J&J Ruinen Fellowship in Tropical Forestry: Announcing the 2023 Awardees

“Liana composition and distribution in a tropical Afromontane forest” -- Ngel Nyaki, Nigeria

Gabriel Dabo, a Science Coordinator at the Nigerian Montane Forest Project, is seeking to provide valuable information about liana diversity and biomass by locating, tagging, and analyzing the liana community in the Ngel Nyaki forest dynamics plot in Nigeria. Gaining understanding of liana species richness, stem density, and basal area will determine how lianas contribute to the overall woody species diversity in the plot. Gabriel’s project will enhance knowledge of liana ecology in Afrotropical regions and help to assess the mechanisms that drive their abundance and persistence over time.

“Understanding masting behaviors of plant species in multiple tropical forests: A cross-site analysis” -- Luquillo, Puerto Rice; Barro COlorado Island, Panama; Yasuni, Ecuador

Evald Maceno, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras, is working towards identifying quantitative methods to evaluate mass-seeding in tropical forests across three ForestGEO sites: Luquillo, Puerto Rico; Barro Colorado Island, Panama; and Yasuni, Ecuador. His project will examine the relationship between climatic fluctuation and masting variance through time, which will allow him to assess masting trends within shared species or genera between sites. The implications of masting behaviors of tropical forest species are far-reaching. Evald hopes that gaining a better understanding of phenological patterns and their drivers may lead to understanding changes caused by changing climate or human land use.

“Role of interspecific and intraspecific variations in leaf traits in determining the community structure in a diverse tropical rainforest”  -- Sinharaja, Sri Lanka 

Shashikala Madhubhani, a Graduate Student and Research Assistant at Uva Wellassa University, will focus on understanding how various species respond to environmental gradients and contribute to the community structure of tree ecosystems in tropical forests. She will investigate the variation in functional traits among and within species along a topographical gradient in the Sinharaja forest dynamics plot in Sri Lanka. Shashikala hopes to advance understanding of community assembly by linking leaf traits, species composition, and community dynamics which will ultimately aid in predicting community shifts. This predictive ability is crucial to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management.

“Tracing phylogenetic signal in the chemical composition of plant communities across an elevational gradient in the American tropics” -- La Planada & Amacayacu, Colombia

Diana Marcela Medellín-Zabala, a Ph.D. Student and the University of Michigan, is studying the way in which plants respond to herbivory within the pantropical tree family Lecythidaceae. She will conduct her research along an elevation gradient in two ForestGEO sites in Colombia: La Planada and Amacayacu. She will consider these three questions: 1) How does plant defense chemistry vary phylogenetically and along an elevational gradient? 2) Are there metabolites evolving independently in each locality? And 3) Is the secondary chemical diversity lower in the species occurring in higher elevations? By answering these questions, Diana hopes to expand understanding of plant-herbivore interactions beyond lowland forests.

“The Role of Ants in Preventing Herbivory Damage: Assessment of Ant-Plant Interactions in the Northern Sierra Madre Rainforest” -- Palanan, Philippines

Earl Terrenz Gigante, a Graduate Student and Lecturer at the University of Philippines – Diliman , is seeking to gather more information on the nature of ant-plant relationships. Specifically, he will investigate the ant-plant mutualisms in the Northern Sierra Madre rainforest on the Palanan forest dynamics plot in the Philippines by comparing species lists with known ant plants, sampling ant biodiversity, and employing experimental ant exclosures. Earl’s project will also build up the scientific capacity in the Philippines by creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate collaborators to engage in ecological research in Palanan. He hopes that his project will aid subsequent research on forest conservation and restoration.

“Integrating root defense and acquisition functions to predict belowground strategies in different ecosystems" -- San Emilio, Costa Rico & Speulderbos, The Netherlands

Monique Weemstra, an Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, will test variation in root strategies across climates using data from ForestGEO plots San Emilio in Costa Rico and Speulderbos inThe Netherlands. She will use root trait measurements across common tree species in a temperate vs. tropical forest to test the universality of belowground strategies by integrating root defense and acquisition functions and soil (a)biotics. Pinpointing important local (a)biotic drivers will enable Monique’s research to serve as a steppingstone towards a larger project to investigate belowground trait diversity on a global scale.