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Smithsonian Institution

Global Earth Observatories

Ira Rubinoff, Smithsonian Institution, Office of the Undersecretary for Science;

Eldredge Bermingham and Charles Lydeard, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute;

Stuart J. Davies, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University

T

he Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) is a

US organization dedicated to advancing fundamental

scientific discovery and understanding of biological diver-

sity in the tropics and its contribution to human welfare. STRI

plays a critical role for the US Government and the Smithsonian

by maintaining world-class research facilities in Panama. Last

year more than 1,000 resident and visiting scientists accessed

diverse tropical environments, including rain forest and coral

reef ecosystems at the facility. STRI serves as official custodian

for the Barro Colorado Nature Monument (BCNM) in Panama

under the terms of the Convention on Nature Protection and

Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere, which was

ratified by the US Senate in April 1941. The BCNM is the only

mainland tropical reserve under US stewardship.

More than 25 years ago STRI established a large-scale forest

research plot on 50 hectares (approximately 120 acres) of lowland

tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a fully protected

tropical forest within the BCNM. Within the plot, every free-stand-

ing tree with a diameter at breast height of at least one centimetre

was tagged, measured, mapped and identified to species. Beginning

in 1980 the plot has been censused every five years, with the sixth

census completed in 2006.

Over the years, re-censuses have revealed that tropical forest

populations are incredibly dynamic and responsive to climate

change. For example, in only one census interval of five years, more

than 40 per cent of the tree species in the plot changed by more

than ten per cent in total abundance. This was apparently in

response to a severe El Niño drought that elevated death rates up

to 20 times those of non-drought years. The large-scale and stan-

dard forest census methods developed on BCI proved to be a

powerful approach to studying the dynamics of tropical forests. By

1990, scientists around the world had replicated the STRI methods,

and a global network of research plots emerged.

The network was initially named the Center for Tropical Forest

Science (CTFS), and although administered by STRI, individual

forest plots are led and managed in each country by one or more

partner institutions (see Appendix). For example, the Indian

Institute of Science manages the forest dynamics plot in Mudumalai,

India, and the National Institute of Research of the Amazônia is the

custodian of the CTFS plot in the Central Amazon. In addition,

CTFS in Asia is coordinated through a partnership with

the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

CTFS coordinates research activities using standard-

ized methods on forest plots ranging from 2 – 52 hectares

that now include 20 sites in 15 tropical countries in Latin

America, Africa and Asia. The CTFS plots involve

hundreds of scientists from more than two dozen insti-

tutions. Over the past 25 years, the CTFS network has

created the first actuarial table for tropical trees around

the world, thus providing a basis for determining quan-

titatively how trees and forest ecosystems are responding

to the Earth’s changing climate. This international collab-

oration is now monitoring the growth and survival of 3.5

million trees in over 6,500 species, which constitutes over

12 per cent of all known tropical tree species. The CTFS

system has now matured to the point where there is a

tremendous and unique opportunity to expand the

programme into a truly interdisciplinary research endeav-

our that will enable the world’s scientists to investigate

key indicators of global environmental health.

STRI is now in the process of transforming its

network of tropical forest plots into the Smithsonian

Institution Global Earth Observatories (SIGEO).

Although tremendous advances in our understanding

of tropical diversity and dynamics have been gained

from 25 years of research across the network of tropi-

cal forest plots, CTFS and its system of global earth

observatories is poised to make an even larger contri-

bution through monitoring the effects of anthropogenic

increases in atmospheric CO

2

, nitrogen and general air

pollution at local, regional and global scales.

The global earth observatories will provide baseline

data to help solve real-world problems through real-

time dissemination of critical data and cutting-edge

science. It is worth noting that the network is

extremely well utilized by independent university-

associated faculty and network partners, thus SIGEO

leverages huge intellectual horsepower. Over 200

scientists have published over 1,000 scientific articles

from the CTFS data sets, attesting to the broad usabil-

ity and benefits of the network.

GEOSS C

OMPONENTS

– O

BSERVING

S

YSTEMS