2009 LTER All Scientists Meeting - LUQ

Long-Term Trends in Spatial Partitioning of Biodiversity: Considerations of Disturbance and Recovery

Christopher Bloch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:57:35 +0000

Poster Number:

379

Presenter/Primary Author:

Christopher Bloch

Co-Authors:

Christopher Higgins

Co-Authors:

Michael Willig

Patterns of biodiversity at large spatial scales (i.e., γ diversity) can be driven by either within-community (α) or among-community (β) components. The degree to which α or β components contribute to γ diversity may depend on the amount of environmental variation that exists in the spatial extents studied. However, few studies have assessed both spatial configuration and temporal changes in biodiversity, especially in systems that frequently experience large-scale disturbance.

Socio-ecological research in northeastern Puerto Rico (LUQ)

Jess Zimmerman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:20:40 +0000

Poster Number:

339

Presenter/Primary Author:

Jess Zimmerman

Co-Authors:

Tischa Munoz-Erickson

Co-Authors:

Ariel E. Lugo

Co-Authors:

Frederick N. Scatena

Co-Authors:

Charles A.S. Hall

Co-Authors:

Alonso Ramirez

The dominant theme of socio-ecological research in the Luquillo LTER Research Program is the influence of land use change on local climate change, secondary forest dynamics, watershed and stream processes, and ecosystem services. Much of our research is being developed in the context of the steep urban to wildlands gradient from the Rio Piedras watershed (RPW) in the center of San Juan metropolitan area(SJMA) to the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) some 25 km away.

Urban streams in Puerto Rico: understanding stream ecosystems outside the Luquillo forest

Alonso Ramirez — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:13:56 +0000

Poster Number:

328

Presenter/Primary Author:

Alonso Ramirez

Co-Authors:

Sofia Burgos

Co-Authors:

Alan Covich

Co-Authors:

Todd Crowl

Co-Authors:

Augustin Engman

Co-Authors:

Debora Figueroa

Co-Authors:

Noraida Martinez

Co-Authors:

Bill McDowell

Co-Authors:

Jorge Ortiz-Zayas

Co-Authors:

Omar Perez

Co-Authors:

Colin Phillips

Co-Authors:

Cathy Pringle

Co-Authors:

Pedro Torres

Co-Authors:

Fred Scatena

Urbanization is one of the major threats to stream ecosystems worldwide. The phrase “urban stream syndrome” has been coined to describe patterns in degraded streams draining urban land. In Puerto Rico, urbanization now covers 16% of the island. The fully protected Luquillo Experimental Forest (focus of the LUQ-LTER) is only 23 km from the center of San Juan, a city of 1.3 million. Therefore, LUQ is assessing the impacts of urbanization on tropical stream ecosystem structure and function.

Undergraduate research training in tropical ecology at the Luquillo LTER, Puerto Rico

Alonso Ramirez — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:01:46 +0000

Poster Number:

327

Presenter/Primary Author:

Alonso Ramirez

The Luquillo LTER program (LUQ) provides research experiences to undergraduate students by immersing them in its active research environment. LUQ offers a variety of programs and opportunities to undergraduate students that allow them to gain research experience and technical skills in tropical ecology. Our goals are to (1) provide students with research experiences under the advice of established scientists and (2) supplement experiences with educational activities designed to equip students with the necessary tools to conduct scientific research.

Interactions between hurricanes and the legacy of human disturbance, determine the future composition of the Luquillo Forest.

Jill Thompson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:23:14 +0000

Poster Number:

316

Presenter/Primary Author:

Jill Thompson

Co-Authors:

María Uriarte

Co-Authors:

Liza Comita

Co-Authors:

Jess K. Zimmerman

Co-Authors:

Charles Canham

Co-Authors:

Nicholas Brokaw

Co-Authors:

Inge Jonkcheere

Co-Authors:

Ned Fetcher

Co-Authors:

Lora Murphy

Co-Authors:

Alberto Sabat

Co-Authors:

Bruce Haines

The Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (LFDP) is a 16-ha long-term study plot in subtropical wet forest in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. It is part of the Luquillo LTER and the Center for Tropical Science (CTFS) network of large tropical forest plots. Forests are often subject to multiple, compounded disturbances, representing both natural and human-induced processes. Our goal is to understand forest structure, diversity and dynamics, and to predict long-term changes resulting from interactions of past human land use and intermittent hurricane damage.

