SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

(Only the first three authors in multi-authored papers are listed on the program, but will be listed on abstracts in the printed program.  Underlined names are the presenters)

MONDAY, JULY 12

Plenary Session, Ashe Auditorium

8:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks – Ted Fleming, University of Miami; David Lee, Florida International University

9:00 Plenary Address – Cristián Samper; Director, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.  Forests in the Clouds: Ecology and Conservation of Andean Ecosystems

10:00 Break

Symposium - Caribbean Plant Diversity and Evolution (Organized by Mike Maunder and John J. Pipoly III; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden), Miami Lecture Hall

10:30 Mike Maunder; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – Welcome and Opening Remarks

11:00 Javier Francisco-Ortega; Florida International University and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – Phylogenetic patterns in the Caribbean

11:30 Carl Lewis, Julissa Roncal, Javier Francisco-Ortega, Scott Zona; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Florida International University – Phylogenetic studies in Caribbean palms

12:00 John J. Pipoly III, Mike Maunder, Jack Fisher, Carl Lewis, Scott Zona, Javier Francisco-Ortega; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Florida International University – Use of long-term monitoring plots for plant conservation in the Caribbean

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Edgardo González, Rossana Vidal; Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, Puerto Rico - Plant conservation strategies with a regional management approach: the case of Puerto Rico and alternatives for the Caribbean

2:00 Joyce Maschinski; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – Management of fragmented habitats in South Florida and the Caribbean

2:30 Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez; National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution – Status of floristic inventory in the Caribbean

3:00 James Fourqurean; Florida International University – Conservation biology of South Florida and Caribbean seagrasses

3:30 Posters and refreshments

4:30 Mike Maunder, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Sarah Oldfield, Paul Mathew, Flora & Fauna International, UK – Patterns of tree rarity and the conservation of tree diversity in the Caribbean

5:00 Richard Campbell; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden – Diversity and domestication of avocados in the Caribbean

Symposium - The Amazon: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation (Organized by Emilio Bruna and Karen Kainer; University of Florida)  Merrick 1

10:30 Thomas Lovejoy; President, The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, USA – Managing the Amazon for sustainable development

11:00 Daniel Gómez, Steven Oberbauer, Michael McClain; Florida International University – Cloud water interception in the tropical montane cloud forest

11:30 Emilio Bruna, University of Florida; Heraldo Vasconcelos, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil; Sylvia Heredia, INPA-PDBFF, Brazil – The effect of habitat fragmentation on communities of mutualists: Amazonian ants and their host plants

12:00 Daniel Zarin; University of Florida – Conservation values of forest regrowth in Amazonia

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Karen Kainer, Richard Wallace, University of Florida; Lucia Wadt, Embrapa-Acre, Brazil - Extractivism and conservation: The importance of place in understanding extraction in Western Amazonia

2:00 Michael Heckenberger, Christian Russell; University of Florida -

Constructed and contested Amazonian natures: What tropical biologists (and conservationists) ought to know about long-term culture history

3:30 Posters and refreshments

Symposium - Frontiers in Tropical Ecosystem Disturbance Dynamics: Perspectives on Fire (Organized by Mark Cochrane, Michigan State University, and Sarah Otterstrom, University of California, Davis) Merrick 2

10:45 Introduction

11:00 William Hoffmann; North Carolina State University - Regional feedbacks among fire, climate, and tropical deforestation

11:30 Sarah Otterstrom, Mark Schwartz; University of California, Davis - Plant community responses to fire disturbance in a Nicaraguan seasonally dry forest

12:00 Narendran Kodandapani; Michigan State University - Fire regimes of the past, present, and future perspectives in the Western Ghats, India

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Mark Cochrane; Michigan State University - Tropical rainforest fire dynamics:  oxymoron or new evolutionary paradigm?

2:00 Jos Barlow; University of East Anglia, UK.  Wildfires and wildlife: The effects of single and recurrent wildfires on Amazonian avifauna

2:30 Ronald Myers; The Nature Conservancy, Florida - Fires and Forests:  Toward an integrated approach to fire management in Latin America and the Caribbean

3:00 Concluding remarks and discussion

3:30 Posters and refreshments

Contributed papers - Conservation Biology I: Fragmentation and Disturbance (Chaired by William Laurance, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama) Pearson 1

10:30 Catherine Woodward, Donald M. Waller; University of Wisconsin, Madison - Reproductive and genetic consequences of forest fragmentation on two understory tree species in Costa Rica

10:45 Jürgen Groeneveld et al.; UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Germany

Modelling the vegetation dynamics of forest fragments at the Atlantic Plateau of São Paulo

11:00 Yvonne Herrerías-Diego et al.; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Effect of forest fragmentation and phenological patterns on reproductive success of the tropical dry forest tree Ceiba aesculifolia

11:15 Carolina Palacios-Guevara et al.; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Spatial and phenological isolation of the tropical tree Ceiba grandiflora (Bombacaceae) in Mexico

11:30 Mauricio Quesada et al.; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Effects of forest fragmentation on bat pollination, plant reproduction and mating systems in natural populations of bombacaceous trees in Mexico

11:45 William Laurance, Richard Condit; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Compositional shifts in undisturbed Neotropical forests: Effects of climate change?

12:00 Catalino Paulino, Joaquín Martín Martín, Antonio Pastor López; Sociedad para el Desarrollo Integral del Nordeste; Universidad de Alicante, Spain - Distancias a vías de acceso-comunidades como descriptor de fragmentación y deforestación en un bosque tropical

12:15 N. A. Aravind, R. Uma Shaanker, K. N. Ganeshaiah; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment; University of Agricultural Sciences, India  - Frog assemblages in threatened Myristica swamp habitat of Western Ghats, India

12:30 Lunch

Symposium - Nectar vs. Honeydew (Organized by Suzanne Koptur, Florida International University) Pearson 1

1:45 Suzanne Koptur; Florida International University – Introduction

2:00 Stacy Philpott et al.; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Impacts of major predators on Inga arthropods in tropical agroforests: comparisons within and across taxa

2:30 Shinsuke Uno; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Ant-homopteran mutualism in the coffee agroecosystem:  Effects of natural enemies under two contrasting management systems

3:00 Cecilia Diaz-Castelazo, Victor Rico-Gray; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico -  Morphology and distribution of extrafloral nectaries in coastal communities of Veracruz, Mexico

3:30 Posters and refreshments

4:30 Heather Gamper, Suzanne Koptur; Florida International University - Examining the use of honeydew by birds in humid montane forests of Veracruz, Mexico

5:00 Mariana Cuautle; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico - Extrafloral nectaries, plants and ant abundance in the Pantanal: comparison at local and global scales

Plants

P01 - A. Elizabeth Arnold; Duke University, North Carolina - High molecular diversity of foliar endophytes associated with leaves of tropical trees

P02 - Zdravko Baruch, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela; Rob Jackson, Duke University, North Carolina – Responses of tropical native and invader C4 grasses to clipping, fire and increased atmospheric CO2

