BRS: Stephanie Pau “Feeling the Heat: Climate Change Impacts on the Phenology and Productivity of a Panamanian Tropical Forest”

host: Sean Michaletz, cookies provided by Jenn W. and Naomi S.

Abstract: Tropical forests are generally warm and wet year round, thus some hypothesize that their phenology and productivity are most limited by light. Alternatively, tropical species may be highly sensitive to temperature because they have evolved within a narrow temperature range, and exist closer to their upper thermal tolerance. Understanding the vulnerability of species and communities to climate change requires identifying their physiological tolerances as well as quantifying the pace and magnitude of environmental change. In this talk I will discuss my work from Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama using high-resolution satellite and near-surface remote sensing to quantify environmental change. This work shows that community-level flowering phenology and productivity at BCI are sensitive to even small variations in temperature over daily and seasonal timescales, whereas increasing atmospheric CO2 may be driving long-term changes. New work using drone-based mapping of solar-induced fluorescence reveals species-specific responses to variable environmental conditions.