Temporal patterns of tropical leaf phenology and climate change: investigating drivers across communities and leaf functional groups.

• Grant number: 24/09117-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Bruna de Costa Alberton
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10639-5 - Center for Research on Biodiversity Dynamics and Climate Change, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Drivers of leafing phenology are still unknown for most plant systems, especially in the tropics. A wide range of leafing pattern strategies has been observed for the tropics, while climate seasonality varies in the intensity and length of the dry season. Identifying the proximate drivers regulating tropical leaf phenology is crucial to understanding ecosystem dynamics and efficiently forecasting climate change impacts. We propose to monitor simultaneous sites of tropical vegetation using repeated photographs of digital cameras, aiming to assess: (i) the temporal patterns of leaf phenology and the functional diversity (leafing timing and length) of plant phenological strategies present across vegetation types and biomes; (ii) and the environmental drivers regulating leaf community patterns and plant functional groups. Theproposal focuses on the sites monitored by the e-Phenology network, which encompasses severalvegetation types across different biomes with varying patterns of seasonality (Amazon Forest,Atlantic Rainforest, Cerrado and Caatinga). Cutting-edge approaches will be applied to the datamodeling using camera-derived time series and environmental variables, and the accessto leaf functional traits is based on field collection and image features extracted from the camera imagery database.