Jill Thompson
Role in Luquillo LTER – Associate Director of the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot.
Address
Senior plant ecologist
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0QB, UK.
[email protected]
 Major Activities,
Preparing data for Luquillo tree census data for all censuses of the LFDP for upload to the Luquillo and
CTFS web sites.
Contributing to publications that use the Luquillo Forest dynamics plot data (see below).
Consulting and advising projects that use the LFDP contributuing to the longterm goals of the Luwuillo
LTER.
 Specific Objectives,
a) To understand the community dynamics of trees in tropical forest and the mechanisms that drive them.
Investigation accomplished through tree and seedling censues
b) Investigate the long term consequences of land use history and hurricane damage and recovery in tropical
forest.
c) Understand what maintains biodiversity in terms of taxonomy and functional traits, facilitation and
competition among individuals and populations.
d) Together with Luq scientists and international partners, policies and practise for the enhancement and
perseveration of tropical forest.
e) We also need to understand the ecosystem services provided by tropical forest such as carbon storage
to mitigate global warming, water resources and soil conservation.
f)The LFDP also provides information on forest dynamics and tree species that form a backdrop for
studies of other organisms such as fungi, birds, lizards, frogs and insects
g) Train and educate tropical forest scientists.
h) Promote the importance of tropical forests and their contribution to climate change mitigation to the wider
public.

Significant Results,
See below with the publication details the significant results for 2 of the published papers

Key Outcomes or Other Achievements.
Seedling plot census:
1) Seedling plot census in January to April 2015.
Specific Objectives:
1a) Seedling census forms part of an ongoing study 573 seedling plots were censused to record seedling
growth, survival, mortality and recruitment.
1b)To determine the seed loss between dispersal and seed germination and seedling recruitment:
Small seedling census plots (360 1 x 1 m plots) will contribute to assessments of seed losses between seed
dispersal and seed germination, as these are located in sets of 3’s plots adjacent to seed rain collection
baskets.
1c) Investigate environmental impacts on seedling establishment, growth, survival and mortality:
The data collected from the 1 x 1 m seedling plots will also contribute, together with 213 1 x 2 m seedling
plots, to studies on seedling dynamics and the impact of canopy openness, soil nutrients, soil moisture and
adult tree distribution on seedling survival and dynamics.
Significant Results:
1) Seedling plot censuses.
As the forest canopy has continued to close following the last major hurricane in 1998 the number of liana
seedlings that are germinating in the seedling plots has increased dramatically. This is consistent with grater
expanse of lianas in the forest canopy. However survival and growth of seedlings has decreased and rates of
mortality has increased. As a consequence the abundance of seedlings and saplings in the forest understory
has significantly diminished.
Publications:
Jill Contributed to 6 publications in journals that have used the LFDP census data that we collected or used
the LFDP site for other studies.
Contributed to a poster presented by Aaron Hogan at ATBC
Contributed to the following papers, which have been produced using Luquillo forest plot tree or seedling
dynamics data or utilized the plot for associated studies.
Products include the following papers:
Paper 1
Georges Kunstler, Daniel Falster, David A. Coomes, Francis Hui5, Robert M. Kooyman, Daniel C.
Laughlin, Lourens Poorter, Mark Vanderwel, Ghislain Vieilledent, S. Joseph Wright, Masahiro Aiba,
Christopher Baraloto, John Caspersen, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Marc Hanewinkel,
Bruno Herault, Jens Kattge, Hiroko Kurokawa, Yusuke Onoda, Josep Peñuelas, Hendrik Poorter, Maria
Uriarte, Sarah Richardson, Paloma Ruiz-Benito, I-Fang Sun, Göran Ståhl, Nathan G. Swenson, Jill
Thompson, Bertil Westerlund, Christian Wirth, Miguel A. Zavala, Hongcheng Zeng, Jess K. Zimmerman,
Niklaus E. Zimmermann, and Mark Westoby. Plant functional traits have globally consistent effects on
competition. Nature in press
Note This first does not have LTER in acknowledgments because there are too many people and
organizations to acknowledge in the acknowledgment section that it uses Luquillo LFDP data
Key findings Kunstler paper:
Intro
Phenotypic traits and their associated trade-offs have been shown to have globally consistent effects on
individual plant physiological functions, but it has remained unclear how these effects scale up to influence
competition – a key driver of community assembly in terrestrial vegetation.
Paper used growth data from Luquillo FDP and other plots, Total more than 3 million trees in more than
140000 plots across the world, to show how three key functional traits – wood density, specific leaf area and
maximum height – consistently influence competitive interactions.
Findings:
1) Fast maximum growth of a species was correlated negatively with its wood density in all biomes and
positively with its specific leaf area in most biomes. Low wood density was also correlated with a
low ability to tolerate competition and a low competitive impact on neighbours (competitive effect),
while high specific leaf area was correlated with a low competitive effect.
