Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
The University of Connecticut
75 N. Eagleville Rd, Unit 3043, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, U.S.A.
Tel: +01 860 486-4322 Fax: +01 860 486-6364

Office: Biology/Pharmacy 205C
Tel: 860-486-4057

Fax: 860-486-6364

E-mail: robin.chazdon@uconn.edu

Postal Address:


The University of Connecticut
75 N. Eagleville Road, Unit 3043
Storrs, CT 06269-3043
U.S.A.


Research

Tropical forest ecology and regeneration, biodiversity conservation and restoration of tropical forests, tropical second-growth forest dynamics, biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes of Mesoamerica.

Click here to download a CV.

Awards and Honors

  • Honors Faculty of the Year, 2005
  • Provost's Award for Excellence in Research, 2004
  • President's Medal, British Ecological Society, 2003
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar, 2002

Recent and Selected Publications

Click here to download a CV with a complete list of publications.

Wood, T. E., D. Lawrence, D. A. Clark, and R. L. Chazdon. The effet of large-scale litter manipulation on rain forest nutrient cycling and productivity. Ecology, in press.

Dupuy, J. M. and R. L. Chazdon. Interacting effects of canopy gap, understory vegeation and leaf litter on tree seedling recruitment and composition in tropical secondary forests. Forest Ecology and Management, in press.

Chao, A., L. Jost, S. C. Chiang, Y.-H. Jian, and R. L. Chazdon. A two-stage probabilistic approach to multiple-community similarity indices. Biometrics, in press.

Chazdon, R. L. 2008. Chance and determinism in tropical forest succession. In: Carson, W. and S. Schnitzer, Eds. Tropical Forest Community Ecology. Blackwell Publishing (in press).

Harvey, C. A., O. Komar, R. Chazdon, B. G. Ferguson, B. Finegan, D. M. Griffith, M. Martinez-Ramos, H. Morales, R. Nigh, L. Soto-Pinto, M. van Breugel, and M. Wishnie. 2008. Integrating agricultural landscapes with biodiversity conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot. Conservation Biology 22: 8-15.

Sodhi, N. S., L. P. Koh, K. S.-H. Peh, H. T. W. Tan, R. L. Chazdon, R. T. Corlett, T. M. Lee, R. K. Colwell, B. W. Brook, C. H. Sekercioglu, and C. J. A. Bradshaw. 2007. Correlates of extinction proneness in tropical angiosperms. Diversity and Distributions 14: 1-10.

Vilchez, B., R. L. Chazdon, and W. Alvarado. 2007. Fenología reproductive de las especies del dosel superior en seis sitions de la region Huetar Norte de Costa Rica. 2007. Kuru: Revista Forestal Costa Rica, in press.

Sezen, U. U., R. L. Chazdon, and K. E. Holsinger. 2007. Multigenerational genetic analyses of tropical secondary regeneration in a canopy palm. Ecology 88: 3065-3075..

Chazdon, R. L., S. G. Letcher, M. van Breugel, M. Martinez-Ramos, F. Bongers and B. Finegan. 2007. Rates of change in tree communities of secondary Neotropical forests following major disturbances. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 362: 273-289.

Chao, A., R. L. Chazdon, R. K. Colwell and T. J. Shen. 2006. Abundance-based similarity indices and their estimation when there are unseen species in samples. Biometrics 62: 361-371.

Palomaki, M. B., R. L. Chazdon, J. P. Arroyo and S. G. Letcher. 2006. Juvenile tree growth in relation to light availability in second-growth tropical rain forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22: 223-226.

Lusk, C. H., Chazdon, R. L., and G. Hofmann. 2006. A bounded null model explains juvenile tree community structure along light availability gradients in an old-growth temperate rain forest. Oikos 112: 131-137.

Dupuy, J. M. and R. L. Chazdon. 2006. Effects of vegetation cover on seedling and sapling dynamics in secondary tropical wet forests in Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 22: 65-76.

Ruiz, J., M. C. Fandino, and R.L. Chazdon. 2005. Vegetation structure, composition, and species richness across a 56-year chronosequence of dry tropical forest on Providencia Island, Colombia. Biotropica 37: 520-530.

Capers, R. S. R. L. Chazdon, Redondo Brenes, Al, and Vilchez Alvarado, B. 2005. Successional dynamics of woody seedling communities in wet tropical secondary forests. Journal of Ecology 93: 1071-1084.

Cardelus, C. L. and R. L. Chazdon. 2005. Inner-crown microenvironments of two emergent tree species in a lowland wet forest. Biotropica 37: 238-244.

