The University of Puerto Rico (Luquillo LTER site) has recently been awarded two major NASA grants to conduct LTER-related research. The first, "Development of a Center for Tropical Atmospheric Sciences in Puerto Rico," addresses chemical fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere, between the land and atmosphere, and chemical reactions and transport in the troposphere. The 22 collaborators in this three-year project received total funding of $3,360,000 over three years.
During the last 50 years, more than 30% of Puerto Rico's land area has been released from agricultural uses and is undergoing secondary forest succession. Repeated aerial photography obtained during that period allows the identification of land areas that have undergone this secondary succession for different lengths of time. Within these "chronosequences," under the second grant ("Land Management in the Tropics and its Effects on the Global Environment," $3,800,000 over five years) 13 UPR investigators are
- Identifying successional changes and comparing the outcomes of different land-management strategies
- Examining physical, chemical, and microbial changes in soils, and effects of those changes on stream quality
- Reassuring the release of greenhouse gasses through succession
Doug Schaefer, Luquillo Experimental Forest