Meet the 2022 Awardees of the J&J Ruinen Fellowship in Tropical Forestry and ForestGEO Research Grants Program

“Effect of fruit availability, habitat, and climate on bird-plant seed dispersal networks in the rainforest interior” – Yasuní forest dynamics plot, Ecuador

Juan Francisco Herrera-Cueva, a master’s student at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, is investigating birds, fruit availability, and seed dispersal in the Yasuní forest dynamics plot in Ecuador. Juan’s project aims to discover if birds of the rainforest interior take advantage of spatiotemporal variation in fruit availability and favor dispersion of certain plant taxa in different habitats and seasons. Juan will use seeds directly collected from dispersers in the Yasuní plot to build a bird-seed dispersal network and hopes this study will create the foundation to develop a long-term seed-dispersion-by-birds research program. Juan’s work will start to untangle the intricate seed dispersion networks of birds in Neotropical rain forests and has the potential to fill a significant data and knowledge gap in this research area.

“Evolutionary ecology of species rich tree lineages in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia”—Khao Chong plot, Thailand, & Lambir and Pasoh plots, Malaysia

Logan Monks, a PhD student at the University of Notre Dame, is investigating drought traits and ecological niches of species rich tree lineages. Logan’s research will explore three questions using data from the forest dynamics plots Khao Chong in Thailand and Lambir and Pasoh in Malaysia:
1) Are environmental niches of species phylogenetically conserved? 
2) Are drought traits correlated with regional climatic niche and soil moisture niche?
3) Are the evolutionary relationships of traits and the environment similar between lineages?
This research will greatly expand knowledge of how drought traits evolved in coordination with hydrological niches of Southeast Asian tropical tree species. This knowledge could provide new insights as to how diversity is maintained among many closely related tree species in tropical forests, and how this diversity may be expected to change in the face of long-term climate change.

“Do soil properties structure the distribution of Opuntia stricta in the Mpala ForestGEO plot?” – Mpala forest dynamics plot in Kenya

Kĩmani Ndung’u, a master’s student at Egerton University, seeks to investigate the biophysical correlates with Opuntia stricta distribution in the Mpala forest dynamics plot in Kenya. Invasive species O. stricta (prickly pear) has been a major global threat to ecosystems and invading savannahs in Africa. It’s capable of modifying soil nutrients which in turn create a favorable habitat for its proliferation. Using the ForestGEO soil sampling protocol, Kĩmani will create a baseline soil properties map that will aim to monitor changes in soil properties as the invasive species spreads. Understanding what influences invasive species expansion and how invasive species modify the habitat are important issues in dry tropical forests and savannas. Kĩmani’s work will make significant progress in advancing this research area.

“Tree-mycorrhizal associations in temperate forests and predicted shifts to community dynamics in a changing world” – Wind River Forest Dynamics Plot in Washington, USA

Laura McKinley Nevins, a PhD student at Washington State University, is diving into the important roll mycorrhizal communities play in forest carbon storage and how they impact ecosystem functioning. In the mutualistic relationship between trees and mycorrhizal fungi, mycorrhizae receive carbon derived from photosynthesis and perform critical functions in exchange, such as water/nutrient transport and uptake. These functions directly impact drought survival traits in trees and are becoming more important due to increased droughts which threaten old growth forests. Laura will perform an assessment in the Wind River Forest Dynamics Plot (Washington, USA) of mycorrhizal communities, analyses of tree and fungal traits, estimation of belowground carbon storage, and model forest dynamics and carbon storage under future conditions. The proposed approach will offer realistic predictions of shifts in tree-mycorrhizal associations, and likely carbon storage variation under future conditions. Further, models of tree community dynamics will shed light on expected species replacement. This information is critical to predict the future capacity of temperate forests to mitigate and respond to climate change.