On the Shoulders of Giants: Continuing the Legacy of Large-Scale Ecosystem Manipulation Experiments in Puerto Rico
by
Tana E. Wood 1,*, Grizelle González 1
, Whendee L. Silver 2, Sasha C. Reed 3 and Molly A. Cavaleri 4
Tana E. Wood 1,*, Grizelle González 1, Whendee L. Silver 2, Sasha C. Reed 3 and Molly A. Cavaleri 4
1
United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, Jardín Botánico Sur, 1201 Ceiba St.-Río Piedras, San Juan, PR 00926-1119, USA
2
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, 130 Mulford Hall #3114, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
3
U.S. Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT 84532, USA
4
School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Forests 2019, 10(3), 210; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10030210
Received: 3 December 2018 / Revised: 7 February 2019 / Accepted: 17 February 2019 / Published: 27 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tropical Forest Ecology and Management for the Anthropocene)
There is a long history of experimental research in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. These experiments have addressed questions about biotic thresholds, assessed why communities vary along natural gradients, and have explored forest responses to a range of both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic disturbances. Combined, these studies cover many of the major disturbances that affect tropical forests around the world and span a wide range of topics, including the effects of forest thinning, ionizing radiation, hurricane disturbance, nitrogen deposition, drought, and global warming. These invaluable studies have greatly enhanced our understanding of tropical forest function under different disturbance regimes and informed the development of management strategies. Here we summarize the major field experiments that have occurred within the Luquillo Experimental Forest. Taken together, results from the major experiments conducted in the Luquillo Experimental Forest demonstrate a high resilience of Puerto Rico’s tropical forests to a variety of stressors.
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Keywords:
Luquillo Experimental Forest; tropical; experiments; manipulations; large-scale; Puerto Rico; Caribbean
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wood, T.E.; González, G.; Silver, W.L.; Reed, S.C.; Cavaleri, M.A. On the Shoulders of Giants: Continuing the Legacy of Large-Scale Ecosystem Manipulation Experiments in Puerto Rico. Forests 2019, 10, 210.
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