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dc.contributor.authorBitariho, Robert
dc.contributor.authorBlundo, Cecilia
dc.contributor.authorCarilla, Julieta
dc.contributor.authorGrau, Ricardo
dc.contributor.authorMalizia, Agustina
dc.contributor.authorMalizia, Lucio
dc.contributor.authorAcosta, Oriana Osinaga
dc.contributor.authorBird, Michael
dc.contributor.authorBradford, Matt
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-28T08:03:30Z
dc.date.available2022-03-28T08:03:30Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.identifier.citationBlundo, C., Carilla, J., Grau, R., Malizia, A., Malizia, L., Osinaga-Acosta, O., ... & De Araujo, R. O. (2021). Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots. Biological conservation, 260, 108849.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir.must.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/1714
dc.description.abstractTropical forests are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. While better understanding of these forests is critical for our collective future, until quite recently efforts to measure and monitor them have been largely disconnected. Networking is essential to discover the answers to questions that transcend borders and the horizons of funding agencies. Here we show how a global community is responding to the challenges of tropical ecosystem research with diverse teams measuring forests tree-by-tree in thousands of long-term plots. We review the major scientific discoveries of this work and show how this process is changing tropical forest science. Our core approach involves linking long-term grassroots initiatives with standardized protocols and data manage-ment to generate robust scaled-up results. By connecting tropical researchers and elevating their status, our Social Research Network model recognises the key role of the data originator in scientific discovery. Conceived in 1999 with RAINFOR (South America), our permanent plot networks have been adapted to Africa (AfriTRON) andSoutheast Asia (T-FORCES) and widely emulated worldwide. Now these multiple initiatives are integrated via ForestPlots.net cyber-infrastructure, linking colleagues from 54 countries across 24 plot networks. Collectively these are transforming understanding of tropical forests and their biospheric role. Together we have discovered how, where and why forest carbon and biodiversity are responding to climate change, and how they feedback on it. This long-term pan-tropical collaboration has revealed a large long-term carbon sink and its trends, as well as making clear which drivers are most important, which forest processes are affected, where they are changing, what the lags are, and the likely future responses of tropical forests as the climate continues to change. By leveraging a remarkably old technology, plot networks are sparking a very modern revolution in tropical forest science. In the future, humanity can benefit greatly by nurturing the grassroots communities now collectively capable of generating unique, long-term understanding of Earth’s most precious forests.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipEuropean Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant 291585 – ‘TFORCES’)en_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherBiological Conservationen_US
dc.subjectAmazoniaen_US
dc.subjectAfricaen_US
dc.subjectSoutheast Asiaen_US
dc.subjectRainforesten_US
dc.subjectRAINFORen_US
dc.subjectAfriTRONen_US
dc.subjectSpecies richnessen_US
dc.subjectForest plotsen_US
dc.subjectPermanent sample plotsen_US
dc.subjectMonitoringen_US
dc.subjectDynamicsen_US
dc.subjectCarbon sinken_US
dc.subjectGlobal changeen_US
dc.subjectEcologyen_US
dc.subjectBiodiversityen_US
dc.titleTaking the pulse of Earth’s tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plotsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US


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