Tropical rainforests support a rich diversity of life including over 50,000 tree species. One key to this diversity appears to be that different species grow on different soils. This project will explore the features of plant function that cause species to divide up the rainforest habitat in this way. Research will test the hypothesis that the ability of a tree species to store wood carbohydrates and nutrients in wood and then move them back out again for use in other parts of the tree determines where a species is found in the forest along a gradient from low to high soil fertility, a hypothesis not yet tested in tropical forests. The two main objectives are to compare 1) the stocks of carbohydrates and nutrients in wood in trees in different natural communities along parallel gradients of soil fertility in lowland and montane tropical forests in Panama, and 2) the ability of the saplings of related tree species that grow on different soils to remobilize stocks of nutrients in response to experimental defoliation.
This project will train a female Ph.D. student from the U.S. and expand international scientific collaboration with students and faculty from a local public university in Panama. As part of this collaboration, the Ph.D. student will mentor an undergraduate Panamanian student on a senior thesis project and serve as the teaching assistant for an undergraduate field course in Panama. In the U.S., the Ph.D. student will share her knowledge of plant biology as a volunteer in the Plants iView program, a six-week, after school, outreach experience at Urbana Middle School in Illinois. Besides this educational training and public outreach, the project will also benefit society by increasing understanding of how to maintain biodiversity.
