The Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research project has examined environmental drivers of biodiversity dynamics and biogeochemical cyles in a tropical, montane forest for over 28 years. This proposal funds planning meetings to bring project participants together to develop future research directions that arise from syntheses of their long-term data, are motivated by strong linkages to ecological theory, and that are widely applicable to other tropical, forested, montane regions. The resulting research agenda will be broadly applicable across LTER sites as it will encompass ecosystems that include a complex mixture of pristine and highly urbanized and suburbanized habitats. A second goal will be to design research to understand ecological dynamics in light of disturbance regimes that are dominated by changes in both land use and climate.
The proposed planning meetings will include graduate students and postdoctoral researchers together with research scientists and information managers. Engaging early-career students and researchers in the process of research design and proposal development is an important aspect of comprehensive education and training. Students will be recruited from under-represented groups, which are abundantly represented in Puerto Rico. Over a longer term, the research directions developed will strengthen the Luquillo Forest's connections with other major projects in Puerto Rico, such as NEON, STREON, IGERT, CZO, and ULTRA-Ex. Moreover, the project's Schoolyard program reaches teachers and hundreds of middle and high school students through field research and web-based middle school curricula.
