All Outputs (50)

One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains (2024)
Journal Article
Householder, J. E., Wittmann, F., Schöngart, J., Piedade, M. T. F., Junk, W. J., Latrubesse, E. M., …ter Steege, H. (in press). One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains. Nature Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02364-1

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 may differ from surrounding forest types is... Read More about One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains.

Editorial: Women in tropical forests research 2022 (2024)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G. M. F., & Morel, A. (2024). Editorial: Women in tropical forests research 2022. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 7, Article 1358510. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2024.1358510

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities (2024)
Journal Article
Luize, B. G., Bauman, D., ter Steege, H., Palma‐Silva, C., do Amaral, I. L., de Souza Coelho, L., …Dexter, K. G. (2024). Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities. Journal of Biogeography, https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14816

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across... Read More about Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities.

Global dominance of lianas over trees is driven by forest disturbance, climate and topography (2024)
Journal Article
Ngute, A. S. K., Schoeman, D. S., Pfeifer, M., van der Heijden, G. M. F., Phillips, O. L., van Breugel, M., …Marshall, A. R. (2024). Global dominance of lianas over trees is driven by forest disturbance, climate and topography. Global Change Biology, 30(1), Article e17140. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17140

Growing evidence suggests that liana competition with trees is threatening the global carbon sink by slowing the recovery of forests following disturbance. A recent theory based on local and regional evidence further proposes that the competitive suc... Read More about Global dominance of lianas over trees is driven by forest disturbance, climate and topography.

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities (2024)
Journal Article
Cooper, D. L., Lewis, S. L., Sullivan, M. J., Prado, P. I., Prado, P. I., ter Steege, H., …Zent, S. (2024). Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities. Nature, 625(7996), 728-734. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06820-z

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 environmental change, as very little is known about m... Read More about Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities.

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora (2023)
Journal Article
ter Steege, H., Pitman, N. C. A., do Amaral, I. L., de Souza Coelho, L., de Almeida Matos, F. D., de Andrade Lima Filho, D., …Melgaço, K. (2023). Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora. Communications Biology, 6(1), Article 1130. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05514-6

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 diversity and richness. Using only location,... Read More about Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora.

More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia (2023)
Journal Article
Peripato, V., Levis, C., Moreira, G. A., Gamerman, D., ter Steege, H., Pitman, N. C. A., …Aragão, L. E. O. C. (2023). More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia. Science, 382(6666), 103-109. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade2541

Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from... Read More about More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia.

Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly (2023)
Journal Article
Bennett, A. C., Rodrigues de Sousa, T., Monteagudo-Mendoza, A., Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Morandi, P. S., Coelho de Souza, F., …Phillips, O. L. (2023). Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly. Nature Climate Change, 13(9), 967-974. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01776-4

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 by prior adaptation, or more vulnerable be... Read More about Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly.

Tropical forest lianas have greater non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in the stem xylem than trees (2023)
Journal Article
Signori-Müller, C., Galbraith, D., Tavares, J. V., Reis, S. M., Diniz, F. C., Gilpin, M., …Oliveira, R. S. (in press). Tropical forest lianas have greater non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in the stem xylem than trees. Tree Physiology, Article tpad096. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpad096

Lianas (woody vines) are important components of tropical forests and are known to compete with host trees for resources, decrease tree growth and increase tree mortality. Given the observed increases in liana abundance in some forests and their impa... Read More about Tropical forest lianas have greater non-structural carbohydrate concentrations in the stem xylem than trees.

Lianas, ecosystems and global change (2023)
Book
Van Der Heijden, G. M., Meunier, F., & Schnitzer, S. A. (Eds.). (2023). Lianas, ecosystems and global change. Frontiers Media. https://doi.org/10.3389/978-2-83251-702-4

Unraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology (2023)
Journal Article
Pos, E., de Souza Coelho, L., de Andrade Lima Filho, D., Salomão, R. P., Amaral, I. L., de Almeida Matos, F. D., …ter Steege, H. (2023). Unraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology. Scientific Reports, 13, Article 2859. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-28132-y

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 maximization of information entropy provides a frame... Read More about Unraveling Amazon tree community assembly using Maximum Information Entropy: a quantitative analysis of tropical forest ecology.

Editorial: Lianas, ecosystems, and global change (2023)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G. M., Schnitzer, S. A., & Meunier, F. (2023). Editorial: Lianas, ecosystems, and global change. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 6, Article 1079620. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2023.1079620

Lianas (woody vines) are an abundant and diverse plant group in tropical ecosystems (Gentry, 1991; Dewalt et al., 2014). While they enhance forest canopy connectivity and provide food and shelter for tropical fauna (Yanoviak and Schnitzer, 2013; Schn... Read More about Editorial: Lianas, ecosystems, and global change.