P03 - Jennifer Beck, Paula C Jackson, Kennesaw State University, Georgia; José Luis Andrade, Centro de Investigacion Científica de Yucatán, Mexico - Differences in source water use of the woody vegetation of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

P05 - Fernando Caccia, Universidad de Buenos Aires; Rodolfo Dirzo, Universidad Autónoma de México, México, DF - Density-dependent seed removal and recruitment in two Neotropical Legumes with contasting dispersal modes

P06 - John Cozza; University of Miami - Sex, Lies, and Begonias: Sex expression in a rainforest herb

P07 - Carlos García-Robledo, University of Miami; Floria Mora-Kepfer, Universidad de Costa Rica - Asymmetric pollen flow and morph reproductive function in the distylous herb  Arcytophyllum lavarum (Rubiaceae)

P08 - M. Genoveva Gatti, Paula Campanello, Guillermo Goldstein; Universidad de Buenos Aires; University of Miami – Growth and photosynthesis of a shade tolerant palm tree species under different light conditions

P09 - Katharine Gerst, Philip Rundel; University of California, Los Angeles - Ecology, distribution and life form diversity in two Aroid genera

P10 - Alex Gilman; University of California, Los Angeles – Tropical plant diversity and species altitudinal range across an elevational gradient in Costa Rica

P11 - Brunno de Andrade, Delano da Silva, John Hay; Universidade de Brasília - Biomass estimation in Lychnophora ericoides (Asteraceae)

P12 - Alexandre Avelino, Brunno de Andrade, John Hay; Universidade de Brasília - Relation between size and reproductive effort in Lychnophora ericoides (Asteraceae) in central Brazil

P13 - André de Lacerda; Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Brazil - Species names in commercial inventories - conservation and sustainable management in the Brazilian Amazon

P14 - Cristina Escate Lay, , Maria Silvia de Mendonça, Maria Gracimar Araújo; Manaus, Brazil - Morfologia de diferentes fases de desarrollo de frutos y semillas de Astrocaryum gynacanthum Mart (Arecaceae)

P15 - Márcia Marques, James Ropper; Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil – Do plants exhibit successional syndromes?  Problems with the definition of successional categories in Atlantic Rain Forest, Brazil

P16 - Lía Montti et al.; Universidad de Buenos Aires - Microclimatic consequences of infrequent massive flowering events of monocarpic bamboo grasses (Chusquea ramosissima) in the Atlantic Forests of Northern Argentina

P17 - Chad E Husby, Danielle T Palow; Florida International University – Flexual stiffness of giant horsetail, Equisetum giganteum, stems in the Atacama Desert and northwestern Argentina

P18 - Hugo Romero-Saltos et al.; University of Miami – Effect of rainfall exclusion on soil water movement and depth of water uptake by Amazonian trees

P19 - Julissa Roncal; Florida International University; Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami – Habitat differentiation of sympatric Geonoma macrostachys (Arecaceae) forms in three Peruvian lowland forests

P20 - Fabian Scholz et al.; Universidad de Buenos Aires - Dynamics of sap flux in roots and stems in tropical savanna trees differing in leaf phenology

P21 - Arthur Selwyn, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy; Pondicherry University, India - Flowering and fruiting phenology of tropical dry evergreen forest on the Coromandel coast of peninsular India

P22 - Philip Rundel, Jennifer Sun et al.; University of California, Los Angeles – Proyecto El MUNDO

P23 - P. Barry Tomlinson, Harvard University, The Kampong, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Miami; Jack Fisher, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, Florida International University – Adventitious roots and shoots are strongly polarized in seedlings of Rhizophora mangle

P24 - Claudia Uribe-Mu, Mauricio Quesada; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Consequences of the attack by the girdled borer Oncideres albomarginata chamela on the growth and reproduction of the tropical tree Spondias purpurea

P25 - Christine West, Laura Weiss et al.; University of Nevada, Las Vegas – Effects of organic mater and soil stability on the colonization of Puerto Rican landslides

Animals

P26 – Luis Fernando Alvarado-Ramos, Jorge Humberto Vega Rivera; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, San Patricio, Jalisco – Breeding biology and first description of nest and eggs of Red-Breasted Chat in Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico

P27 - Ana Maria González-Di Pierro, Kathryn Stoner; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia – Incidence and intensity of intestinal parasites of Alouatta pigra in tropical rainforest  in Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico

P28 - Maria-Luisa Jorge; University of Illinois at Chicago; Field Museum of Natural History – Effects of forest fragmentation on abundances of two dasyproctid rodents in a Central Amazonian forest, Brazil

P29 - Oulare Kaba, Sangare Mamadou, University of Conakry, Guinea; Kamardin Nikolai, St. Petersburg State University, Russia - Influence of chemical substances on the homing of the tropical mollusks Siphonaria grisea

P30 - Muse Opiang; Wildlfe Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea; University of Papua New Guinea - Home range, movement and den use by long-beaked echidnas (Zaglossus bartonii) in Papua New Guinea

P31 - Roxana R.-Fernández, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, La Paz, Mexico; Kathryn Stoner, Karla O.-Salazar, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Population structure and use of floral resources of Glossophaga soricina (Chiroptera) in a seasonal tropical dry forest, Jalisco, Mexico

Mutualisms

P32 - A. Elizabeth Arnold, Jolanta Miadlikowska, François Lutzoni; Duke University, North Carolina - High diversity of cryptic fungi inhabiting healthy lichen thalli in a temperate and tropical forest

P33 - Jennifer Cramer et al.; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge – The effects of forest fragmentation on the seed dispersal of Duckeodendron cestroides, a Central Amazon endemic.

P34 – Cullen K Geiselman, Vanessa Hequet; New York Botanical Garden – Plants pollinated by bats in central French Guiana

Population Ecology

P35 - Maritza Guerrero, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Oscar Rocha, Universidad de Costa Rica – Spatial and temporal variation of the distribution of seed coloration within fruits of Sesbania emerus (Fabaceae) along a flooding gradient

P36 - Leonel López, Niels Anten, David Ackerly, Miguel Martínez-Ramos; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia; Stanford University, California – Functional and demographic post-defoliation effects and the recovery processes in defoliated palm populations of Chamaedorea elegans and C. oblongata

P37 - John Purcell et al.; University of Miami - Genetic population structure in two species of Caribbean coral reef fish, based on microsatellite DNA

P38 - Scott Solomon, Ulrich Mueller; University of Texas, Austin - Phylogeography of the leafcutter ant, Atta cephalotes

Genetics and Evolution

P39 - Sandra Cuartas, Juan Núñez-Farfán; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF -  Genetic structure of the tropical rainforest understory herb Dieffenbachia seguine L. in contiunous and fragmented forest

P40 – Alberto Galindo-Cardona, Rosanna Giordano, Tugrul Giray; University of Puerto Rico; University of Vermont – Absence of Bess-beetle males (Spasalus crenatus, Passalidae) in Puerto Rico: An island effect?

