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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.

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.

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.

Remote sensing liana infestation in an aseasonal tropical forest: addressing mismatch in spatial units of analyses (2021)
Journal Article
Chandler, C. J., Van Der Heijden, G. M. F., Boyd, D. S., Cutler, M. E. J., Costa, H., Nilus, R., & Foody, G. M. (2021). Remote sensing liana infestation in an aseasonal tropical forest: addressing mismatch in spatial units of analyses. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.197

The ability to accurately assess liana (woody vine) infestation at the landscape level is essential to quantify their impact on carbon dynamics and help inform targeted forest management and conservation action. Remote sensing techniques provide pote... Read More about Remote sensing liana infestation in an aseasonal tropical forest: addressing mismatch in spatial units of analyses.

Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests (2020)
Journal Article
Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Phillips, O. L., Brienen, R. J. W., Fauset, S., Sullivan, M. J. P., Baker, T. R., …Galbraith, D. (2020). Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 5515. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18996-3

The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers of tropical tree death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment of how and why trees die, analysing over 120... Read More about Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests.

Causes and consequences of liana infestation in southern Amazonia (2020)
Journal Article
Reis, S. M., Marimon, B. S., Morandi, P. S., Elias, F., Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Marimon Junior, B. H., …Phillips, O. L. (2020). Causes and consequences of liana infestation in southern Amazonia. Journal of Ecology, 108(6), 2184-2197. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13470

© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society Lianas, a key component of tropical forests, can limit growth of trees, impacting both the structure and functioning of forests, and a... Read More about Causes and consequences of liana infestation in southern Amazonia.

Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests (2020)
Journal Article
Philipson, C. D., Cutler, M. E. J., Brodrick, P. G., Asner, G. P., Boyd, D. S., Costa, P. M., …Burslem, D. F. R. P. (2020). Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests. Science, 369(6505), 838-841. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay4490

More than half of all tropical forests are degraded by human impacts, leaving them threatened with conversion to agricultural plantations and risking substantial biodiversity and carbon losses. Restoration could accelerate recovery of aboveground car... Read More about Active restoration accelerates the carbon recovery of human-modified tropical forests.

Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora (2020)
Journal Article
Feitosa, Y. O., Zartman, C. E., Killeen, T. J., Fine, P. V. A., Guedes, M. C., Barlow, J., …van der Heijden, G. (2020). Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Article 10130. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66686-3

© 2020, The Author(s). 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 spatial aggregation to... Read More about Biased-corrected richness estimates for the Amazonian tree flora.

Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests (2020)
Journal Article
Erwin, T., Arets, E. J., Costa, F., Sullivan, M. J. P., Lewis, S. L., Affum-Baffoe, K., …Phillips, O. L. (2020). Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests. Science, 368(6493), 869-874. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw7578

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. The sensitivity of tropical forest carbon to climate is a key uncertainty in predi... Read More about Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests.

Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa (2020)
Journal Article
Rozendaal, D. M., Phillips, O. L., Lewis, S. L., Affum-Baffoe, K., Alvarez Dávila, E., Andrade, A., …Vanderwel, M. C. (2020). Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa. Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3052

© 2020 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Ecological Society of America Competition among trees is an important driver of community structure and dynamics in tropical forests. Neighboring trees may impact an individu... Read More about Competition influences tree growth, but not mortality, across environmental gradients in Amazonia and tropical Africa.

Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation in African and Amazonian Tropical Forests (2020)
Journal Article
Hubau, W., Lewis, S. L., Phillips, O. L., Affum-Baffoe, K., Beeckman, H., Cuní-Sanchez, A., …Zemagho, L. (2020). Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation in African and Amazonian Tropical Forests. Nature, 579(7797), 80-87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2035-0

© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Structurally intact tropical forests sequestered about half of the global terrestrial carbon uptake over the 1990s and early 2000s, removing about 15 per cent of anthropogenic... Read More about Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation in African and Amazonian Tropical Forests.

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests (2019)
Journal Article
ter Steege, H., Henkel, T. W., Helal, N., Marimon, B. S., Marimon-Junior, B. H., Huth, A., …Melgaço, K. (2019). Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50323-9

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 occurr... Read More about Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

The World's Tallest Tropical Tree in Three Dimensions (2019)
Journal Article
Shenkin, A., Chandler, C. J., Boyd, D. S., Jackson, T., Disney, M., Majalap, N., …Malhi, Y. (2019). The World's Tallest Tropical Tree in Three Dimensions. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

Here we report the recent discovery of the world's tallest tropical tree (Shorea faguetiana), possibly the world's tallest angiosperm (flowering plant), located in the rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In addition, we provide a novel three-dime... Read More about The World's Tallest Tropical Tree in Three Dimensions.

Individual-Based Modeling of Amazon Forests Suggests That Climate Controls Productivity While Traits Control Demography (2019)
Journal Article
Fauset, S., Gloor, M., Fyllas, N. M., Phillips, O. L., Asner, G. P., Baker, T. R., …Malhi, Y. (2019). Individual-Based Modeling of Amazon Forests Suggests That Climate Controls Productivity While Traits Control Demography. Frontiers in Earth Science, 7, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00083

Climate, species composition, and soils are thought to control carbon cycling and forest structure in Amazonian forests. Here, we add a demographics scheme (tree recruitment, growth, and mortality) to a recently developed non-demographic model—the Tr... Read More about Individual-Based Modeling of Amazon Forests Suggests That Climate Controls Productivity While Traits Control Demography.

