Research - Current International Research Projects
Proyecto de reforestacion con las especies nativas (PRORENA )
Andrew Park
Faculty of Biology and Environmental and Urban Studies
Dr. Park is currently involved as part of a multidisciplinary groups of natural and social scientists with PRORENA with stands for Proyecto de reforestacion con las especies nativas, or Native species reforestation Project:
Since January 2001, the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Tropical Resources Institute at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies have jointly led the Native Species Reforestation Project (PRORENA), a highly collaborative research, education, and outreach program aimed at developing viable strategies for restoring diverse, native tropical forests. The work of PRORENA is carried out with the active participation of nearly two-dozen Latin and North American universities, government agencies, private companies, NGOs, and private individuals.
Dr. Park contributes to the biophysical understanding of the relationships between tree performance and the local environment in the four major PRORENA plantations. He currently has four projects in different stages of development. His graduate student (Sara Bastien Henri), co-supervised with Dr. Christian Messier at the University of Quebec at Montreal), is characterizing the above-ground biomass of 23 tree species. She is also comparing the fine root growth of six native and exotic tree species using root in growth bags.
Dr. Park also supervises University of Winnipeg Honours candidate, Jessie-Lee Cameron, whose work involves collecting data on canopy throughfall rainfall interception in a number of PRORENA tree species. This information is important to the understanding of plantation species on local hydrological regimes. Finally, Dr. Park has developed an environmental sampling protocol for describing the physical environment of the heterogeneous PRORENA sites.
Seed money for the 2005 field season was provided by PRORENA ($5000 USD). The work of Sara Bastien Henri is currently being funded by Dr. Messier and by money from Dr. Park’s University of Winnipeg startup grant. The throughfall and interception work of Jessie-Lee Cameron is funded by a University of Winnipeg major research grant ($5000 CDN).