P41 - Jesús Vargas, Juan Núñez-Farfán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF; Linden Higgins, University of Vermont – Population genetic structure of Nephila clavipes (Araneae: Tetragnathidae) in Mexico

TUESDAY, JULY 13

Symposium – Evolutionary Constraints on Life History and Physiological Traits in Tropical Plants (Organized by Guillermo Goldstein, University of Miami, and Frederick Meinzer, USDA Forest Service, Corvallis) Miami Lecture Hall

8:15 Introduction

8:30 Lawren Sack; University of Hawai’i, Honolulu - Leaf laws and outlaws: scaling form and function from lamina to stomata

9:00 Stefan Schnitzer; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee - A mechanistic explanation for global patterns of liana abundance and distribution

9:30 Paula Campanello, M. Genoveva Gatti, Guillermo Goldstein; Universidad de Buenos Aires; University of Miami - Impact of life history traits on physiological attributes of canopy species growing under different light regimes

10:00 Break

10:30 Rebecca Montgomery, University of Minnesota, St. Paul; Thomas Givnish, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Guillermo Goldstein, University of Miami - Adaptive radiation of photosynthesis and life history traits in the Hawaiian lobeliads

11:00 Saharah Moon Chapotin, N. Michele Holbrook; Harvard University - Understanding the role of high stem water content in baobab trees (Adansonia spp.) from a physiological and a biomechanical perspective

11:30 Sandra Bucci, Guillermo Goldstein, Randol Villalobos, University of Miami; Fabian Scholz, Universidad de Buenos Aires; Frederick Meinzer, USDA Forest Service, Corvallis, et al. - Nutrient availability constrains the hydraulic architecture and water relations of savanna trees

12:00 Susan Cordell, USDA Forest Service, Hilo; Darren Sandquist, California State University, Fullerton - Constraints that beget functional variation of Hawaiian native tree species

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Kaoru Kitajima; University of Florida - Allocation-based trade-offs between growth and survival of tropical tree seedlings

2:00 William Hoffmann; North Carolina State University - Comparative biology as a key to understanding the dynamics of savanna-forest boundaries

2:30 Jeannine Cavender-Bares; University of Minnesota, St. Paul - Convergence and coexistence of Florida oaks

3:00 General discussion and synthesis

Symposium - Footprints in the Forest: Human Influences on Tropical Forests (Organized by Brad Bennett, Florida International University) Merrick 1

8:15 Brad Bennett; Florida International University – Introduction

8:30 Steve Oberbauer; Florida International University – Global climate: driver for change in tropical forests

9:00 David Lee; Florida International University - Forest history, disturbance and preservation in South Asia

9:30 F. Allen Dray, Bradley Bennett, Ted Center; USDA Agricultural Research Service; Florida International University - Going wild from Down Under: Melaleuca quinquenervia invades the Everglades

10:00 Break

10:30 Kristine Stewart; Keith and Schnars, Florida - Direct and indirect effects of the harvest of the African cherry (Prunus africana) on the montane forest of Mount Oku, Cameroon

11:00 Clay Trauernicht; University of Hawaii, Honolulu - Farming the forest understory: the management of Chamaedorea palm plantations in southeastern Mexico

11:30 Elizabeth DeMattia; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Indirect effects of large mammal hunting on small rodent communities and seed predation

12:00 Joe Meisel; University of Wisconsin, Madison - Army ants in small forest fragments:  Keystone predators in a human-managed landscape

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Bradley Bennett, Florida International University; Rocio Alarcon, Fundación Ecuatoriana de Estudios Ecológicos – Indigenous peoples and protected species in Ecuadorian rainforests

2:00 Robert Miller, Agência de Cooperação Técnica a Programas Indigenistas e Ambientais, Brazil; José Fragoso, State University of New York, Syracuse - Anthropogenic forests in Amazonia: A critical review

2:30 Juan Pablo Arroyo-Mora et al.; University of Connecticut; University of Alberta -  Fragmentation analysis for the Chorotega region, Costa Rica from 1960 to 2000

3:00 Panel discussion

Symposium – Tropical Microbial Ecology and Evolution (Organized by Elizabeth Arnold, Duke University, North Carolina) Merrick 2

9:00 John Paul Schmit; University of Illinois, Urbana - Diversity and structure of mangrove fungal communities in response to fertilization

9:30 Nicole Gerardo; University of Texas, Austin - Parasite specialization in the fungus-growing ant symbiosis

10:00 Break

10:30  Hermógenes Fernández-Marín et al.; University of Puerto Rico, San Juan; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Ants: how, when and why they spread their metapleural gland secretions

11:00 Rachel Gallery, James Dalling; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Incorporating the role of fungal communities into the seed bank dynamics of Cecropia (Cecropiaceae)

11:30  Luis Mejia, Enith Rojas, Zuleyka Maynard, A. Elizabeth Arnold et al.; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Duke University, North Carolina - Theobroma cacao and its endophytic fungi as a model system:  the potential of endophytes for host antipathogen defense

12:30 Lunch

Symposium – Interactions and Dynamics Between Primary and Secondary Seed Dispersers (Organized by Kevina Vulinec, Delaware State University, and Pierre-Michel Forget, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France) Merrick 2

2:00 Sandra Ratiarison, Pierre-Michel Forget; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France - Seed fate under zoochorous fruiting trees: predictions from seed rain patterns

2:30 José Manuel Fragoso, State University of New York, Syracuse; Jose Correa, McGill University; Lian Qian, Florida Atlantic University - The fate of seeds handled by primary dispersers and secondary dispersers/predators

3:00 Johanna Choo, Edmund Stiles; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey - Frugivorous bird communities in a Neotropical and an Asian Paleotropical site.

3:30 Break

4:00 Elizabeth DeMattia; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Effects of small rodent community dynamics on primary and secondary seed dispersal

4:30 Trond Larsen; Princeton University - Interactions between disturbance, dung beetles, and seeds: Does dung beetle diversity help maintain plant diversity?

5:00 Kevina Vulinec; Delaware State University - Dung beetles, seed dispersal, and community assemblages in the Amazon Basin

9:00 Terry Krueger et al.;University of Miami; Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica -  Parasitism, health, song and plumage color in a Neotropical passerine

9:15 Amanda Hale, Colin Hughes; University of Miami - Group structure and sex-biased dispersal in a Neotropical wood-quail, Odontophorus leucolaemus

9:30 Dean Williams, Amanda Hale; University of Miami - Levels of investment in breeding activities by behaviorally reproductive male brown jays, Cyanocorax morio: a species with complex patterns of genetic paternity

9:45 Donald Brightsmith; Duke University, North Carolina – Parrots’ dirty eating: the effects of weather and season on clay lick use in Tambopata, Peru

10:00 Break

10:30 Markus Tellkamp; University of Florida - Habitat generalization and the conservation of Andean avifaunas

10:45 Elisabeth Kalko, Stefan Klose; University of Ulm, Germany; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Condition-dependent seasonal variation in plasma steroid levels in the Jamaican Fruit-Eating Bat Artibeus jamaicensis in a Panamanian lowland rainforest

11:00 Stefan Klose, Justin Welbergen, Nicki Markus, Peggy Eby, Elisabeth Kalko; University of Ulm, Germany; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; University  of Cambridge; Department of Environment and Heritage, Australia; University of Queensland; University of New England, Australia - Consequences of temperature extremes for recruitment and breeding in Australian Flying Foxes: Testing the impact of predictions from climate change models

11:15 C. Alfonso Molina-H.; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador – Patterns of morphometric variation in genus Anoura (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), from Ecuador

11:30 Ivan Castro-Arellano, Thomas Lacher, Jr.; Texas A&M University - Relevance of temporal niche dynamics for rodent community patterns at El Cielo Reserve, Mexico

11:45 Siew Te Wong et al.; University of Montana - The effects of famine on Malayan sun bears and bearded pigs in tropical rainforests of Borneo

12:30 Lunch

Contributed papers – Ecosystem Ecology I: Soils and litterfall (Chaired by Deborah Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis) Pearson 1

1:30 Emma Sayer; University of Cambridge, UK - Assessing the importance of changes to litter inputs in tropical forests.

