Mammal Species Commonly Present at Barro Colorado Island

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 list of bird species at HJ Andrews LTER, Massachusetts, was retrieved from http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/biodiversity/bci/ on 10/30/2013 as part of a macrosystems biodiversity and latitude project supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreement DEB#1065836.

生物多样性格局，例如向热带地区递增的分布模式与生态演替（ecological succession）过程中的单峰曲线格局，是生态学领域的核心基础现象。这类格局的成因兼具多样性与交互性，但无论对于微生物、树木、哺乳类等各类生物，还是陆地、海洋、淡水等各类生境而言，温度均为主导性驱动因子。然而，尽管全球气温持续上升，预测其生态影响的需求愈发迫切，学界对于此类格局背后的潜在机制仍未达成广泛共识。本项目旨在构建并检验相关理论，以阐明温度如何通过影响生化过程与代谢速率（metabolic rate），进而作用于生物多样性。本项目将结合野外标准化调查与野外、实验室控制实验，对沿寒温带至暖热带温度递增地理梯度分布的7片森林展开研究，测定其中3个分类群（taxa，树木、无脊椎动物与微生物）的多样性，以及分解作用这一关键生物地球化学过程（biogeochemical processes）。马萨诸塞州HJ Andrews长期生态研究站（Long-Term Ecological Research, LTER）的鸟类物种名录，于2013年10月30日从http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/biodiversity/bci/ 下载获取，该数据为美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation, NSF）通过合作协议DEB#1065836资助的大尺度生物多样性与纬度格局项目的组成部分。