiting DFG officials, the new structure
during the second phase of the Research Unit, NCI proposes a bioknowledge
program, new mycobiotns of orchids discovered, cooperation with scientists from
EDIT who explore ants, beetles and flies in the RBSF area and amongst others
data warehouse news as well as new people and staff members.
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In this issue 14 working groups from several scientific disciplines provide an insight into their latest research results uncovered in the diverse ecosystem of the tropical mountain rainforest. The Tumbesian dry forest is introduced and hints at success and moving of people from the Research Unit are given.
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The first newsletter of the research unit has been published today.
You can download it here.