2) Traits generate trade-offs between performance with vs. without competition, a fundamental
ingredient in the classical hypothesis that coexistence of plant species is enabled via differentiation in
their successional strategies. Competition within species was stronger than between species, but an
increase in trait dissimilarity between species had little influence in weakening competition. No
benefit of dissimilarity was detected for specific leaf area and wood density and only a weak benefit
for maximum height.
3) Our trait-based approach to modelling competition makes generalisation possible across the forest
ecosystems of the globe and their highly diverse species composition.
***********************
Paper 2
Poorter, L., M.T. van der Sande, J. Thompson, E.J.M.M. Arets, A. Alarcón, J. Álvarez-Sánchez, N.
Ascarrunz, P. Balvanera, G. Barajas-Guzmán, A. Boit, F. Bongers, F.A. Carvalho, F. Casanoves, G.
Cornejo-Tenorio, F.R.C. Costa, C.V. de Castilho, J.F. Duivenvoorden, L.P. Dutrieux, B.J. Enquist, F.
Fernández-Méndez, B. Finegan, L.H.L. Gormley, J.R. Healey, M.R. Hoosbeek, G. Ibarra-Manríquez, A.B.
Junqueira, C. Levis, J.C. Licona, L.S. Lisboa, W.E. Magnusson, M. Martínez-Ramos, A. Martínez-Yrizar,
L.G. Martorano, L.C. Maskell, L. Mazzei, J.A. Meave, F. Mora, R. Muñoz, C. Nytch, M.P. Pansonato, T.W.
Parr, H. Paz, M. Simoes Penello, E.A. Pérez-García, L.Y. Rentería, J. Rodríguez-Velazquez, D.M.A.
Rozendaal, A.R. Ruschel, B. Sakschewski, B. Salgado Negret, J. Schietti, F.L. Sinclair, P.F. Souza, F.C.
Souza, J. Stropp, H. ter Steege, N.G. Swenson, K. Thonicke, M. Toledo, M. Uriarte, P. van der Hout, P.
Walker, N. Zamora, and M. Peña-Claros. 2015. Diversity enhances carbon storage in tropical forests.
Global Ecology and Biogeography 24:1314-1328.
Key findings from Poorter et al paper:
Methods Paper relates aboveground biomass (AGB) to forest attributes (diversity and structure) and
environmental drivers (annual rainfall and soil fertility) using data from 144,000 trees, 2050 forest plots and
59 forest sites including the LFDP. The sites span the complete latitudinal and climatic gradients in the
lowland Neotropics, with rainfall ranging from 750 to 4350 mm year−1.Relationships were analysed within
forest sites at scales of 0.1 and 1 ha and across forest sites along large-scale environmental gradients. We
used a structural equation model to test the hypothesis that species richness, forest structural attributes and
environmental drivers have independent, positive effects on AGB.
Results Across sites, AGB was most strongly driven by rainfall, followed by average tree stem diameter and
rarefied species richness, which all had positive effects on AGB. Our indicator of soil fertility (cation
exchange capacity) had the strongest relationships with AGB at small spatial scales, where an additional
species can still make a difference in terms of niche complementarity, while structural forest attributes (i.e.
tree density and tree size) had strong relationships with AGB at all spatial scales.
Main conclusions Biodiversity has an independent, positive effect on AGB and ecosystem functioning, not
only in relatively simple temperate systems but also in structurally complex hyperdiverse tropical forests.
Biodiversity conservation should therefore be a key component of the UN Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Degradation strategy.
Figure 2. From Poorter et al 2015 Map of vegetation cover in Latin America, with the location of the 60
study sites. A) above ground biomass (AGB, Mg/ha), B) Rarefied species richness (# species/50 trees), and
C) average tree diameter (cm). The size of the symbol scales with the value of the attribute. The intensity of
the green color indicates the amount of forest cover.The background layer is derived from a MODerate
resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation continuous fields (VCF) product (Hansen et al.
2003)
Other papers:
For the following papers I anticipate that you will already have information on Key messages etc.
Bachelot, B., M. Uriarte, J. Thompson, and J.K. Zimmerman. (2015 in press). Advantages of living at the
extremes: Tree seedlings at intermediate abundance in a tropical forest have the highest richness of
aboveground enemies and suffer most damage. J Ecology
Summary and key findings:
Tropic forest tree diversity is believed to be maintained via the attraction of density responsive and speciesspecific enemies. Tests of this hypothesis usually assume a linear relationship between enemy pressure
(amount of damage and enemy richness) and seedling or tree density. However, enemy pressure is likely to
change non-linearly with local seedling abundance and community scale tree abundance if enemies are
characterized by non-linear functional responses.
