Research Newsletter Life Sciences

To inform all members of this multi-national DFG Research Unit (FOR) shortly and concise about recent research advances in a citable way (DOI) the team publishes a bulletin on a regular basis. In doing so also research funders besides DFG stay informed about latest developments in the research stations as well as about changes in partner organisations and international partner universities. The Research Unit can be found under the Acronym RESPECT and the title Environmental changes in biodiversity hotspot ecosystems of South Ecuador: RESPonse and feedback effECTs. The bioscience, ecology, earth researchers, climatologists and modelers aim to unveil how two major ecosystem functions are affected by ongoing and future environmental changes through alterations in response and effect traits of relevant biota in the dry and the mountain rain forests in South Ecuador and their replacement systems.

Tabebuia Bulletin of the DFG Research Unit 2730 (RESPECT)

English newsletter, 40 pages

9th issue (December 2022)

Members of the German Research Consortium established climate-hydro stations, selected forests' and replacements systems' plots. They present first research results of the second phase of the Research Unit in this issue of the Tabebuia Bulletin: these comprise model testing and applications, insights into carbon and nitrogen cycles, linkage bewteen above- and belowground traits, uses of stable isotopes, biotic interactions. News from the data warehouse, as well as research results from infrastructure providers, counterparts at the UTPL and the UC, news from Ecuador, new people and staff members as well as a report about our successful outreach activity in form of an open day at Laipuna research station rounds off this issue.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/9xq8-jy86

Tabebuia Bulletin of the DFG Research Unit 2730

English newsletter, 44 pages

8th issue (November 2020)

The new issue of the Tabebuia Bulletin of the RESPECT Research Unit presents the new biodiversity land surface model Hydroatmo Unified Model of BiOtic interactions and Local Trait Diversity (HUMBOL-TD) and how it integrates hydrologic, biodiversity-related and atmospheric parameters. The bulletin summarises the research results of the individual projects that could be achieved despite the COVID-19 pandemic which overshadowed the entire work. Researchers report about responses and feedback effects of climate and land-use changes on abiotic drivers, biodiversity and ecological processes in this hotspot area. In details this Bulletin covers:

  • Hyperspectral data products that can be used to parameterize and test the LSMAtmo model
  • Partitioning net ecosystem exchange into gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration
  • Simulating response and effect mechanisms of global change on hydrological processes
  • Response of nutrient supply to climate and land-use changes
  • Implementing biotic interactions into a process-based dynamic vegetation model
  • Functional traits: Effects of phylogeny and elevation and the relation to tree growth
  • Plant functional types that can be differentiated by their response to transitory drought events  
  • Radial variability of wood functional traits in the pioneer tree Heliocarpus americanus
  • Evapotranspiration as an essential variable bridging climatology, soil science and plant ecophysiology
  • Reproductive traits of fleshy-fruited plants
  • How plant traits and arthropod communities influence herbivory

Beyond, the bulletin reports on establishment and repair of field infrastructure, recent advances of the data warehouse and the reconstruction of climate time series. Finally, research projects from Ecuadorian counterparts and milestones reached by the infrastructure providers round off the issue.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/for2730.cit.1857

Tabebuia Bulletin of the DFG Research Unit 2730 (RESPECT)

English newsletter, 31 pages

7th issue (January 2020)

All eight projects of the German Research Consortium present latest research results:

  • Plant functional type (PFT) classification works in trees
  • New Dynamic Vegetation Model HUMBOLDT introduced
  • Evapotranspiration and net-ecosystem exchange compared
  • Optical trait dynamics for PFT’s
  • Soil properties of cloud forests and pastures
  • Root and foliar nitrogen concentrations at different elevations
  • Dynamics of long-term water consumption and stem diameter variations confirm tree functional types.
  • Why identification of seed diversity exudes detective flair
  • Integration of abiotic covariates, functional trait diversity and herbivory on the ecosystem level
  • New project receives funding

The Bulletin also covers latest improvements of the data warehouse and the research station in the tropical mountain forest in Ecuador.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/for2730.cit.1817

Tabebuia Bulletin of the DFG Research Unit 2730 (RESPECT)

English newsletter, 21 pages

6th issue (February 2019)

