Fritz, Sherilyn: University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2016 - 2017
NRA: 2015 NASA: Biodiversity
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
Tropical South America is a key region on Earth, whose rain and cloud forests host over half of all terrestrial plant species. The forests and their biota have evolved together with the physical landscape, closely linking processes in the Earth's interior with surface
landscapes, climate, hydrology, ecosystems, and, ultimately, biotic diversity. We propose a set of workshops to examine the interconnected relationships that govern all aspects of geophysical diversity and plant diversity across the dynamic spatial gradients that characterize the eastward transition from the high-elevation Andes of Peru into the lowland Amazon and the westward transition from the Andes of Ecuador and Colombia through the Chocó forest to the Pacific coast. We will undertake geophysical characterization of these regions at fine (meter) spatial scales and at a range of temporal scales, from hours to millions of years. Our interdisciplinary team will include biologists, geologists, leaders in tropical remote sensing, climate dynamicists, and modelers, with extensive experience in the region and with access to existing data sets. Together this team will examine how patterns of biotic diversity of tropical ecosystems, from the high Andes to the eastern and western lowlands of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia are related to, and controlled by, both (1) contemporary gradients in climate, soils, and landforms; and (2) processes on evolutionary timescales, including tectonism, geomorphology, climate, and phylogenetic history. Our proximate goal is to establish a link between disparate fields working on factors controlling biodiversity and its assessment using high-resolution active and passive remote sensing techniques, with the ultimate goal of assembling a mechanistic model of the processes that couple geodiversity and biodiversity in both a spatial and temporal context for these two globally unsurpassed centers of biodiversity. This model will enable us to understand and evaluate the efficacyof creating protected areas to preserve plant and animal biodiversity on the basis of geophysical diversity, as well as advance the ability to assess geology and biodiversity in tropical systems using advanced remote sensing methods.
Our workshops will bring together several active research groups with extensive research experience in tropical South America that have not collaborated previously and that are making use of recent analytical, technological, and conceptual innovations to advance fundamental questions about environmental patterns and history in the Neotropics. Our efforts will capitalize on an extensive network of tree inventory plots along the elevation gradient from the highlands to eastern lowlands in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia that enable us to map the contemporary abundance, distribution, diversity, and early response to climate change of forest trees, and to plan for establishment of a similar altitudinal network of tree plots in the Chocó forest. Our spatial domains focus on three regions with exceptional biodiversity and endemism: (1) Peru, which already has been characterized with both active and passive remote sensing data of forest structure and biodiversity and with studies of geology, geomorphology, and climate; (2) Ecuador, which has been littlestudied for any of these parameters; and (3) Colombia, with the largest area of remaining Chocó forest along the Pacific coasts. This network of sites also allows a study of latitudinal gradients of diversity from the southern Peruvian Andes to northern Colombia.Several team members are active in regional conservation initiatives, thus facilitating translation of workshop products and related research to biodiversity conservation.
Publications:
Benito, X., Feitl, M. G., Fritz, S. C., Mosquera, P. V., Schneider, T., Hampel, H., Quevedo, L., Steinitz-Kannan, M. 2019. Identifying temporal and spatial patterns of diatom community change in the tropical Andes over the last
c
. 150 years. Journal of Biogeography. 46(8), 1889-1900. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13561
Benito, X., Fritz, S. C., Steinitz-Kannan, M., Tapia, P. M., Kelly, M. A., Lowell, T. V. 2018. Geo-climatic factors drive diatom community distribution in tropical South American freshwaters. Journal of Ecology. 106(4), 1660-1672. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12934
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