Chazdon, R. L., A. Redondo Brenes, and B. Vilchez Alvarado. 2005. Effects of climate and stand age on annual tree dynamics in tropical second-growth rain forests. Ecology 86: 1808-1815.

Iriarte, S. B. B. and R. L. Chazdon. 2005. Light-dependent seedling survival and growth of four tree species in Costa Rican second-growth rain forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology 21: 383-395.

Sezen, U. U., R. L. Chazdon & K. E. Holsinger. 2005. Genetic consequences of tropical second-growth forest regeneration. Science 307: 891

Vilchez Alvarado, R. L. Chazdon, and A. Redondo. 2004. Fenologia reproductiva de cinco especies forestales del Bosque Secundario Tropical. Kuru: Revista Forestal Costa Rica 1(2): 1-10.

Redondo Brenes, R. L. Chazdon, and B. Vilchez Alvarado. 2004. Effects of selective logging on dynamics and composition of woody seedlings in a tropical secondary forest. Kuru: Revista Forestal Costa Rica 1(3): 1-11.

Capers, R. S. and R. L. Chazdon. 2004. Rapid assessment of understory light availability in a wet tropical forest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 123: 177-185.

Chazdon, R. L. 2003. Tropical forest recovery: legacies of human impact and natural disturbances. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 6: 51-71.

Chazdon, R. L., S. Careaga, C. Webb, and O. Vargas. 2003. Community and phylogenetic structure of reproductive traits of woody species in wet tropical forests. Ecological Monographs 73: 331-348.

Nicotra, A. B., R. L. Chazdon, and R. A. Montgomery 2003. Sexes show contrasting patterns of leaf and crown carbon gain in a dioecious rainforest shrub. American Journal of Botany 90: 347-355

Chazdon, R. L. and T. C. Whitmore. 2002. Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. University of Chicago Press.

Montgomery, R. A. and R. L. Chazdon. 2002. Light gradient partitioning by tropical tree seedlings in the absence of canopy gaps. Oecologia 131: 165-174.

Drake, J. B., R. O. Dubayah, D. B. Clark, R. G. Knox, J. B. Blair, M. A. Hofton, R. L. Chazdon, J. F. Weishampel, and S. Prince. 2002. Estimation of Tropical Forest Structural Characteristics Using Large-footprint Lidar.? Remote Sensing of Environment. 79: 305-319.

Redondo B., A., B. Vilchez A., R. L. Chazdon. 2001. Estudio de la dinamina y composicion de cuatro bosques secundarios en la region Huetar Norte, Sarapiqui--Costa Rica. Revista Forestal Centroamericana No. 36 (Oct-Dec) 21-26.

Montgomery, R. A. and R. L. Chazdon. 2001. Forest structure, canopy architecture, and light transmittance in old-growth and second-growth tropical rain forests. Ecology 82: 2707-2718.

Chazdon, R. L. and R. A. Montgomery. 2001. Carbon acquisition by tropical forest plants. In: M. Guariguata and G. Kattan (Eds.). EcologÌa de Bosque Lluvioso Neotropical. IICA, Costa Rica

Chazdon, R. L., R. K. Colwell, and J. S. Denslow. 1999. Tropical tree richness and resource-based niches. Science 285: 1459a [on-line journal only].

Chazdon, R. L. and F. G. Coe. 1999. Ethnobotany of woody species in second-growth, old-growth, and selectively logged forests of northeastern Costa Rica. Conservation Biology 13: 1312-1322.

Nicotra, A. B., R. L. Chazdon, and S. Iriarte. 1999. Spatial heterogeneity of light and woody seedling regeneration in tropical wet forests. Ecology 80: 1908-1926.

Canham, C. D., R. K. Kobe, Latty, E. F. Chazdon, R. L. 1999. Interspecific and intraspecific variation in tree seedling survival: effects of allocation to roots versus carbohydrate reserves. Oecologia 121: 1-11.

Dupuy, J. M. and R. L. Chazdon. 1998. Long-term effects of forest regrowth and selective logging on the seed bank of tropical forests in NE Costa Rica. Biotropica 30: 223-237.

Butler, B. J. and R. L. Chazdon. 1998. Species richness, spatial variation, and abundance of the soil seed bank of a secondary tropical rain forest. Biotropica 30: 214-222.

Guariguata, M. R., R. L. Chazdon, J. S. Denslow, J. M. Dupuy and L. Anderson. 1997. Structure and floristics of secondary and old-growth forest stands in lowland Costa Rica. Plant Ecology 132: 107-120.

