Barro Colorado Island Precipitation Measured at BCI Clearing Station 1971-2014

Patterns of biodiversity, such as the increase toward the tropics and the peaked curve during ecological succession, are fundamental phenomena for ecology. Such patterns have multiple, interacting causes, but temperature emerges as a dominant factor across organisms from microbes to trees and mammals, and across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments. However, there is little consensus on the underlying mechanisms, even as global temperatures increase and the need to predict their effects becomes more pressing. The purpose of this project is to generate and test theory for how temperature impacts biodiversity through its effect on biochemical processes and metabolic rate. A combination of standardized surveys in the field and controlled experiments in the field and laboratory measure diversity of three taxa -- trees, invertebrates, and microbes -- and key biogeochemical processes of decomposition in seven forests distributed along a geographic gradient of increasing temperature from cold temperate to warm tropical. This daily precipitation data from Barro Colorado Island research site, 1971-2014, recorded at BCI Clearing Station, was retrieved from the website at http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/physical_monitoring/research/barrocolorado as part of a macrosystems biodiversity and latitude project supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement DEB#1065836.

生物多样性（biodiversity）的分布格局——诸如向热带地区递增、生态演替（ecological succession）过程中的单峰格局等——是生态学领域的基础性核心现象。此类格局的形成存在多种相互作用的驱动因素，但温度已被证实为横跨微生物、乔木与哺乳动物等各类生物，以及陆地、海洋与淡水各类生境中的主导性影响因子。尽管如此，学界对其内在机制仍未达成广泛共识；而当前全球气温持续攀升，预测其生态影响的需求也愈发迫切。本项目旨在构建并验证相关理论，以阐释温度如何通过影响生化过程（biochemical processes）与代谢速率（metabolic rate），进而影响生物多样性。本研究将结合野外标准化调查与野外、实验室控制实验，对沿从寒温带到暖热带的温度升高地理梯度分布的7片森林中，三类类群（taxa）——乔木、无脊椎动物与微生物——的多样性，以及关键的生物地球化学（biogeochemical）分解过程进行测定。本研究作为由美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）资助的宏系统生物多样性与纬度项目（合作协议编号DEB#1065836）的一部分，从http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/physical_monitoring/research/barrocolorado网站获取了1971年至2014年期间，巴罗科罗拉多岛（Barro Colorado Island, BCI）清洁站记录的该岛日降水量数据。