PROTOCOL FOR SAMPLING TREES AND LIANAS IN RAPELD PLOTS

Abstract

The Amazon, the largest continuous tropical forest, is facing increasing stress from global warming, drought, deforestation and fires. Deforestation is the biggest threat to tree species today, but climate change could surpass it within decades. Global collaborative networks have been created to fill knowledge gaps, manage data and improve the management of long-term monitoring research sites, aiming to understand tropical ecological systems and conserve biodiversity. The RAPELD system and its vegetation structure protocol focus on integrating data and examining changes in the structure, dynamics and functional composition of forests, understanding their persistence and rates of local, regional and landscape modification.