Área de Conservación Guanacaste,northwestern Costa Rica: Converting a tropical national park to conservation via biodevelopment

The ~30,000 hectare classical Costa Rican Parque Nacional Santa Rosa has used about 35 years and $107 million to be converted to the 169,000 ha government-NGO hybrid Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). This semi-decentralized conservation entity has today a staff of ~150 paraprofessional resident Costa Ricans, biodeveloping at least 650,000 multicellular species (Eucaryotes) into perpetuity for ACG survival through being integrated with its local, regional, national, and international society. ACG began in 1985 as an ongoing exercise of landscape-level ecosystem rescue and restoration of a continuous swath from 6 km out in the Pacific ocean, across dry forested lowlands, up and over the volcanic Cordillera Guanacaste, and down into the rain-forested Caribbean lowlands. It is being impacted by climate change, yet its diverse ecosystems hold hope for major biodiversity survival, albeit in new community assemblages. It quickly became simultaneously a biophysical challenge and an administratively novel challenge in decentralized conservation in a democratic tropical country. ACG specializes at being managed by on-the-job stimulated and trained residents with minimal formal education, searching for ways to involve ACG in its society without damaging its wildness, and pioneering ways to render wild biodiversity to being a welcome member at society's negotiating table. It continues to pay its bills through government subsidy, generous donors, payments for services, project grants, and huge in-kind contributions from mutualisms. ACG hopes that the concept will spread south–south to other tropical countries while they still have some of their wild biodiversity with which to integrate.     

The impact of global climate change on tropical forest biodiversity in Amazonia

Aim To model long‐term trends in plant species distributions in response to predicted changes in global climate. Location Amazonia. Methods The impacts of expected global climate change on the potential and realized distributions of a representative sample of 69 individual Angiosperm species in Amazonia were simulated from 1990 to 2095. The climate trend followed the HADCM2GSa1 scenario, which assumes an annual 1% increase of atmospheric CO₂ content with effects mitigated by sulphate forcing. Potential distributions of species in one‐degree grid cells were modelled using a suitability index and rectilinear envelope based on bioclimate variables. Realized distributions were additionally limited by spatial contiguity with, and proximity to, known record sites. A size‐structured population model was simulated for each cell in the realized distributions to allow for lags in response to climate change, but dispersal was not included. Results In the resulting simulations, 43% of all species became non‐viable by 2095 because their potential distributions had changed drastically, but there was little change in the realized distributions of most species, owing to delays in population responses. Widely distributed species with high tolerance to environmental variation exhibited the least response to climate change, and species with narrow ranges and short generation times the greatest. Climate changed most in north‐east Amazonia while the best remaining conditions for lowland moist forest species were in western Amazonia. Main conclusions To maintain the greatest resilience of Amazonian biodiversity to climate change as modelled by HADCM2GSa1, highest priority should be given to strengthening and extending protected areas in western Amazonia that encompass lowland and montane forests.     

A global model of the response of tropical and sub-tropical forest biodiversity to anthropogenic pressures

Habitat loss and degradation, driven largely by agricultural expansion and intensification, present the greatest immediate threat to biodiversity. Tropical forests harbour among the highest levels of terrestrial species diversity and are likely to experience rapid land-use change in the coming decades. Synthetic analyses of observed responses of species are useful for quantifying how land use affects biodiversity and for predicting outcomes under land-use scenarios. Previous applications of this approach have typically focused on individual taxonomic groups, analysing the average response of the whole community to changes in land use. Here, we incorporate quantitative remotely sensed data about habitats in, to our knowledge, the first worldwide synthetic analysis of how individual species in four major taxonomic groups—invertebrates, ‘herptiles’ (reptiles and amphibians), mammals and birds—respond to multiple human pressures in tropical and sub-tropical forests. We show significant independent impacts of land use, human vegetation offtake, forest cover and human population density on both occurrence and abundance of species, highlighting the value of analysing multiple explanatory variables simultaneously. Responses differ among the four groups considered, and—within birds and mammals—between habitat specialists and habitat generalists and between narrow-ranged and wide-ranged species.     

An objective tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature gradient index for studies of south Amazon dry-season climate variability and change

Future changes in meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients in the tropical Atlantic could influence Amazon dry-season precipitation by shifting the patterns of moisture convergence and vertical motion. Unlike for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, there are no standard indices for quantifying this gradient. Here we describe a method for identifying the SST gradient that is most closely associated with June–August precipitation over the south Amazon. We use an ensemble of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) integrations forced by observed SST from 1949 to 2005. A large number of tropical Atlantic SST gradient indices are generated randomly and temporal correlations are examined between these indices and June–August precipitation averaged over the Amazon Basin south of the equator. The indices correlating most strongly with June–August southern Amazon precipitation form a cluster of near-meridional orientation centred near the equator. The location of the southern component of the gradient is particularly well defined in a region off the Brazilian tropical coast, consistent with known physical mechanisms. The chosen index appears to capture much of the Atlantic SST influence on simulated southern Amazon dry-season precipitation, and is significantly correlated with observed southern Amazon precipitation.We examine the index in 36 different coupled atmosphere–ocean model projections of climate change under a simple compound 1% increase in CO₂. Within the large spread of responses, we find a relationship between the projected trend in the index and the Amazon dry-season precipitation trends. Furthermore, the magnitude of the trend relationship is consistent with the inter-annual variability relationship found in the AGCM simulations. This suggests that the index would be of use in quantifying uncertainties in climate change in the region.     

