-
Article
Open AccessNovel temperatures are already widespread beneath the world’s tropical forest canopies
Tropical forest biodiversity is potentially at high risk from climate change, but most species reside within or below the canopy, where they are buffered from extreme temperatures. Here, by modelling the hourl...
-
Article
Open AccessOne sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains
Amazonia’s floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this ma...
-
Article
Open AccessAuthor Correction: One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains
-
Article
Open AccessEmergency policies are not enough to resolve Amazonia’s fire crises
The fire crises in the Amazon continues to increase the risk of large-scale forest dieback, threatening regional biodiversity and global climate. This issue gained international attention in 2019 when fires in...
-
Article
Open AccessCritical transitions in the Amazon forest system
The possibility that the Amazon forest system could soon reach a tip** point, inducing large-scale collapse, has raised global concern1–3. For 65 million years, Amazonian forests remained relatively resilient t...
-
Article
Open AccessConsistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities
Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmenta...
-
Article
Open AccessMap** density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora
Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for div...
-
Article
Open AccessSensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly
The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is unclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected b...
-
Article
Open AccessUnraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology
In a time of rapid global change, the question of what determines patterns in species abundance distribution remains a priority for understanding the complex dynamics of ecosystems. The constrained maximizatio...
-
Article
Functional susceptibility of tropical forests to climate change
Tropical forests are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, yet their functioning is threatened by anthropogenic disturbances and climate change. Global actions to conserve tropical forests could...
-
Article
Open AccessGlobal relationships in tree functional traits
Due to massive energetic investments in woody support structures, trees are subject to unique physiological, mechanical, and ecological pressures not experienced by herbaceous plants. Despite a wealth of studi...
-
Article
Amazonian forest degradation must be incorporated into the COP26 agenda
-
Article
The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition
The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks1. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate2–5 with decomposer groups—such as microo...
-
Article
Amazon tree dominance across forest strata
The forests of Amazonia are among the most biodiverse plant communities on Earth. Given the immediate threats posed by climate and land-use change, an improved understanding of how this extraordinary biodivers...
-
Article
Open AccessBiased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora
Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spati...
-
Article
Open AccessRarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests
Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such “monodominant” forests are known from all of the main tropical reg...
-
Article
Carbon-focused conservation may fail to protect the most biodiverse tropical forests
As one of Earth’s most carbon-dense regions, tropical forests are central to climate change mitigation efforts. Their unparalleled species richness also makes them vital for safeguarding biodiversity. However,...
-
Article
The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems
The tropics contain the overwhelming majority of Earth’s biodiversity: their terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems hold more than three-quarters of all species, including almost all shallow-water coral...
-
Article
Open Access21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions
Tropical carbon emissions are largely derived from direct forest clearing processes. Yet, emissions from drought-induced forest fires are, usually, not included in national-level carbon emission inventories. H...
-
Article
Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation
Evaluation of the primary forests in the Brazilian state of Pará shows that anthropogenic disturbance can more than double the loss of biodiversity expected from deforestation.
