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Towards integrated ecological research in tropical montane cloud forests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2016

Patrick H. Martin  and
Peter J. Bellingham
Patrick H. Martin*
Affiliation:
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA
Peter J. Bellingham
Affiliation:
Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69040, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand
*
1Corresponding author. Email: patrick.martin@colostate.edu
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Abstract:

Tropical tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) cover a small portion of the Earth, yet they are significant biodiversity hotspots and centres of endemism, and they provide important hydrological and biogeochemical functions that affect human livelihoods. Given their fundamental sensitivity to climate, TMCFs also serve as an early warning system for climate change impacts. This paper outlines a new international initiative, CloudNet, that aims to promote integrated research across TMCFs, and introduces a special issue that reviews emerging themes and topics in the ecology of TMCFs, highlighting knowledge gaps and suggesting new directions for research. CloudNet is helping coordinate several new research projects and protocols: (1) a global repository of TMCF data and meta-analyses across multiple sites; (2) a multi-site study of plant functional traits across TMCFs; (3) a multi-site study of decomposition processes across TMCFs; (4) a protocol for standardizing climate data collection across TMCFs. These studies are intended to evaluate the extent to which general patterns emerge, accounting for biogeographic, phylogenetic and environmental differences among sites. Common data collection across TMCFs should also allow better integration across disciplines, such as linking nutrient limitation, seed production and propagule recruitment, and enable cross-site comparisons of how TMCFs respond to drivers of global change, including rising cloud bases, increasing temperatures, altered disturbance regimes, biological invasions and extinction, and changing human land use.

Keywords

biodiversitycloud forestclimate changedisturbanceepiphytesmetacommunitiesnutrient limitationproductivityseed dispersal ecologytropical montane cloud forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 32 , Special Issue 5: The ecology of tropical montane cloud forests: a global synthesis , September 2016 , pp. 345 - 354
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

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