Visit of the professor Karen D. Holl for collaboration in the thematic project Ecological Restoration of Riparian Forests, Native Forest of Economic Production and of Degraded Forest Fragments (in APP and RL)

• Grant number: 14/06809-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: August 17, 2014
• End date: September 07, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Grantee: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Visiting researcher: Karen D. Holl
• Visiting researcher institution: University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), United States
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/50718-5 - Ecological restoration of riparian forests, native forest of economic production and of degraded forest fragments (in APP and RL) based on restoration ecology of reference ecosystems in order to scientifically test the precepts of the New Brazilian Forest Code, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

Professor D Karen D. Holl, from the University of California - USA, has a vast experience in developing long term projects in restoration ecology and in elaborating manuscripts for the international scientific community. She has been acting as a professor in the fields of forest ecology and environmental sciences for almost twenty years and is responsible for tropical forest restoration projects with more than a decade of monitoring. Not only she published more than a hundred articles in the field of restoration ecology, she also tutored Brazilian researches in the publication of three international papers. Karen is also mentioned to assist in the development of topic 5. (Dissemination and evaluation) of the FAPESP Process 2013/50718-5. Thus, during her visit, she will refine the methods and objectives of the FAPESP project according to an international scientific context. Additionally she will be a channel for divulgating the project in the scientific community. Besides this contribution, we aim to develop a joint study comparing the restoration context of the tropical forests that Karen works with the restoration context in Brazil, by using monitoring data of restoration projects in both contexts. In order to do so, she will not only have meetings with professors, students and researchers of the visited institution, but will also visit several ongoing restoration projects in the region. This will allow us to jointly develop an action plan for the future. The visiting professor will also give two lectures, one instructing researchers on how to write for an international audience, and another presenting the state of art and advances in tropical forest restoration ecology. Both lectures will be free and open for students of professors of the visited institution and from other universities. Dr. Holl will assist in the elaboration of the research projects of the researchers that recently entered the graduate program of the LASTROP (Laboratory for Tropical Silviculture and Restoration) and LERF (Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Restoration). Thus, tutoring the projects in their early phases, so that they are able to address themes that are pertinent for the international scientific community on forest restoration. Both laboratories are from the visited institution. Finally, the timing of Karen's visit is very appropriate. By the time of her arrival (August-September), several graduate students will start their projects in both LASTROP and LERF. Her visit also consolidate a partnership with LASTROP and LERF, given that a graduate student has already worked with in her laboratory in 2013, assisted by the University of California. Within two months after her visit, Dr. Holl will provide a written report, detailing specific suggestions for the restoration projects visited and, mainly, for the FAPESP project 2013/50718-5. (AU)