7 documents found, page 1 of 1
Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth’s tropical forests
Sullivan, Martin J. P.; Lewis, Simon L.; Affum-Baffoe, Kofi; Castilho, Carolina; Costa, Flávia; Sanchez, Aida Cuni; Ewango, Corneille E. N.The sensitivity of tropical forest carbon to climate is a key uncertainty in predicting global climate change. Although short-term drying and warming are known to affect forests, it is unknown if such effects translate into long-term responses. Here, we analyze 590 permanent plots measured across the tropics to derive the equilibrium climate controls on forest carbon. Maximum temperature is the most important p...
Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora
ter Steege, H.; Prado, Paulo I.; Lima, Renato A.Fde; Pos, Edwin T.; Coelho, Luiz Souza de; Lima Filho, Diógenes de Andrade; Salomão, Rafael PaivaAmazonian 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 spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals,...
Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics
Esquivel-Muelbert, Adriane; Baker, Timothy R.; Dexter, Kyle Graham; Lewis, Simon L.; ter Steege, H.; Lopez-Gonzalez, Gabriela; Monteagudo-Mendoza, AbelWithin the tropics, the species richness of tree communities is strongly and positively associated with precipitation. Previous research has suggested that this macroecological pattern is driven by the negative effect of water-stress on the physiological processes of most tree species. This implies that the range limits of taxa are defined by their ability to occur under dry conditions, and thus in terms of spe...
Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling
Fauset, Sophie; Johnson, Michelle O.; Gloor, Manuel U.; Baker, Timothy R.; Monteagudo M, Abel; Brienen, Roel J.W.; Feldpausch, Ted R.While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few â € hyperdominantâ €™ species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and produci...
Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change
Esquivel-Muelbert, Adriane; Baker, Timothy R.; Dexter, Kyle Graham; Lewis, Simon L.; Brienen, Roel J.W.; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Lloyd, JonMost of the planet's diversity is concentrated in the tropics, which includes many regions undergoing rapid climate change. Yet, while climate-induced biodiversity changes are widely documented elsewhere, few studies have addressed this issue for lowland tropical ecosystems. Here we investigate whether the floristic and functional composition of intact lowland Amazonian forests have been changing by evaluating ...
Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests
ter Steege, H.; Henkel, Terry W.; Helal, Nora; Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes; Marimon Júnior, Ben Hur; Huth, Andreas; Groeneveld, Jürgen J.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 regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric ...
Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome
Sullivan, Martin J.P.; Talbot, Joey; Lewis, Simon L.; Phillips, Oliver L.; Qie, Lan; Begne, Serge K.; Chave, Jérôme; Cuni, Sanchez, Aida; Hubau, WannesTropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventorie...