Thursday, August 9, 2007: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
Blrm Salon IV, San Jose Marriott
OOS 39 - Restoring neotropical forests in a hot, hot world
As climate change is felt across the globe, carbon credit programs have spurred the interest in forest restoration. However, restoration practice has been much more active in temperate regions – the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia – and carbon mitigation in the tropics has focused more on tree plantations than on restoring an entire forest ecosystem. Our organized oral session will highlight the need and potential for forest restoration to aid conservation and carbon balance in the tropics, as well as highlighting some best approaches to tropical forest restoration. Our aim is to stimulate new interest in research and practice of tropical forest restoration. Between 1978 and 1998 mean annual air temperature in the tropical forest biome increased 0.024 ºC per year. Over the next century temperatures in tropical regions are predicted to rise between 3 and 8 ºC. Thus, climate change is expected to have strong effects in tropical systems, and a large fraction of the world’s species are likely to be threatened as a result. Attention to mitigation efforts, as well as the use of restoration as a conservation tool as climate changes, is of paramount importance to global efforts to conserve biodiversity. Specific questions that will be addressed during the session include: Given the potential for tropical forests to mitigate climate change, should we be focusing on species that will have the most resilience to increasing temperatures or those that are best at sequestering carbon? How will forest restoration in the tropics differ from the approaches in temperate systems? What are guiding principles for restoring tropical fauna? How will we incorporate landscape factors into restoration design, particularly given the importance of altitudinal migration in many tropical systems? Should we focus on restoring connectivity in fragmented areas so that species can migrate as climate shifts? How will our restoration targets shift as climate changes? Though our core group of speakers is primarily North American, we will work to recruit additional speakers from Central and South America restoration practitioners. We will conclude the session with a lively discussion and an invitation to exchange information on restoration efforts throughout the Neotropics. The session should help inspire those scientists and practitioners in the Neotropics who will have the largest impact in how and whether tropical forests are restored.
Organizer:	Patricia A. Townsend, University of Washington
Co-organizer:	Carolina Murcia, Wildlife Conservation Society
Moderator:	Martha J. Groom, University of Washington
8:00 AM	OOS 39-1		Novel and disappearing climates by 2100AD are concentrated in tropical regions: Implications for conservation biology John W. (Jack) Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Stephen T. Jackson, University of Wyoming, John E. Kutzbach, University of Wisconsin-Madison
8:20 AM	OOS 39-2		Living on the edge: Variable responses of bird communities to edges in a tropical montane forest Keiller O. Kyle, Purdue University, Matthew R Gasner, Purdue University, Anna L Ciecka, Purdue University, Kerry N Rabenold, Purdue University
8:40 AM	OOS 39-3		How will restorationists adapt to climate change? Eric Higgs, University of Victoria
9:00 AM	OOS 39-4		Migrating to cooler climates: Restoring tropical forest connectivity in an elevational gradient Patricia A. Townsend, University of Washington
9:20 AM	OOS 39-5		How can we restore tropical forests to enhance wildlife conservation in a changing climate? Martha J. Groom, University of Washington
9:40 AM			Break
9:50 AM	OOS 39-6		Pre-emptive restoration for the Tropical Andes: Can we get ahead of climate change? Carolina Murcia, Wildlife Conservation Society
10:10 AM	OOS 39-7		An ecological and economic comparison of living fence species and seedlings in tropical forest restoration R. A. Zahawi, Organization for Tropical Studies, K. D. Holl, University of California-Santa Cruz
10:30 AM	OOS 39-8		The climate, community, and biodiversity standards: A tool for designing and evaluating multiple-benefit forestry projects Toby Janson-Smith, Director, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance

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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)