1:45 Catalina Aristizabal, David Janos; University of Miami - Litter quality affects the colonization of decomposing leaves by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

2:00 Deborah Clark, David Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Steven Oberbauer, Florida International University - Climatic and edaphic impacts on litterfall within a tropical wet forest: a 6-yr study

2:15 Aaron Shiels; University of Puerto Rico - Ecosystem recovery across a chronosequence of landslides in northeastern Puerto Rico

2:30 Roger Guevara, Iliana Romero; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico - Mycelial mats affect the concentration of  nutrients in soils and fine roots, implication for underground herbivory

2:45 Tiffany Troxler Gann, Daniel Childers; Florida International University - Coupling nutrient availability and peat development in a coastal freshwater swamp of Panamá

3:00 Kevin Whelan, Florida International University; Thomas Smith, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, Florida - Soil elevation response to lightning gap formation in a mangrove forest

3:30 Break

Contributed papers – Ecosystem Ecology II (Chaired by Steven Oberbauer, Florida International University) Miami Lecture Hall

4:00 Paulo Olivas, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica; David Clark, Deborah Clark, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Steven Oberbauer, Florida International University; Michael Ryan, USDA Forest Service, Fort Collins - Vertical distribution of leaf area index (LAI) among plant functional groups in a tropical wet forest of Costa Rica

4:15 Molly Cavaleri, Mike Ryan, Deborah Clark, David Clark, Steven Oberbauer et al.; Colorado State University; USDA Forest Service, Fort Collins; Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica; University of Missouri-St. Louis; Florida International University - Modeling carbon efflux in a wet tropical rain forest using scaled up chamber respiration measurements and eddy covariance data

4:30 Steven Oberbauer, Florida International University; Paulo Olivas, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica; Michael Ryan, USDA Forest Service, Fort Collins - Temperature and atmospheric humidity gradients in canopies of tropical wet forest in Costa Rica

4:45 Matthew Letts, University of Lethbridge, Alberta; Mark Mulligan - Productivity modelling in a montane cloud forest of southwest Colombia

5:00 Stephanie Bohlman, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Richard Grotefendt, University of Washington, Seattle - Sun-exposed crown area and large tree growth on Barro Colorado Island, Panama

5:15 Rodrigo Rojas; Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad - Eliminating geographic boundaries: Hydropower projects in Costa Rica, an opportunity to develop tropical research

Contributed papers – Mutualisms (Chaired by Fabian Michelangeli, New York Botanical Garden) Pearson 1

4:00 Megan Frederickson; Stanford University, California - The effects of multiple ant partners on their plant hosts in Neotropical ant-plant mutualisms

4:15 Fabian Michelangeli; New York Botanical Garden - Evolution of myrmecophytism in Neotropical Melastomataceae: cues from phylogenetic, and anatomical data

4:30 Nathan Muchhala; University of Miami - The role of pollinators in the evolution of floral morphology: Bats, birds, and Burmeistera

4:45 Natacha Chacoff, Marcelo Aizen; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina - Edge effects on pollinators, pollination and fruit production in grapefruit plantations bordering Argentinean Yungas forest

5:00 Xiao-Bao Deng, Pan-Yu Ren, Jiang-Yun Gao, Qing-Jun Li; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China - The Striped Squirrel (Tamiops swinhoei hainanus) as a nectar robber of ginger (Alpinia kwangsiensis)

5:15 Silvia Lomáscolo, Pablo Speranza; University of Florida; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina; Facultad de Agronomía, Montevideo - Fruit evolution in Ficus (Moraceae): do dispersal syndromes exist?

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14

7:45 Pierre-Michel Forget, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France; David Hammond, NWFS Consulting, Oregon - Forest ecology and conservation in the Guiana Shield: Future-thinking for a forest frontier

8:00 David Hammond; NWFS Consulting, Oregon - Geomorphic and geographic effects on ecosystem patterns, processes  and conservation gaps in the Guiana Shield – a first comparison with other Neotropical regions.

8:30 Pierre-Michel Forget et al.; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France - Forest phenology and fruit biomass in the Guiana Shield: First results of a research and educational network (PHENOGUIFOR)

9:00 Kirsten Silvius; SUNY-ESF, Syracuse - Scale-dependent distribution patterns of trees used by three terrestrial mammals in northern Brazil

9:30 Terry Henkel, Jordan R. Mayor, Lance Wooley; Humboldt State University, California - Mast fruiting of the ectomycorrhizal, monodominant Dicymbe corymbosa (Caesalpiniaceae) in Guyana

10:00 Break

10:30 Krista McGuire; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Synchronous seed output, seed predation and seedling survival:  implications for tropical monodominance in Guyana

11:00 Jordan Mayor, Terry Henkel; Humboldt State University, California - Ectomycorrhizal influence on leaf litter decomposition within a monodominant Dicymbe corymbosa (Caesalpiniaceae) forest in Guyana.

11:30 M. Catherine Aime, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland; Terry Henkel, Mimi Chin, Humboldt State University, California - Ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungal diversity in western Guyana

12:00 Sandra Ratiarison, Joost van Doornik, Bart de Dijn, Pierre-Michel Forget; Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France; Stinasu, Paramaribo, Suriname; University of Wageningen, The Netherlands - Contrasting seed fate in a primate-dispersed tree genus in two Guianan forests

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Peter Van der Meer, ALTERRA, The Netherlands; Frans Bongers, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Patrick Jansen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands - Do gaps wander?  Re-disturbance of canopy-gaps in a Neotropical rain forest

2:00 François Feer, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France - Edge effects in a rain forest dung beetle assemblage (Scarabaeidae) in French Guiana

2:30 David Hammond; NWFS Consulting, Oregon – Historic and modern forest land-use patterns and effects in the Guiana Shield: implications for conservation and sustainable use

3:00 Jan Schipper, University of Idaho; Gary Clarke, World Wildlife Fund – Guianas; Tom Allnut, World Wildlife Fund – US - Strategic conservation planning in the Guianan Ecoregion Complex: Using spatial decision-support software and expert opinion to identify high conservation value landscapes

3:30 Pierre-Michel Forget, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France; David Hammond, NWFS Consulting, Oregon - Discussion: What future for the Guianan rainforests?