The first Tabebuia Bulletin of our new Research Unit RESPECT summarizes the installation of our new plot system including the measuring devices and first verification of the newly established methods. First research achievements include the following aspects: plant functional types (PFT), water and carbon fluxes, tree above- and belowground traits, soil development, photosynthetic gas exchange measurements, abiotic covariates, functional trait diversity and herbivory, and optimization of biomass gain on pastures. Our Ecuadorian partner NCI reports advances in the establishment of newly protected areas and the Ecuador’s INABIO institution introduces itself. Videos of our previous research are available via our website and data warehouse, which now also offers new search features for publications as well as upload information.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/for2730.cit.1736

Tabebuia Bulletin of the Monitoring and Research Platform | South Ecuador (MRp|SE) 

English newsletter, 21 pages

5th issue (October 2016)

Members of the German Research Consortium met two of their many obligations: They published another high-ranking, multi-author paper and summarized their research results in a booklet for knowledge transfer. The Coordinators also describe how the research stations will operate from now on and how research will continue in a new Research Unit after the official end of the present Research Consortium.
The Science News cover a plant-frugivore network analysis and progresses towards reliable and easy to measure indicators for biodiversity, climate change and land-use alternations in the tropical mountain rainforest, as well as pine-fungi relationships and carbon stocks in Pine plantations in the Paramo ecosystem.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/pak823-825.cit.1510

Tabebuia Bulletin of the Monitoring and Research Platform | South Ecuador (MRp|SE)

English newsletter, 31 pages

4th issue (December 2015)

Science and Knowledge-Transfer news encompass

- first full-length paper on the competition between pasture grass (Setaria) and strong weed (bracken)
- how tree roots and the mycorrhiza fungi respond to nutrient manipulations
- in which way phosphate liberating soil enzymes depend on climatic conditions
- why the altitudinal gradient of tree assemblages disproved the general validity of the Tropical Conservatism Hypothesis.
- which measures are appropriate to determine daily carbon uptake in trees
- which tree functional types display different water relations in the dry forest
- how to create a soil map for remote or less accessible areas
- which sampling design for digital soil mapping closes the gap between the statistical desired quality of samples and operational applicability
- in which way the high resolution climate indicator system can be used to recognize climate change in southern Ecuador

Also: how workshops enthuse pupils with bird diversity and seed dispersal, teach science-directed advances in ecosystem monitoring and rehabilitation of abandoned areas

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/pak823-825.cit.1412 

Tabebuia Bulletin of the Monitoring and Research Platform | South Ecuador (MRp|SE)

English newsletter, 21 pages

3rd issue (May 2015)

Science papers in this issue
- compare tropical montane elevation transects in Ecuador and Peru
- analyze the relationship of decomposer communities and leaf litter types
- demonstrate how fertilization influences the amount of bio-available phosphorus
- reveal that nutrient availability stimulates mineralization of dissolved organic matter
- show that image textures can supersede functional biodiversity analysis
- provide insights into the transformation from abandoned sites to valuable pasture land.
A report introduces the installation of the last radar of the RadarNet Sur that is situated on a mountain peak and is the highest operating weather radar worldwide.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/pak823-825.cit.1399

Monitoring and Research Platform | South Ecuador (MRp|SE)

englischer Newsletter, 20-seitig

2nd issue (November 2014)

Scientists working in the tropical mountain rain forest report first results: They depict the impacts of nutrient additions on mycorrhiza as well as on the activity of phosphomonoesterases in the organic layer. Others describe the relationship between canopy evapotranspiration and leaf transpiration derived from a novel observational approach. First research results derive from the other two ecosystems under investigation: leaf phenology and tree water use was analyzed in the dry forest whereas the effects of roads on the avifauna were studied in the Cajas National Park. The Newsletter rounds off describing the successful approval of the dry forest area in the provinces Loja and El Oro as an UNESCO biosphere reserve where the application initiative was mainly pushed by the non-university partner NCI, supported by the DFG-PAK scientists. Now all three research sites belong to three different UNESCO biosphere reserves.

editorial work: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/pak823-825.cit.1287

Monitoring and Research Platform | South Ecuador (MRp|SE)

englischer Newsletter, 29-seitig

1st issue (April 2014)

The Newsletter offers results from research and knowledge transfer, new methods and models, as well as results which contrast current opinions. They concern plant distributions, canopy evapotranspriation and leaf photosynthesis, wood anatomy, the fate of fertilized phosphorus, transit times of water in the catchment related to land use, digital soil maps and the development of local climate indicators. It also displays maps of research plots and describes research infrastructures.

editorial services: texts and images, executive and managing editor

www.tropicalmountainforest.org
DOI: 10.5678/lcrs/pak823-825.cit.1260