Fwd: Secrets of tropical trees & forests
Ugo Bardi
-------- Forwarded Message --------
| Subject: | Secrets of tropical trees & forests |
|---|---|
| Date: | Mon, 23 Nov 2020 15:25:06 +0000 |
| From: | Laurance, Bill <bill.l...@jcu.edu.au> |
| Reply-To: | Laurance, Bill <bill.l...@jcu.edu.au> |
| To: | Laurance, Bill <bill.l...@jcu.edu.au> |
I’m forwarding details for three recently-published papers that might be of interest — on the ecology and conservation of tropical trees and hyper-diverse tropical forests. All are intriguing papers based on massive datasets. You can read or download free PDFs of the papers using the links below.
- Mega-diversity of the Amazon: ter Steege et al. (2020): For Amazon trees, novel statistical techniques reveal that basin-wide diversity exceeds 15,000 species — an exceptionally high number. Some areas of the Amazon are still very poorly sampled and a key future priority is to study remote, poorly known areas of the basin.
- Competition rules in the tropics: Rozendaal et al. (2020): In the Amazon and tropical Africa, trees growing in crowded sites (with many neighboring trees) exhibit slower growth but not higher mortality. Competition has a major impact on tropical tree communities but operates largely by depressing plant growth.
- What kills rainforest trees? Esquivel-Muelbert et al. (2020): In the Amazon, tree species that grow faster also die sooner than do slower-growing species. Of trees that die, half die standing and the remainder are snapped or uprooted. Amazon tree communities appear to be shifting in species composition, possibly in response to recent climatic trends.
Please could you forward this email to interested colleagues.
All best,
Bill
References & Links
ter Steege, H. et al. (2020). Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora. Scientific Reports (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66686-3)
Rozendaal, D. et al. (2020) Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa. Ecology (https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3052).
Esquivel-Muelbert, A. et al. (2020). Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests. Nature Communications (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18996-3).
William F. Laurance, PhD, FAA, FAAAS, FRSQ
Distinguished Research Professor
Australian Laureate & Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation (Emeritus)
Director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS)
Director of ALERT (ALERT-conservation.org)
College of Science and Engineering
James Cook University
Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia
Phones: +61-7-4038-1518 and +61-7-4232-1819
Email: bill.l...@jcu.edu.au
Lab websites: http://global-roadmap.org & https://www.global-roadmap.org/the-laurance-lab/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F_Laurance