4:00 Posters and refreshments

Symposium – Coral Reef Health and Degradation (Organized by Laurie Richardson, Florida International University) Merrick 1

8:00 Laurie Richardson; Florida International University - Coral Reef Health and Degradation

8:30 Robert Ginsburg, Philip Kramer, Judith Lang; University of Miami; The Nature Conservancy of the Florida Keys - Initial health assessments of twenty coral reef areas in the Western Atlantic

9:00 Gaby Hoebart; Austria - Endangered coral reefs and the protection of marine biodiversity in Bocas del Toro, Panama

9:30 William Precht, PBS&J, Miami; Richard Aronson, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Alabama -  Widespread coral disease and the crisis on Caribbean coral reefs

10:00 Break

10:30 Billy Causey; Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary - Linking coral bleaching and secondary impacts to climate change in the Florida Keys

11:00 Virginia Garrison et al.; U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, Florida - African and Asian dust, and declines on coral reefs

11:30 Pamela Hallock et al.; University of South Florida - Distinguishing local from global stresses: Low-cost tools for reef monitoring and risk assessment

12:00 Dee Mills, Joshua Voss, Laurie Richardson; Florida International University - Investigating the microbial communities associated with Black Band disease of  corals

12:30 Lunch

Symposium – Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of Island Bats (Organized by Ted Fleming, University of Miami, and Paul Racey, University of Aberdeen, UK) Merrick 2

7:45 Ted Fleming; University of Miami – Introduction to island bats

8:00 Brian McNab; University of Florida - The physiological adaptation by bats to island life

8:30 Paul Racey; University of Aberdeen, UK - Ecology and conservation of Malagasy bats

9:00 Louise Shilton, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Queensland, University of Leeds, UK;   R. J. Whittaker, University of Oxford - The role of fruit bats (Megachiroptera, Pteropodidae) in rebuilding and reconnecting the tropical forests of the Krakatau archipelago, Indonesia

9:30 Lawrence Heaney, Trina E Roberts; Field Museum of Natural History; University of Chicago - Biogeographic and phylogeographic perspectives on high levels of genetic divergence within Philippine fruit bats

10:00 Break

10:30 Contrasting modes of evolution and genetic variation in the bats of Wallacea

Lincoln Schmitt, Christopher Newbound, Sue Hisheh, Maharadatunkamsi, Richard How; University of Western Australia; Research Center for Biology - LIPI, Indonesia; Western Australian Museum

11:00 Sandra Banack, California State University, Fullerton; Paul Alan Cox, National Tropical Botanical Garden, USA - Biomagnification of cycad neurotoxins in Flying Foxes: implications for ALS-PDC in Guam

11:30 Liliana Dávalos; American Museum of Natural History, New York - Historical biogeography of the Antilles: Earth history and phylogenetics of endemic Chiropteran taxa

12:00 Ted Fleming; University of Miami - Phylogeography of West Indian bats

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Armando Rodríguez-Durán; Inter-American University, Puerto Rico - Bat assemblages in the West Indies: The role of caves

2:00 Michael Gannon, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona; Michael Willig, Texas Tech University, Lubbock - Islands in the storm: disturbance ecology of plant-visiting bats in the hurricane-prone West Indies

2:30 Scott Pedersen et al.; South Dakota State University - Fruit bats of Montserrat-Population fluctuation in response to hurricanes & volcanoes over a 25 year period: 1979-2004

3:00 Frank Clarke, Paul Racey; University of Aberdeen, UK - Natural forest management in Trinidad, West Indies: implications for bat conservation

3:30 Allyson Walsh; Lubee Bat Conservancy - Global overview of the conservation of island bats

4:00 Paul Racey; University of Aberdeen, UK – Summary and conclusions

4:00 Posters and refreshments

Contributed papers – Community Ecology I: Invertebrates (Chaired by Bruno Corbara, Université Blaise-Pascal, France) Merrick 1

2:30 Ana Monmany, Thomas Aide; University of Puerto Rico, San Juan; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina -  Precipitation and landscape configuration effects on plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions: a multi-scale approach.

2:45 Roger Guevara, Iliana Romero; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico -

Large buttressed trees indirectly affect the species richness and structure of the soil arthropod community in a tropical rain forest

3:00 Yves Bassett, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Bruno Corbara, Université Blaise-Pascal, France; Hector Barrios, Universidad de Panamá - IBISCA : A large-scale study of the vertical and horizontal distributions of arthropods in a Panamanian rainforest

3:15 Barbara Richardson, Diane Srivastava, Benjamin Gilbert; Luquillo Experimental Forest LTER, Puerto Rico; University of British Columbia - Trophic specialization, biogeography and the exponent of species-area curves: A meta-analysis of bromeliad insect communities

4:00 Posters and refreshments

Contributed papers – Plant Ecology I: Pollination and Dispersal (Chaired by Barbara Whitlock, University of Miami) Pearson 1

8:00 Gordon Frankie, S.B. Vinson, J. Hernandez; University of California, Berkeley - Creating habitat for native bee pollinators in highly modified landscapes

8:15 Ling Zhang, Spencer Barrett, Jin Chen, Jiang-Yun Gao, Yong Liu, Qing-Jun Li; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China; University of Toronto - How does Tacca chantrieri (Taccaceae) reproduce with its conspicuous floral display: deceitfully pollinating or automatically selfing?

8:30 Christina McCain; University of Miami - Depressed floral interactions in disturbed habitats and their consequences for plant reproductive success: a case study in Amazonian terra firme forest

8:45 Tatyana Lobova, Scott Mori; New York Botanical Garden - Bat-dispersed plants in central French Guiana

9:00 Kathryn Stoner et al.; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia; Universidad de Costa Rica - Pollination and mating systems of Ceiba pentandra (Bombacaceae) populations in different tropical life zones in Mesoamerica

9:15 Barbara Whitlock; University of Miami - A phylogenetic perspective on the evolution of cauliflory in Malvaceae

9:30 Eloisa Lasso; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - Breeding system, regeneration mode, and habitat affiliation in Neotropical Piper species

10:00 Break

Contributed papers: Plant Ecology II: Herbivory (Chaired by Amy Erickson, Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida) Pearson 1

10:30 Julieta Benítez-Malvido; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Short vs. long term seedling performance and herbivory in Amazonia

10:45 Pablo Cuevas-Reyes, Mauricio Quesada, Ken Oyama; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Herbivory by gall-inducing insects: temporal and spatial patterns in a Mexican tropical dry forest  

11:00  Juan López, Roger Guevara, Ana-Celia Aguilar-Chama; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico - Plant diversity, soil chemistry and herbivory patterns in a fragmented Sabal palm community

11:15 Carol Horvitz, University of Miami;  Shripad Tuljapurkar, Stanford University, California; John Pascarella, Valdosta State University, Georgia, USA - Plant-animal interactions in random environments

11:30 Amy A Erickson, Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce, Florida; Susan Bell, Clinton Dawes, University of South Florida - Relating mangrove herbivore preference and consumption to leaf chemistry and structure

11:45 Silvia Alvarez-Clare, Kaoru Kitajima; University of Florida - Impact of vertebrate consumption, litterfall,and disease on tree seedling survival in the forest understory

12:00 Graciela García-Guzmán, Rodolfo Dirzo; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México - Disease incidence in the canopy and the understory of a Mexican tropical rain forest

12:30 Lunch

Contributed papers – Plant Ecology III: Ecophysiology and Distribution (Chaired by Robin Chazdon, University of Connecticut) Pearson 1

1:30 Frank Sterck, Lourens Poorter; Wageningen University, The Netherlands - Do leaf trade-offs explain the differential performance of rain forest trees?

