A quick (and rough) introduction to trait-based ecology

This is an introductory lecture on trait-based ecology originally given to students on the PASI field course taught in the Amazon at the Tambopata field station in Peru, 2011. The PASI course was part of the Amazon-PIRE NSF funded partnership in international research and education that focused on Amazon Climate Interactions. 

Amazon-PIRE offers a Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI), an intensive field engagement with problems in Tropical Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Climate. The course combined lectures by all faculty and senior scientist participants (including an international group of faculty instructors), field-based instruction, and small group projects that provided theoretical and practical tools to tackle global change problems in a setting designed to foster effective international collaboration. The PASI course took place along an elevational gradient, from the Andean Cloud Forest to the Lowland Amazon of Peru, in fully equipped field sites.

You can read more about the Amazon-PIRE, lead by Scott Saleska here http://amazonpire.org/oppor-field11.html

As this was a quick introductory lecture put together for a field course and oriented around several of the goals of the course it is by no means comprehensive. As several have continued to ask for copies of this presentation I have made it available here in hopes that it will be useful to others as well as modified/corrected to better fit future work.