Landscape-scale drivers of liana load across a Southeast Asian forest canopy differ to the Neotropics (2022)
Journal Article
Waite, C. E., van der Heijden, G. M., Field, R., Burslem, D. F., Dalling, J. W., Nilus, R., …Boyd, D. S. (2023). Landscape-scale drivers of liana load across a Southeast Asian forest canopy differ to the Neotropics. Journal of Ecology, 111(1), 77-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14015

Lianas (woody vines) are a key component of tropical forests, known to reduce forest carbon storage and sequestration and to be increasing in abundance. Analysing how and why lianas are distributed in forest canopies at landscape scales will help us... Read More about Landscape-scale drivers of liana load across a Southeast Asian forest canopy differ to the Neotropics.

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates (2022)
Journal Article
Correa, D. F., Stevenson, P. R., Umaña, M. N., Coelho, L. D. S., Lima Filho, D. D. A., Salomão, R. P., …ter Steege, H. (2023). Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32(1), 49-69. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13596

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance... Read More about Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates.

Lianas decelerate tropical forest thinning during succession (2022)
Journal Article
Medina-Vega, J. A., van der Heijden, G. M., & Schnitzer, S. A. (2022). Lianas decelerate tropical forest thinning during succession. Ecology Letters, 25(6), 1432-1441. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14008

The well-established pattern of forest thinning during succession predicts an increase in mean tree biomass with decreasing tree density. The forest thinning pattern is commonly assumed to be driven solely by tree-tree competition. The presence of no... Read More about Lianas decelerate tropical forest thinning during succession.

Making (remote) sense of lianas (2022)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G. M., Proctor, A. D., Calders, K., Chandler, C., Field, R., Foody, G. M., …Boyd, D. S. (2022). Making (remote) sense of lianas. Journal of Ecology, 110(3), 498-513. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13844

Lianas (woody vines) are abundant and diverse, particularly in tropical ecosystems. Lianas use trees for structural support to reach the forest canopy, often putting leaves above their host tree. Thus they are major parts of many forest canopies. Yet... Read More about Making (remote) sense of lianas.

Water table depth modulates productivity and biomass across Amazonian forests (2022)
Journal Article
Sousa, T. R., Schietti, J., Ribeiro, I. O., Emílio, T., Fernández, R. H., ter Steege, H., …Morandi, P. S. (2022). Water table depth modulates productivity and biomass across Amazonian forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography, https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13531

Aim: Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. Most research has focused on the impacts of climatic water availability, whereas remarkably little is known about the influence of water table depth and excess soi... Read More about Water table depth modulates productivity and biomass across Amazonian forests.

Detection of spatial and temporal patterns of liana infestation using satellite-derived imagery (2021)
Journal Article
Chandler, C. J., van der Heijden, G. M., Boyd, D. S., & Foody, G. M. (2021). Detection of spatial and temporal patterns of liana infestation using satellite-derived imagery. Remote Sensing, 13(14), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142774

Lianas (woody vines) play a key role in tropical forest dynamics because of their strong influence on tree growth, mortality and regeneration. Assessing liana infestation over large areas is critical to understand the factors that drive their spatial... Read More about Detection of spatial and temporal patterns of liana infestation using satellite-derived imagery.

Lianas Significantly Reduce Aboveground and Belowground Carbon Storage: A Virtual Removal Experiment (2021)
Journal Article
Meunier, F., van der Heijden, G. M. F., Schnitzer, S. A., De Deurwaerder, H. P., & Verbeeck, H. (2021). Lianas Significantly Reduce Aboveground and Belowground Carbon Storage: A Virtual Removal Experiment. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, Article 663291. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.663291

Lianas are structural parasites of trees that cause a reduction in tree growth and an increase in tree mortality. Thereby, lianas negatively impact forest carbon storage as evidenced by liana removal experiments. In this proof-of-concept study, we ca... Read More about Lianas Significantly Reduce Aboveground and Belowground Carbon Storage: A Virtual Removal Experiment.

Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots (2021)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G., Blundo, C., Carilla, J., Grau, R., Malizia, A., Malizia, L., …do Espírito Santo, M. (2021). Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots. Biological Conservation, 260, Article 108849. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108849

Tropical forests are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. While better understanding of these forests is critical for our collective future, until quite recently efforts to measure and monitor them have been largely disconnected. Netw... Read More about Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots.