Forest Dynamics Plots

The Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) – part of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute – is currently monitoring more than three million individual trees from over 6,000 species – 10% of all known tropical tree species. These plots are located in Panama, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tropical forests play a key role in climate change and global carbon levels and understanding this role is important for predicting future effects of climate change. Moreover, tropical forests are some of the most sensitive indicators of climate change and its impacts. However, tropical forests are only part of the picture; over the next five years, CTFS will set up centres in the USA and UK to expand their research into temperate forests.

CTFS has established respected research protocols for monitoring forest plots. Over the past quarter century, several other partner institutions have committed to monitor their own forest plots using CTFS methods. Some of these most recent partners include the Chinese Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Beijing, who have established plots in Xishuangbanna, Chiangbai Shan, Tiantong, Ailoshan and Dinghu; the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, USA; and the Smithsonian National Zoo's Conservation Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, USA. Discussions are also being conducted with several US universities.

CTFS and the HSBC Climate Partnership will establish three new plots in temperate forests in the midwestern USA, northeastern USA and the UK. They will partner with Earthwatch to choose sites where collaboration will be most effective for both parties and to develop additional census methods involving volunteers in the process. The addition of these temperate plots will provide a more complete picture of the world's carbon budget. Exploration of the carbon budget is another HSBC Climate Partnership project and these two projects will overlap in many areas.