Sandro Aquino

Abstract. Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological
strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and in fl uence ecosystem
properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological
questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits.
This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and
processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and
environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in biodiversity, the
impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation – atmosphere interactions. The
importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised
protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant- and ecosystem-
level processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous
version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text
on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols
for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and
regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species ’ effects on key ecosystem
properties. We hopethis new handbook becomesa standard companion inlocaland global efforts tolearn about the responses
and impacts of different plant species with respect to environmental changes in the present, past and future.

Wet tropical forests of the world are continuously subjected to human disturbance processes,
which  generate  changes  in  ecosystem  properties  which  in  turn  has  implications  for  the
provision  of  ecosystem  services.  In  this  sense,  the  main  objective  of  this  study  was  to
determine the impacts of human disturbance in the functional diversity of wet tropical forests
of Costa Rica, and its implications for the provision of ecosystem services of carbon fixation
and storage (carbon) and water regulation ecosystem (water). To address this research interest
species belonging to 75% of the basal area of these forests (forest without intervention, low
impact  managed forest,  high impact  managed forest  and secondary forest) were selected in
four  study  periods.  Traits  were  measured  to  carbon  service,  leaf  dry  matter  content,  leaf
content of nitrogen and phosphorus, wood density, growth rate, to  water service; texture of
bark, leaf texture, angle of branch, capacity load of epiphytes and crown density, and finally
traits used in both services, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf tensile strength, maximum height
and leaf phenology. 
First  we  determined  the  diversity  and  functional  composition  of  the  forests  studied  by  the
weighted  community  mean  (WCM),  functional  diversity  indices  (FDI)  and  multivariate
analysis for grouping into plant functional types (PFT). Second we determined the impacts of
human  disturbance  in  the  functional  diversity  and  its  implications  for  the  provision  of
ecosystem services  carbon and water through the changes of the basal area and biomass of
functional types. It showed that communities with greater taxonomic richness values reported
higher rates of functional diversity and that species locally called "rare" that occupied niches
later as forests recover from disturbance will be occupied by species functionally similar to
those already present. Multivariate analysis determined the 110 species in four plant functional
types  through  the  interaction  of  traits  within  the  spectrum  of  species  "acquisitive"  and
"conservative"  for  the  carbon  services  "conservative  upper-canopy"  (Ic),  “acquisitive
emerging" (IIc), “acquisitive lower-canopy” (IIIc) and "palms” (IVc), the same way for water
service identified  four functional types in the spectrum of species"interceptor"and “catcher"
according  to  performance  in  the  interception  and  collection  of  rainwater,  "catcher  canopy-
upper" (Ia), "interceptor" (IIa), "mid-canopy-catcher” (IIIa) and "emerging interceptor” (IVa).
The  weighted  average  mean  showed:  for  the  carbon  service  the  secondary  forests  was dominated for "acquisitives" species, while in primary forests especially in the forest without
intervention had a greater presence of species "conservative", and likewise for water service,
there  was  a  greater  presence  of  “catcher”  species  in  secondary  forest,  whereas  in  primary
forests increased presence of "interceptor." 
Human  disturbance  caused  changes  in  the  diversity  and  functional  composition  of  these
forests, just as that generated changes in biomass and carbon stored in the "palms" (IVc) and
"conservative upper-canopy” (Ic) while the other two functional types were not affected. For
water service, human disturbance generated changes in the four functional types but with more
intensity in the "emerging-catcher" that are quite similar to the "conservative upper-canopy."
Significantly,  both  basal  area  and  aboveground  biomass  of  these  functional  types  are  in  a
process of recovery, especially in secondary forest, followed by managed forests, while in the
woods  without  intervention  remains  stable,  even  showing  a  slight  tendency  to  decline,
indicating that even without human intervention there is a substantial loss of biomass. It also
became evident that some functional types are more sensitive than others, information of great
importance for the differential management of these forests, although these results should be
validated with further studies at higher spatial and temporal scale.

Recientemente, Miguel Caillaux —ministro de Agricultura— anunció que el gobierno
fortalecerá Agrobanco con un aumento de S/.100 millones en su capital. Reforzaría así su
capacidad para otorgar préstamos a los agricultores con dificultades de hallar financiamiento
adecuado y fomentaría una mayor competencia al promover la reducción de las altas tasas de
interés que la banca privada les cobra a los productores agrarios.

Le marché international du café exige une qualité croissante.
Les organisations de petits producteurs peuvent y répondre en
choisissant leurs segments de marché et en renforçant leur propre capacité de gestion de la qualité. C’est un des objectifs du projet Norcafé dans le nord du Pérou.