Variability in solar radiation and temperature explains observed patterns and trends in tree growth rates across four tropical forests

The response of tropical forests to global climate variability and change remains poorly understood. Results from long-term studies of permanent forest plots have reported different, and in some cases opposing trends in tropical forest dynamics. In this study, we examined changes in tree growth rates at four long-term permanent tropical forest research plots in relation to variation in solar radiation, temperature and precipitation. Temporal variation in the stand-level growth rates measured at five-year intervals was found to be positively correlated with variation in incoming solar radiation and negatively related to temporal variation in night-time temperatures. Taken alone, neither solar radiation variability nor the effects of night-time temperatures can account for the observed temporal variation in tree growth rates across sites, but when considered together, these two climate variables account for most of the observed temporal variability in tree growth rates. Further analysis indicates that the stand-level response is primarily driven by the responses of smaller-sized trees (less than 20 cm in diameter). The combined temperature and radiation responses identified in this study provide a potential explanation for the conflicting patterns in tree growth rates found in previous studies.     

Changes in the Status of Lophura Pheasants in Khao Yai National Park,Thailand: A Response to Warming Climate?

Long-term bird population changes in response to natural or anthropogenic factors have been relatively well documented in the temperate zone, but rarely in the tropics, where there are few long-term data sets. Here, we analyze a 25-yr sequence of records of two species of Lophura pheasants, Siamese Fireback L. diardi and Silver Pheasant L. nycthemera in Khao Yai, Thailand's oldest national park. These data suggest that the number and proportion of detections of the lowlands-inhabiting L. diardi have increased significantly in relation to those of the higher elevation inhabitant L. nycthemera . Environmental factors mediated by changing climate are the most plausible explanation for the changing proportions of sightings of the two species. Further work is needed to explore in detail microhabitat selection of these birds and whether changes in microsite conditions on the forest floor or other factors are driving the observed distribution. Long-term monitoring of the avifauna along an elevational gradient is also recommended in tandem with increased monitoring of local climatic conditions.     

热带森林碳汇或碳源之争

热带森林生产和储存有世界40%的生物量碳,这一碳汇的存在对于全球碳循环和人类的生态安全是极其重要的。由于气候变化热带森林碳储存量已经发生了一系列的变化。一种观点认为自20世纪80年代后期起热带森林的基面积(生物量)、茎个体密度、茎个体周转率均呈现显著增长,并归结为热带森林结构和动态协调一致的变化,同时将生物量的增加归功于高浓度CO2施肥。进而推断热带森林现今和今后数十年,它仍然是一个中等的碳汇。另一种观点认为热带森林生物量并无增加,其森林碳汇已沦落为碳源。在实验室中设置高浓度CO2条件栽培热带植物进行观测的多数结果是,无结构碳水化合物增加,而生物量并无增加。同时,随着CO2浓度升高,高温和干旱对热带森林将产生一系列更严重的负面影响,如森林生长量下降、死亡率以及森林火险增加;厄尔尼诺事件将会更加剧旱情和火灾,致使树木出现枯梢和死亡高峰。未来人类开发森林及林地利用改变将日益加剧,在自然和人为的综合影响下,不论是对热带森林生物量增加持肯定立场的生态学家,或对此持反对立场的生态学家,双方都一致认为未来退化的热带森林系统碳汇必然转变为碳源,甚至是一大规模的碳源。     

热带林下的砂仁栽培

阳春砂仁(Amomum villosumL。)是中国的传统药用植物,它的种子团称为砂仁,果皮称为砂壳,皆可入药,有温脾、健胃、消食、行气之功效,主治胃炎、积食不消等,是30多种中成药的主要成分,还可用作调味佐料等,具有很高的经济价值。阳春砂仁原产广东省阳     

The future of the Amazon: new perspectives from climate, ecosystem and social sciences

The potential loss or large-scale degradation of the tropical rainforests has become one of the iconic images of the impacts of twenty-first century environmental change and may be one of our century's most profound legacies. In the Amazon region, the direct threat of deforestation and degradation is now strongly intertwined with an indirect challenge we are just beginning to understand: the possibility of substantial regional drought driven by global climate change. The Amazon region hosts more than half of the world's remaining tropical forests, and some parts have among the greatest concentrations of biodiversity found anywhere on Earth. Overall, the region is estimated to host about a quarter of all global biodiversity. It acts as one of the major 'flywheels' of global climate, transpiring water and generating clouds, affecting atmospheric circulation across continents and hemispheres, and storing substantial reserves of biomass and soil carbon. Hence, the ongoing degradation of Amazonia is a threat to local climate stability and a contributor to the global atmospheric climate change crisis. Conversely, the stabilization of Amazonian deforestation and degradation would be an opportunity for local adaptation to climate change, as well as a potential global contributor towards mitigation of climate change. However, addressing deforestation in the Amazon raises substantial challenges in policy, governance, sustainability and economic science. This paper introduces a theme issue dedicated to a multidisciplinary analysis of these challenges.