Nicotra, A. B., R. L. Chazdon and C. D. Schlichting. 1997. Patterns of genotypic variation and phenotypic plasticity of light response in two tropical Piper (Piperaceae) species. American Journal of Botany 84: 1542-1553.

Kabakoff, R. P. and R. L. Chazdon. 1996. Effects of canopy species dominance on understory light availability in tropical secondary rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 12: 779-788.

Chazdon, R. L. 1996. Spatial heterogeneity in tropical forest structure: canopy palms as landscape mosaics. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 8-9

Chazdon, R. L., R. K. Colwell, J. S. Denslow and M. Guariguata. 1998. Statistical estimation of species richness of woody regeneration in primary and secondary rainforests of NE Costa Rica. . Pp 285-309 In: Dallmeier, F., and J. Comisky, eds. Forest Biodiversity in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean: Research and Monitoring. Parthenon Press, Paris.

Chazdon, R. L., R. W. Pearcy, D. W. Lee and N. Fetcher. 1996. Photosynthetic responses to contrasting light environments. pp. 5-55 in: Mulkey, S., Chazdon, R. and Smith, A. P. (eds.) Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology, Chapman and Hall.

 

Courses Taught

Current Graduate Students

Previous Graduate Students

Alphabetical by surname, with current employment in parentheses

  • Ugar Uzay Sezen, Ph.D. (University of Connecticut)
  • Catherine Cardelus, Ph.D. (University of Florida)
  • Juan Dupuy, Ph.D. (Centro de Investigaciones CientÌficos de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico)
  • Silvia Iriarte, Ph.D. (Centro de Investigaciones CientÌficos de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico)
  • Rebecca Montgomery, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota)
  • Adrienne Nicotra, Ph.D. (Australia National University, Canberra, Australia)

Bosques Project

Dynamics of regeneration in wet tropical secondary forests

Investigators: Robin Chazdon, Deborah Lawrence, Braulio Vilchez
Graduate Students: Juan Pablo Arroyo, Susan Letcher
Field Assistants: Jeanette Paniagua, Bernal Paniagua, Juan Romero

During the past 50 years, much of the world's lowland tropics has been converted from nearly continuous forest to a fragmented landscape of degraded forest patches, agricultural land, and growing urban centers. The Sarapiquí region in northeastern Costa Rica has followed a similar trend toward deforestation and conversion of forest to cattle pasture and other forms of agriculture. In many areas of Costa Rica and other tropical countries, secondary forests are now regenerating in former cattle pastures that were abandoned during the 1970s and 1980s. The objective of Bosques Project is to investigate the factors that influence spatial and temporal dynamics of seedling, sapling, and tree regeneration in second-growth forests. The project hopes to increase our knowledge of the potential for secondary forest regeneration, the consequences for ecosystem processes, and the use of secondary forests for forestry and for conservation.  When we began the project in 1997, we selected four study areas of second-growth that regenerated on abandoned pasture areas. Sites were 12-25 yr old after abandonment. In 2000 we began monitoring leaf litter quantity and quality every two weeks in 20 litter traps per plot.

Within four 1-hectare plots we are monitoring:
•  Dynamics and composition of woody vegetation in the plots
•  Nutrient cycling in young and mature forest
•  Spatial variation in resource availability
•  Analysis of forest vertical structure
•  Reproductive behavior and population dynamics of 10 focal tree species

We now have nine years of vegetation monitoring data and six years of litter data in these sites. Our objective is to continue monitoring vegetation dynamics, litter production, and resource availability for at least another five years. Bosques Project hopes to increase our knowledge of the process of secondary forest regeneration, tree growth and recruitment, ecosystem processes in regenerating forests, and the use of secondary forests in this region for forestry and for conservation of biodiversity. Despite vast and increasing areas of abandoned pastures throughout the wet tropics, few forest dynamics monitoring projects in Mesoamerica are based in naturally regenerating secondary forests. Our results are being directly applied to development of secondary forest policy in Costa Rica and provide essential knowledge of forest regeneration processes in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

In the current phase of the project, funded by the National Science Foundation since September 2004, we have added four new plots, two in 10-yr old second-growth and two in mature forest areas. In addition to annual monitoring of tree dynamics, we are studying causes and consequences of colonization patterns of tree species. We are studying in detail the distributions of tree seedlings and saplings in relation to light conditions and location of parent (mature) trees in the plots and surrounding buffer zones.

For more information, please click here to visit the Project web site (in Spanish)

Click here to learn more about the Organization for Tropical Studies

 

 

 

 

©2005
Robin L. Chazdon