Geoscience Reference
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Box 29.1. (continued)
Lugo et al. 2012 ; Willig et al. 2012 ). Shifts in the pattern and amounts of
monthly and inter-annual leaf fall, as well as rainfall and temperature data doc-
ument climatic variability (González et al. 2013 ). The lesson here is that long-
term data provide important information that emerges from analyses over time
when answering one set of questions that can be useful in generating results to
address new questions. The value of the data increases over time as the environ-
mental conditions change in ways that were not considered initially.
Box 29.2. Chamela, Mexico
Another example provides a comparison between tropical and temperate eco-
systems with a link to Golley through his colleague, Carl Jordan, and one of
Jordan's former graduate students, Manuel Maass from Mexico (Jordan
2001 ). When Maass entered the University of Georgia's doctoral program
with an interest in tropical ecology, he was surprised that his graduate com-
mittee (Carl Jordan, Frank Golley and Wayne Swank) advised him to learn
forest hydrology by working at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in North
Carolina, a US Forest Service Experimental Forest. Later, Maass helped to
develop the Chamela Long-Term Ecological Research Program, the Chemela-
Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve. A series of long term studies on productivity,
biogeochemistry and hydrologic variability resulted in decades of ecological
research (Vose and Maass 1999 ; Maass et al. 2002 ) that included a compre-
hensive study of this tropical dry forest in Jalisco, Mexico (Maass et al. 2005 ).
A major focus is on inter-annual variations in rainfall that strongly infl u-
ence the differences between the wet and dry seasons in the forest's primary
productivity. The impacts of Pacifi c hurricanes and occurrence of El Niño and
La Niña events have major impacts on droughts and fl oods that affect rain-fed
agriculture and local water supplies. This long-term research includes col-
laboration with the populations around the watershed, and a strong focus on
ecosystem services that are provided to the surrounding communities such as
erosion and fl ood control, and pollination services for agricultural production.
This site is part of the International Long-Term Research Program (ILTER)
now chaired by Manuel Maass. The ILTER network includes 37 national net-
works and nearly 600 academic groups working at sites across fi ve continents
(Maass and Equihua 2015 this volume [Chap. 14 ] ). A lesson from the devel-
opment of this type of site-based research is that students and former students
are essential to conduct multi-decadal, multi-generational research. A deep
understanding regarding the need to document and share data, as well the reli-
ability of the team's efforts, takes time and leadership to develop.
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