Tropical Root Trait Initiative

Mobilizing and integrating tropical root traits

This initiative arose from a need for tropical root ecologists to assess the rapidly growing body of root trait data for tropical ecosystems. We are compiling data from across tropical root studies to assess how tropical root traits vary over time, space, and in response to global change. These data will be used to assess a broad set of hypotheses related to root functional ecology (in the tropics and globally). Our main activities are to 1) build a database of tropical root trait data from papers and unpublished data set in collaboration with FRED at Oak Ridge National Lab, and 2) write review and concept papers about tropical root traits across natural gradients, in response to global change, and linking field data to ecosystem models of root activity for tropical forests.

Team

Early, mid and late-career scientists from and/or working in tropical ecosystems. The group includes leading and emerging root ecologists from tropical ecosystems worldwide. The group is particularly interested in bringing together field root ecologists with ecosystem modelers working to parameterize and build tropical forest predictive capabilities.

Organizers: Daniela F. Cusack, Amanda Longhi Cordeiro, Kelly Andersen, Kristine Cabugao, Rich Norby, S. Joe Wright. Participants: Shalom D. Addo-Danso, Liz Agee, Marie Arnaud, Sarah Batterman, Francis Brearley, Mauro Brum, Brad Christoffersen, Caroline Dallstream, Milton Díaz, Lee Dietterich, Katrin Fleischer, Claire Fortunel, Lucia Fuchslueger, Cecile Giardin, Nathaly Guerrero Ramirez, Walter Huasco, Colleen Iversen, Deliang Kong, Martyna Kotowska, Ming Yang Lee, Céline Leroy, Emmanuel Likulunga, Laynara Lugli, César Marín, Luke McCormack, Lindsay McCulloch, Dan Metcalfe, Rafael Oliveira, Kerstin Pierick, Jennifer Powers, Stuart Smith, Chris Smith-Martin, Fiona Soper, Laura Toro, María Natalia Umaña, Oscar Valverde-Barrantes, Monique Weemstra, Michelle Wong, Cynthia Wright, Daniela Yaffar, Om Prakash Ghimire

Theme leaders: Belowground Functional Biogeography (Nathaly R. Guerrero Ramírez), Global Change Drivers (Daniela Yaffar), Linking Field & Modelling (Daniela F. Cusack), Symbionts (Kelly Andersen), TropiRoot Database (Amanda Longhi Cordeiro)

To know more about TropiRoot members click: here.

Projects

Some of the main questions we are targeting: 1) How root traits are related to ecosystem function globally? 2) How do emergent trends in root traits and dynamics differ within tropical ecosystems and between tropical and temperate ecosystems? 3) Can we identify some best practices and prioritize which root traits to measure across tropical forest studies?

Contribute

If you want to join us by contributing data, participating in current projects, or establishing potential synergies, please contact us: tropiroottrait@gmail.com