Analyzes of long term phenological and climatic data from Amazon tropical forest trees: detecting effects of climatic changes

• Grant number: 07/57868-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 02, 2008
• End date: February 01, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Agreement: DAAD
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Host Investigator: Annette Menzel
• Institution abroad: Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to investigate the effects of climate and climatic changes on Amazon tropical forest reproductive phenology over the last 40 years and to compare the phenological patterns between two forest sites, aiming to understand: (i) if the flowering and fruiting patterns are affected by climate, especially el niño events, represented by increasing dry season length or severity; (ii) if climatic changes have an effect on the flowering and fruit production over the years and, (iii) how the observed reproductive phenological trends differ between an urbanized forest reserve (RFD) and a continuous, not fragmented forest (EEST)? We seek to understand if changes on climate and other events (ENSO) are affecting the forest phenology, and if we could detect and predict trends for tropical forest phenology. (AU)