1:45 Kun-Fang Cao, Jiao-Lin Zhang, Jun-Jie Zhu; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China - Seasonal variation of photosynthetic physiology in woody plants in a valley savanna in southwestern China

2:00 Brendan Choat, N. Michelle Holbrook; Harvard University - Variation in hydraulic traits of Cordia species occurring across a rainfall gradient.

2:15 Laura López Hoffman, Niels Anten, David Ackerly; Stanford University, California; Utrecht University, The Netherlands -  Interactive effects of salinity and light on mangrove seedlings: Scaling from leaf carbon gain to whole-plant performance

2:30 Tara Greaver, Leonel Sternberg: University of Miami - Role of ocean water in patterns of plant water uptake along coastal dune ecotones

2:45 Juan Pablo Giraldo et al.; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Quantifying desiccation tolerance and drought performance of tropical seedlings for predicting plant distributions

3:00 Robin Chazdon, University of Connecticut; Alvaro Redondo Brenes, Yale University; Braulio Vilchez Alvarado, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica - Tree dynamics over six years in wet tropical second-growth forests

3:15 Oscar Valverde, Oscar Rocha; Universidad de Costa Rica - Effect of traditional logging activities in the light environment and seedlings composition and survival of trees in a monodominant forest: the case of the cativo (Prioria copaifera) in Talamanca

3:30 Sheila Ward, Jess Zimmerman, Vanessa Rivera; University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras - Scale and the impact of environmental factors on species composition patterns in secondary forest plots in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

3:45 Philip Rundel et al.; University of California, Los Angeles - Ecology and demography of broad-leaved monocot herbs in a tropical rainforest

4:00 Posters and refreshments

(under subject areas and alphabetized by presenting or first author)

Community Ecology

P42 - Susana Bravo; Universidad de Buenos Aires – Loss of genetic diversity in tropical trees: effects of seed disperser behavior

P43 - Erika del Carmen Pérez, Diego Rafael Pérez Salicrup; Morelia, Mexico – Forest structure, growth rate, mortality and multiple stemmed tree composition in Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region

P44 - Guillem Chust et al.; CNRS/UPS Toulouse, France; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Spatial modelling of tree beta diversity in Panama tropical forest

P45 - Julie Feinstein, Amy Berkov; City University of New York - Selectivity among insects reproducing in fallen Lecythidaceae flowers

P46 - Carla Guthrie; University of Texas, Austin – Exploring the consequences of increased patch density on spatially-structured invertebrate communities occupying Heliconia imbricata

P47 - Patrick Jansen et al.; University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama – Radio-tracking seed dispersal by agoutis

P48 - Thibaut Delsinne, Yves Roisin, Maurice Leponce; Université Libre de Bruxelles; Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences - Temporal foraging overlaps in a Chacoan dry forest ant assemblage.

P49 - Laurence Theunis, Marius Gilbert, Yves Roisin, Maurice Leponce; Royale Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences; Université Libre de Bruxelles – Periodic pattern of species distribution in a ground-dwelling ant assemblage.

P50 - Erin Lindquist; Organization for Tropical Studies; Duke University, North Carolina - Coastal forest composition relative to an environmental gradient, seed rain distribution, and land crab densities

P51 - Agustina Malizia, Ricardo Grau; Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina - Liana tree interactions in a subtropical montane forest of NW Argentina

P52 - Ana Portugal Loayza et al.; University of Puerto Rico – Effects of past land use and environmental factors on pteridophyte distribution studied at two spatial scales in Puerto Rico

P53 - Verónica Sandoya, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador - Diversity and structure of vascular epiphytes in four different habitats in Ecuadorian Amazonia

P54 - Jose Vazquez-Garcia, University of Guadalajara, Mexico; Yalma Vargas-Rodriguez, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge – Tropical dry forest tree communities of Western Mexico and their relationship with Mexico-Central America

P55 - Ordination and classification of Mexican cloud forest: a multivariate approach

Jacqueline Reynoso-Duenas, Jose Vazquez-Garcia; University of Guadalajara, Mexico –

P56 - Stephen Yanoviak et al.; University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory; University of Texas Medical Branch - Deforestation and mosquito distributions in the Peruvian Amazon

Ecosystem Ecology

P57 - Marcelo Ardon, Lindsay Stallcup, Catherine Pringle; University of Georgia, USA - Influence of substrate quality and water chemistry on decomposition dynamics in lowland neotropical streams

P58 - Margaret Kalácska, G. A. Sánchez-Azofeifa, T. Caelli; University of Alberta, Canada – Estimating Leaf Area Index from Satellite Imagery using a Bayesian Network.

P59 - Harlyn Ordonez, La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica; Steven Oberbauer, Florida International University, et al. – Photosynthetic capacity of plant functional groups across the canopy gradient in old-growth tropical wet forest in Costa Rica

P60 – Emma Sayer, University of Cambridge, UK – Litter manipulation influences soil processes in tropical forests

Conservation Biology

P61 - Armando Aguirre, Rodolfo Dirzo; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF – Effects of habitat fragmentation on reproductive success and germination in Astrocaryum mexicanum in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

P62 - Elizabeth Anderson Olivas, Catherine Pringle, Mary Freeman; University of Georgia, USA - Cumulative effects assessment of dams on hydrologic connectivity in the Sarapiqui River watershed, Costa Rica

P63 - N. A. Aravind, K. P. Rajshekhar; Mangalore University, India; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, India – Studies on impact of land use change on land snails of Western Ghats

P64 - Ethel Arias-Cóyotl et al.; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia - Effectiveness of nectar-feeding bats as pollinators of Stenocereus stellatus in cultivated, managed and wild populations in Chinango, Oaxaca

P65 - Kristen Bell; Florida International University - Influence of forest fragmentation on frog and lizard communities in lowland Costa Rica: preliminary results

P66 - Frans Bongers et al.; Wageningen University, The Netherlands – Biodiversity of West African forests

P67 - Robert Buschbacher et al.; University of Florida - Multidisciplinary research and education on Neotropical working forests

P68 - Marcos Caraballo-Ortiz, Eugenio Santiago-Valentin; Universidad de Puerto Rico-Río Piedras - Aspects on the pollination biology of Goetzea elegans (Solanaceae)

P69 – Bruno Corbara; LAPSCO-CNRS Université Blaise-Pascal, France - The Canopy-Glider : an innovative tool for biodiversity studies and conservational purposes

P70 - Ana Alice Eleutério, Diego Pérez-Salicrup; Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Morelia, Mexico – Management of treefern species of Cyathea for handcraft production in Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico

P71 - Julie Feinstein, Angelique Corthals; American Museum of Natural History, New York – The Ambrose Monell Cryo Collection at the American Museum of Natural History

P72 - Banak Gamui; Wildlife Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea; University of Papua New Guinea - Using trained local assistants for research:  good quality data and mobilizing a community for conservation

P73 - Jairo Lasso, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, San Andrés; Alan Giraldo, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia – The birds of Courtown (Cayo Bolivar), Colombia

P74 - Devon Graham, James Riach;  Project Amazonas, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Florida International University; Nova Southeastern University, Florida – Conservation and human health: synergistic partners in the Peruvian Amazon

P75 - Carlos Martins, John Hay; Universidade de Brasília – Dispersal of Melinis minutiflora (Poaceae) in a Brazilian cerrado

P76 - Gaby Hoebart, Austria – Changing tropical diversity of marine systems in Bocas del Toro, Panama

P77 - Juan Lopez, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico; Rodolfo Dirzo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, DF – Anthropogenic changes to the floristic diversity of the Sabal palm woodland: An endemic vegetation type from Mexico

P78 - Daniel Barrantes, Emilio Castro, Gabriel Macaya, Oscar Rocha; Universidad de Costa Rica - The impact of local extinction on genetic structure of wild populations of lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.

P79 - Yunqiu (Daniel) Wang, Dean Williams, Michael Gaines; University of Miami - The genetic structure of rice rat (Oryzomys spp.) populations in South Florida as revealed by microsatellite DNA analyses

P80 - Dean Williams et al.; University of Miami, University of Florida - Genetic evidence for two introductions of Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) in Florida

P81 - Christie Young, The Nature Conservancy, Peru; Antonio Tovar, National Agrarian University of La Molina, Peru – Science and stakeholders: An integrated vision for the conservation of the eastern montane forests of Peru

P82 - Brian Zutta, Philip Rundel, University of California, Los Angeles; Sassan Saatchi, California Institute of Technology – Distribution model and climate change impact on Polylepis spp. in Peru’s Huascarán Biosphere Reserve

THURSDAY, JULY 15

Symposium – Measuring Tropical Seed Dispersal Using Molecular Markers (Organized by Patrick Jensen, University of Groningen, The Netherlands) Miami Lecture Hall

8:45 Patrick Jensen, University of Groningen; Britta Denise Hardesty, University of Georgia, USA – Measuring tropical seed dispersal using molecular markers: Introduction

9:00 Olivier Hardy, Laurent Maggia, Peter Breyne, Henri Caron, Cyril Dutech, Antoine Kremer, Céline Latouche-Hallé, Bernd Degen; Université Libre de Bruxelles; CIRAD, France; INRA, France; Institute for Forestry and Game Management, Belgium - Indirect gene dispersal estimates in ten Neotropical tree species correlate well with seed dispersal

9:30 Matthew Hamilton, Georgetown University - Relative rates of seed and pollen gene flow in the tropical tree Corythophora alta

10:00 Break

10:30 Samantha Davies, Andrew White, Andrew Lowe; C.E.H. Edinburgh, UK; Heriot-Watt University, UK; University of Queensland, Australia - Combining simulation modelling and molecular data to reconstruct seed dispersal dynamics

11:00 Victoria L Sork, Delphine Grivet, University of California, Los Angeles; Peter Smouse, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey -  A new approach to the study of seed dispersal:  a temperate example for tropical systems

11:30 Britta Denise Hardesty; University of Georgia, USA; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Linking dispersal and seed fate: Seed arrival, survival, and the frequency of long distance gene movement in the bird-dispersed tropical tree, Simarouba amara

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Brian Grafton; Kent State University, Ohio - Primates and seed shadows: mapping seed dispersal

2:00 Andy Jones, University of Georgia, USA - Direct measurement of seed dispersal distances in the Neotropical tree, Jacaranda copaia

2:30 Discussion

3:15 Break

Symposium – Morphology and Life History Relationships Among Neotropical Forest Trees (Organized by Joseph Wright, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama) Merrick 1

8:00 David Ackerly, Stanford University, California; Campbell Webb, Yale University; Ian Wright, Macquarie University, Australia - Phylogenetic ecology of tropical trees: the distribution of functional diversity

8:30 Ian Wright; Macquarie University, Australia - Relationships among leaf, seed, fruit and wood traits in the Neotropics

9:00 Miguel Martínez-Ramos, Horacio Paz, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia; Poorter Lourens, Wageningen University, The Netherlands - Taxonomic, morphological, and demographic variation along vertical gradients among tropical rain forest trees

9:30 Poorter Lourens; Wageningen University, The Netherlands;  Instituto Boliviano de Investigacion Forestal - Functional differentiation among tree species of wet and dry tropical forests

10:00 Break

10:30 Joe Wright; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama - Ontogenetic shifts or consistency in vital rates among tropical trees

11:00 Horacio Paz, Miguel Martínez-Ramos; Universidad Autónoma de México, Morelia - Relationships between functional and demographic traits in Neotropical trees

11:30 Helene Muller-Landau; University of Minnesota, St. Paul - Relating functional traits, demography, and size distributions of tropical tree species and communities

12:00 Susan Mazer, National Science Foundation, USA, University of California, Santa Barbara; Miles Silman, Wake Forest University, North Carolina - Seed size, germination type, habitat preference, and adult abundances of Neotropical woody species

12:30 Lunch

Symposium – Assessment and Management of Tropical Plant Germplasm Collections Using Molecular Genetic Markers (Organized by David Kuhn, Florida International University and USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station) Pearson 1

8:15 David Kuhn; Florida International University and USDA- ARS - Introduction

8:30 Raymond Schnell, USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Miami - Evaluation of avocado germplasm using microsatellite markers

9:00 David Kuhn, Florida International University - Development of candidate genes for use as molecular markers in assessing germplasm collections

9:30 James Borrone, David Kuhn, Alan Meerow, Raymond Schnell; USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Miami ; Florida International University - The WRKY gene superfamily as useful molecular markers for tropical tree crops

10:00 Break

10:30 Juan Carlos Motamayor-Arias, Nannette Langevin, Jhonny Demey, Raymond Schnell; MasterFoods USA; USDA-ARS, SHRS; IDEA, Caracas, Venezuela - Molecular diversity of Theobroma cacao L. populations

11:00 Steven Brown, David Kuhn, Juan Carlos Motamayor, Uilson Lopes, Raymond Schnell; USDA-ARS, SHRS; Florida International University; MasterFoods USA; CEPEC/CEPLAC Bahia, Brazil - Resistance gene mapping for witches’ broom disease in Theobroma cacao L. in an F2 population

11:30 Cuauhtemoc Cervantes-Martínez, Steven Brown; USDA-ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Miami - A haplotypic approach for QTL mapping in outbred species

12:00 Discussion

12:30 Lunch

9:00 Andrea Cruz-Angon et al.; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico - The importance of epiphytes for biodiversity conservation in coffee plantations in Central Veracruz, Mexico

9:15 M. Percy Nuñez Vargas, Aquilina Vargas Ñauri, Miguel Palma; Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad, Peru - Andes Amazonian 7,000 years of botanical history: Flora of Southern Peru, South America

9:30 Catalino Paulino, Joaquín Martín Martín, Antonio Pastor López; Sociedad para El Desarrollo Integral del Nordeste; Universidad de Alicante, Spain - Estructura, composición y diversidad de especies en un bosque tropical húmedo de la República Dominicana

9:45 Lisa Schonberg, John Longino; The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington - Leaf litter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and climate change in a tropical montane cloud forest (Monteverde, Costa Rica)

10:00 Break

10:30 Amy Berkov, City College of New York; Pedro Centeno Checalla, Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica, Peru - Are widespread Amazonian insect species actually species complexes?