Metacommunity structure of gastropods along an elevational gradient in the Luquillo Mountains

Michael Willig — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:21:55 +0000

Poster Number:

283

Presenter/Primary Author:

Michael Willig

Co-Authors:

Brian Klingbeil

Co-Authors:

Christopher Bloch

Co-Authors:

Ivan Castro-Arellano

Co-Authors:

Laura Cisneros

Co-Authors:

Steven Presley

The metacommunity framework integrates species-specific responses to environmental gradients to detect emergent patterns of species organization. More specifically, a metacommunity is a set of ecological communities that are potentially linked by dispersal, with each community being a group of species at a particular site.

The EcoTrends Project: preview of the book and introduction to the web site

Debra Peters — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:46:43 +0000

Poster Number:

274

Presenter/Primary Author:

Debra Peters

Co-Authors:

Christine Laney

Co-Authors:

Ariel Lugo

Co-Authors:

Scott Collins

Co-Authors:

Charley Driscoll

Co-Authors:

Peter Groffman

Co-Authors:

Morgan Grove

Co-Authors:

Alan Knapp

Co-Authors:

Tim Kratz

Co-Authors:

Mark Ohman

Co-Authors:

Bob Waide

Co-Authors:

Jin Yao

Co-Authors:

Mark Servilla

The EcoTrends Project began in 2004 as a joint collaboration among the LTER Program, USDA Agricultral Research Service, and the USDA Forest Service with two goals: (1) to create a book illustrating trends in long -term data and showing the value of long-term data across a network of sites in addressing continental-scale questions, and (2) to make long-term biotic and abiotic data easily accessible through a common web interface with a focus on derived or aggregated data to allow cross-site analyses to be made.

Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research Program

Nick Brokaw — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:19:02 +0000

Poster Number:

241

Presenter/Primary Author:

Nick Brokaw

Tropical environments are changing fast due to deforestation and regrowth, urbanization, climate change, and other forces. The consequences are immense for the whole array of ecosystem services people require. The Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LUQ) is tackling these issues in Puerto Rico. LUQ began in 1988 and focused on natural disturbances (hurricanes, landslides, droughts, floods) and ecosystem response. That work revealed patterns of resistance and resilience to cycles of natural disturbance.

Luquillo Schoolyard LTER Program

Steven McGee — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:52:52 +0000

Poster Number:

240

Presenter/Primary Author:

Steven McGee

Co-Authors:

Jorge Ortiz

Co-Authors:

Jess Zimmerman

Co-Authors:

Ariel Lugo

The Luquillo Schoolyard LTER program has adopted a pipeline model to guide the development and implementation of outreach activities from K12 to graduate education. At each level students are provided with authentic LTER experiences and encouraged to continue in the field of ecology research. At the middle school level, LUQ provides the Journey to El Yunque program as a free, bilingual, web-based curriculum in ecology. It uses the context of the LUQ research on hurricane disturbance to teach students about basic concepts in ecology.

Climate, biota and ecosystem processes along an elevation gradient in Puerto Rico.

Grizelle Gonzalez — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:08:30 +0000

Poster Number:

214

Presenter/Primary Author:

Grizelle Gonzalez

Co-Authors:

S.A. Cantrell

Co-Authors:

W.L. Silver

Co-Authors:

D.J. Lodge

Co-Authors:

B.A. Richardson

The Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research Program (LUQ) focuses on understanding factors driving long-term change in tropical forest ecosystems in the Luquillo Mountains. To increase our understanding of biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystems, we extended our work from the tabonuco forest to a range of forest types occurring along a climatic and forest gradient in the Luquillo Mountains.