Impactos e impulsores de la herbivoría de insectos en el ciclo de nutrientes en los bosques a nivel mundial.

A forest ecology research group from Lun University (Sweden) invites TEC to participate in a global research project studying the impact and control factors of herbivorous insects on biomass and carbon storage. TEC's role is to establish and monitor a trial in a tropical dry forest to generate data characterizing the monthly herbivory of a pristine forest ecosystem. In other countries, the Swedish group studies the effects of secondary forests, agricultural landscapes, and elevational and latitudinal gradients. Field monitoring and laboratory analysis costs will be covered by Lun University, Sweden, including materials, travel expenses, a field assistant, and a student laboratory assistant. The researchers only need to supervise and conduct four field visits, and for the sake of simplicity in the trial and supervision, this proposal does not require or request a budget or researcher hours.

The study has a great scientific impact, and for TEC, it is a great opportunity to take advantage of their experience in that field of study and be part of this project. The annexes include a translation of an abbreviated version of the project and the field protocols.

Current models of the impacts of climate change do not consider the effects of herbivorous insects, which are fundamental to the structure and function of the forest ecosystem. They are always treated as constants, included as a disturbance factor, or simply ignored. Although herbivorous insects are known to be the most diverse and abundant group of species, the impact of insects on forest ecosystems is largely unknown. The proposed project will use a pioneering new interdisciplinary approach to provide the most comprehensive information available to date on the rates, underlying factors, and ultimate impacts of key nutrient inputs from invertebrate herbivores on forest ecosystems worldwide Specifically, it is proposed to: (1) Establish a global network of insect herbivory monitoring stations in the main types of natural forests and at key natural environmental gradients (temperature, rainfall, ecosystem development), as well as human-disturbed sites (logging, fires, droughts, CO2), to monitor natural and anthropogenic influences on herbivory and the nutrient cycle in the context of climate change. (2) Conduct field and laboratory experiments to examine the effects of herbivore excreta on soil processes under different temperature and humidity conditions. (3) Integrate this information into a state-of-the-art ecosystem model to generate more accurate predictions about forest carbon sequestration under future climate change. The established network will form the basis for a single long-term global monitoring effort. The project represents a powerful combination of

various disciplines to provide fundamentally novel ideas in an area of ​​urgent importance to society such as climate change

Crear una base de datos rigurosa a nivel global sobre el efecto de los insectos herbívoros en la dinámica de nutrientes de los ecosistemas forestales y del impacto del cambio climático, la alteración del hábitat, los flujos de nutrientes y el ciclo de carbono

Gestión de servicios eco-sistémicos de los recursos naturales