Key findings:
a) The relationships between local and (conspecific seedling density) and community scale (conspecific
basal area of adult trees) abundance and both richness of above-ground enemies and foliar damage
were hump-shaped. Seedlings of tree species existing at intermediate levels of abundance, at both
local and community scales, suffered more damage and experienced pressure from a greater diversity
of enemies than those existing at high or low densities.
b) Generalist enemies were more diverse on species at rare or intermediate abundance relative to
common tree species. However, specialist enemies showed no significant trend across tree species
abundance at either the local or community scales.
c) Our results suggest that interspecific variation in tree species abundance leads to differences in the
magnitude and type of damage tropical tree seedlings suffer. This variation leads to a non-linear,
hump-shaped relationship between species abundance and enemy damage, highlighting fruitful
directions for further development of species coexistence theory.
Umaña, M.N, J. Forero-Montaña, R. Muscarella, C. J. Nytch, J. Thompson, M. Uriarte, J. K. Zimmerman,
and N. G. Swenson. (2015 in press). Inter-specific functional similarity and intra-specific negative density
dependence underlie the seed to seedling transition in tropical trees. American Naturalist.
Uriarte,M., J. Thompson, B. Turner and J.K. Zimmerman (2015). Linking spatial patterns of leaf litterfall
and soil nutrients in a tropical forest: A neighborhood approach. Ecological Applications.
Lasky, J., B. Bachelot, R. Muscarella, N. Schwartz, N. G. Swenson, J. K. Zimmerman, J. Thompson, C. J.
Nytch, J. Forero-Montaña and M. Uriarte. (2015). Ontogenetic shifts in trait-mediated mechanisms of plant
community assembly. Ecology 96:2157–2169
Several other papers are recently submitted or in preparation.
Dissemination in addition to published papers and potential impact
On behalf of the LFDP scientists Aaron Hogan prepared a poster for ATBC
The Poorter et al paper which included LFDP results was presented to EU commissioners and scientists at
the end of ROBIN project meeting in Brussels in October. Hopefully this will impact European policies on
forests and climate change.
IMPACT – from a recently submitted paper to Frontiers in Ecology:
Contribution of LFDP and other tropical forest plots to supporting policy development for enhancement and
preservation of tropical forests for climate change litigation – this arises from our wok on the tree censuses
and functional traits to look at carbon storage and sequestration by tropical forest. This does not contain any
LFDP data but the results and conclusions drawn from the cross site biomass and biodiversity papers led to
this.
Title: Biodiversity enhances climate change mitigation by tropical forests
Authors: Masha T. van der Sande, Lourens Poorter, Lammert Kooistra, Patricia Balvanera, Kirsten Thonicke, Jill
Thompson, Eric J. M. M. Arets, Alice Boit, Loïc P. Dutrieux, Julian Equihua, Nashieli Garcia Alaniz, France Gerard,
Martin Herold, Laurence Jones, Melanie Kolb, Francisco Mora, Tuyeni H. Mwampamba, Terry Parr, Boris
Sakschewski, Margareth Simões, and Marielos Peña-Claros
Recommendations:
Diverse, carbon rich and productive mature forests should be given priority under the REDD+
framework when threatened degradation or land-use change. Data from forest pltos including Luquillo
FDP on carbon stocks and biodiversity attributes can be used to identify strategic targets across space,
allowing alignment of global and national strategies aimed at maximizing biodiversity and carbon
conservation. It encourages the protection of forests rich in carbon and biodiversity in Nationally
Appropriate Mitigation Actions. At the local scale, our research supports a range of context-dependent
interventions including community involvement, strengthening ownership, and local governance that is
required for cost-effective and long-term impact of biodiversity and carbon conservation initiatives.
REDD+, the Bonn Challenge and other national and local initiatives should recognize and incorporate
biodiversity as a requirement to obtain carbon-rich and resilient systems. Our results suggest that
Carbon stocks and uptake could be maximized through the selection of a large variety of species with
specific desirable traits at a range of spatial scales although we note that biodiversity attributes that increase
carbon uptake are not necessarily the same as the ones increasing carbon stocks.
What is the impact on society beyond science and technology?
Results from our studies suggests the impact on society should be to change their activities to stop cutting
down tropical forest in order to preserve the climate change mitigation and water storage for longer term
human survival. Who knows if this will be effective or not.
What is the impact on the development of human resources?
Here as a marker in case they are not mentioned elsewhere – I do not know all of the details
but think they should be mentioned.
The LFDP has Trained volunteers (recent graduates) in tropical forest census techniques, database computer skills
and research management. This experience will assist the graduate appreciate ecology research and inform their
decisions and open opportunities for the future careers.
The LFDP has been the study site for two PhD students and a masters student that have
finished this year. Namely:
Natalie Umana PhD and Bene Bachelot PhD and Aaron Hoggan MSc – should have the info. from their
supervisors.
Silvet Myra Queen an REU student completed a repeat of the Liana study.