Tropical forests and global change: biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023

Cusack, Daniela F.; Reed, Sasha; Andersen, Kelly M.; Cinoğlu, Damla; Craig, Matthew E.; Dietterich, Lee H.; Hogan, J. Aaron; Holm, Jennifer A.; Nottingham, Andrew T.; Ostertag, Rebecca; Soper, Fiona M.; Wood, Tana E.; Wong, Michelle Y.

doi:10.1111/nph.19511

Title: Tropical forests and global change: biogeochemical responses and opportunities for cross-site comparisons, an organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon, USA, August 2023

Journal Article · 16 January 2024 · New Phytologist

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19511 · OSTI ID:2455096

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Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama)
US Geological Survey, Moab, UT (United States). Southwest Biological Science Center
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)
Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Haverford College, PA (United States); US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS (United States). Environmental Laboratory
USDA Forest Service, Río Piedras, PR (United States). International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City (Panama); University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo, HI (United States)
McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)

In this study, tropical forests play a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle. These ecosystems maintain the highest rates of net primary production (NPP) on Earth, contain c. 30% of terrestrial C stocks, and have some of the largest stores of fine-root biomass globally, as well as higher fine-root production and turnover rates compared with other biomes. Tropical forest responses to projected warming, altered rainfall regimes, and elevated CO₂ concentrations are likely to be different from other ecosystems because of their unique characteristics (Box 1), making targeted research and model development important for understanding tropical forest–climate feedbacks. There is now a critical mass of long-term global change field experiments and modeling efforts in tropical forests, yet thus far there has been little synthesis, cross-site comparison, or multi-site standardized experimentation among tropical forests to help us understand how these biomes are changing. An organized INSPIRE session at the 108th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America set out to tackle just this. Speakers covered large-scale tropical forest field experiments and modeling efforts, with an emphasis on changes in ecosystem biogeochemistry under warming, drying, elevated atmospheric CO₂, and changing nutrient status. In this Meeting report, we provide an overview of the large-scale global change experiments presented and highlight the main objectives and opportunities for tropical forest research that emerged, including cross-site comparisons and integration with ecosystem-scale models (Fig. 1).

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Science (EESS) National Science Foundation (NSF); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0015898; SC0018942; SC0022095

OSTI ID:: 2455096

Journal Information:: New Phytologist, Journal Name: New Phytologist Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 241; ISSN 0028-646X

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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