10:45 Donald Brightsmith et al.; Duke University, North Carolina - Survival and reproduction of hand-raised scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) in the wild

11:00 Eileen Helmer, Bonnie Ruefenacht; USDA Forest Service, Puerto Rico and Utah - Cloud elimination from Landsat imagery

11:15 Pierre-Michel Forget; Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France - Color blindness in science and consequences for ecological studies : a test of a non-random scientific community in Natura

11:30 J. Lawrence Dew; University of California, Berkeley - Assessing the impacts of conservation outreach campaigns in the tropics: a cross-site comparison

11:45 Laura López Hoffman et al.; Stanford University, California – Sustainability of mangrove harvesting: contrasts between demographic and harvesters’ perceptions

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Tarek Milleron; Utah State University - Tropical tree seed survival: the importance of patch desirability

1:45 Jorge Rodriguez-Velázquez, Miguel Martinez-Ramos; Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Morelia, Mexico - Development of seedlings transplanted to an abandoned pasture in Marques de Comillas Region, Chiapas. Mexico

2:00 Liza Comita; University of Georgia, USA - Seedling and adult habitat associations in a Neotropical tree community

2:15 Yung-Ho (Ophelia) Wang, Carol Augspurger; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - Arborescent palms restrict seedling recruitment in two Neotropical forests

2:30 Andreas Huth, UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Germany; Peter Koehler, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany - Tropical rain forests with disturbed recruitment lose their stability - a simulation study

2:45 Nadja Rüger, Andreas Huth, Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Germany; Guadalupe Williams-Linera, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico - Modeling the regeneration of disturbed tropical montane cloud forest in Central Veracruz, Mexico

3:00 Kenneth Feeley, John Terborgh; Duke University, North Carolina - The effects of tropical dry-forest fragmentation and edge exposure on tree and sapling demographics

3:15 Break

3:45 David Clark, Deborah Clark; University of Missouri-St. Louis; La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica - Short-term dynamism and medium-term stability across an old-growth tropical rain forest landscape

4:00 Christopher Dick, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Toby Pennington, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK - The role of immigrants in the assembly of the South America rain forest tree flora

4:15 Peter Köhler, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany; Andreas Huth, UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Germany - Mechanisms promoting tropical tree species richness investigated with a process-based forest growth model

4:30 Huabin Hu, Min Cao, Xianhui Fu; Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China - Restoration potentials of degraded tropical vegetations in Xishuangbanna, SW China

4:45 Debra Wright, Miriam Supuma; Wildlife Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea - Plant dynamics of a Papua New Guinean Hill Forest

5:00 Catalino Paulino, Joaquín Martín Martín, Antonio Pastor López; Sociedad para el Desarrollo Integral del Nordeste; Universidad de Alicante, Spain - Efectos de la topografía-variables edáficas en la estructura y vegetación de un bosque tropical húmedo

Contributed papers – Plant Ecology IV (Chaired by Philip Gonsiska, Florida International University) Merrick 2

1:30 Vidiro Gei, Debra Wright; Wildlife Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea; University of Papua New Guinea - An interactive key to a flora in Papua New Guinea: an aid to research and conservation planning

1:45 Mercedes Foster; U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent; National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC - Comparative growth and mortality of seedlings in two species of Ormosia (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae)

2:00 Ana Araya, Paul Hanson, Oscar Rocha; Universidad de Costa Rica - Reproductive and vegetative phenology for two populations of Miconia calvescens DC. (Melastomataceae) in Costa Rica: an invasive plant in the Hawaiian and French Polynesia Islands

2:15 Mayrelith Artavia-Mata et al.; Universidad de Costa Rica - Seed ecology of an invasive plant in its native habitat: the case of Miconia calvescens in Costa Rica

2:30 Philip Gonsiska; Florida International University - Population Structure and heteroblasty in the Bromeliad Catopsis berteroniana (Schult. f.) Mez (Bromeliaceae)

2:45 Marielos Peña-Claros, IBIF, Santa Cruz, Bolivia - Soil scarification: a management tool for improving regeneration of commercial species

3:00 D. Eric Hanson, American Samoa Community College - Reforestation of an American Samoan old-field with desirable tree species,

3:15 Break

Contributed papers – Genetics and Evolution (Chaired by Dorset Trapnell, University of Georgia, USA) Merrick 2

3:45 Ana Carolina Carnaval; University of Chicago; Field Museum of Natural History - Patterns of genetic diversity among breeding assemblages in a population of Brazilian ground dweller frogs

4:00 David Kizirian, Adrienne Trager, Maureen Donnelly, John Wright; University of California, Los Angeles; Florida International University; Moorpark College, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History - Evolution of Galapagos Island Lava Lizards

4:15 Jafet Nassar, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Miranda, Venezuela - Examining optimal outcrossing distance in Cereus repandus (Cactaceae), a bat-pollinated columnar cactus

4:30 Dorset Trapnell, J. L. Hamrick; University of Georgia, USA - Patterns of gene movement via pollen and seeds in a tropical epiphytic orchid

4:45 N. Gunasekara, S. Dayanandan; Concordia University, Canada - Molecular dating analysis reveals early cretaceous Gondwanic origin of the tropical family Dipterocarpaceae

5:00 Bhausaheb Tambat et al.; University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India - Likely path of evolution of the Myristicas in the Western Ghats, India: Did non-swampy species arise from swampy ones?

1:30 Kristine Kaiser, University of Miami; A. Ralph Gibson, Cleveland State University, Ohio - Calling in anuran amphibians of Belize: an assessment of the MAYAMON protocol

1:45 Maureen Donnelly, Florida International University; Roy McDiarmid, U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC - The herpetofauna of the "Lost World":  A multivariate statistical approach to study patterns of diversity

2:00 Alessandro Catenazzi, Maureen Donnelly, Florida Interntional University; Jorge Carrillo, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru - Winter thermal ecology of the intertidal lizard Microlophus peruvianus in Southern Peru

2:15 Hiromitsu Samjima et al.; Kyoto University, Japan - Seasonal migration route of Apis dorsata in Borneo

2:30 Katayo Sagata; Wildlife Conservation Society, Papua New Guinea - Colonization of twig-nests by forest litter ants in New Guinea tropical forest

2:45 Stephen Yanoviak, University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory - Gliding flight in neotropical arboreal ants

3:15 Break