Lianas have a seasonal growth advantage over co-occurring trees (2019)
Journal Article
Schnitzer, S. A., & van der Heijden, G. M. (2019). Lianas have a seasonal growth advantage over co-occurring trees. Ecology, 100(5), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2655

© 2019 by the Ecological Society of America The seasonal growth advantage hypothesis posits that plant species that grow well during seasonal drought will increase in abundance in forests with increasing seasonality of rainfall both in absolute numbe... Read More about Lianas have a seasonal growth advantage over co-occurring trees.

Effect of lianas on forest-level tree carbon accumulation does not differ between seasons: Results from a liana removal experiment in Panama (2019)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G. M., Powers, J. S., & Schnitzer, S. A. (2019). Effect of lianas on forest-level tree carbon accumulation does not differ between seasons: Results from a liana removal experiment in Panama. Journal of Ecology, 107(4), 1890-1900. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13155

1. Lianas are prevalent in Neotropical forests, where liana-tree competition can be intense, resulting in reduced tree growth and survival. The ability of lianas to grow relative to trees during the dry season suggests that liana-tree competition is... Read More about Effect of lianas on forest-level tree carbon accumulation does not differ between seasons: Results from a liana removal experiment in Panama.

A view from above: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing liana infestation in tropical forest canopies (2019)
Journal Article
Waite, C. E., van der Heijden, G. M. F., Field, R., & Boyd, D. S. (2019). A view from above: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing liana infestation in tropical forest canopies. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56(4), 902-912. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13318

1. Tropical forests store and sequester large quantities of carbon, mitigating climate change. Lianas (woody vines) are important tropical forest components, most conspicuous in the canopy. Lianas reduce forest carbon uptake and their recent incre... Read More about A view from above: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing liana infestation in tropical forest canopies.

Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change (2018)
Journal Article
Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Baker, T. R., Dexter, K. G., Lewis, S. L., Brienen, R., Feldpausch, T. R., …van der Heijden, G. (2019). Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change. Global Change Biology, 25(1), 39-56. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14413

Most 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 low... Read More about Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change.

Environmental drivers of forest structure and stem turnover across Venezuelan tropical forests (2018)
Journal Article
Vilanova, E., Ramírez-Angulo, H., Torres-Lezama, A., Aymard, G., Gámez, L., Durán, C., …Ettl, G. J. (2018). Environmental drivers of forest structure and stem turnover across Venezuelan tropical forests. PLoS ONE, 13(6), Article e0198489. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198489

Using data from 50 long-term permanent plots from across Venezuelan forests in northern South America, we explored large-scale patterns of stem turnover, aboveground biomass (AGB) and woody productivity (AGWP), and the relationships between them and... Read More about Environmental drivers of forest structure and stem turnover across Venezuelan tropical forests.

Species distribution modelling: contrasting presence-only models with plot abundance data (2018)
Journal Article
Gomes, V. H., IJff, S. D., Raes, N., Amaral, I. L., Salomão, R. P., de Souza Coelho, L., …ter Steege, H. (in press). Species distribution modelling: contrasting presence-only models with plot abundance data. Scientific Reports, 8(1), Article 1003. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18927-1

Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used in ecology and conservation. Presence-only SDMs such as MaxEnt frequently use natural history collections (NHCs) as occurrence data, given their huge numbers and accessibility. NHCs are often spatial... Read More about Species distribution modelling: contrasting presence-only models with plot abundance data.

Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition (2017)
Journal Article
Levis, C., Costa, F. R., Bongers, F., Peña-Claros, M., Clement, C. R., Junqueira, A. B., …ter Steege, H. (2017). Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition. Science, 355(6328), 925-931. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal0157

The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions an... Read More about Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition.

Carbon uptake by mature Amazon forests has mitigated Amazon nations’ carbon emissions (2017)
Journal Article
Phillips, O. L., Brienen, R. J., & the RAINFOR collaboration. (2017). Carbon uptake by mature Amazon forests has mitigated Amazon nations’ carbon emissions. Carbon Balance and Management, 12(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-016-0069-2

© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Several independent lines of evidence suggest that Amazon forests have provided a significant carbon sink service, and also that the Amazon carbon sink in intact, mature forests may now be threatened as a result of d... Read More about Carbon uptake by mature Amazon forests has mitigated Amazon nations’ carbon emissions.

Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology (2016)
Journal Article
Coelho de Souza, F., Dexter, K. G., Phillips, O. L., Brienen, R. J., Chave, J., Galbraith, D. R., …Baker, T. R. (in press). Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1844), https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1587

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these p... Read More about Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology.

Amazon forest response to repeated droughts (2016)
Journal Article
Feldpausch, T. R., Phillips, O. L., Brienen, R. J., Gloor, E., Lloyd, J., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., …Vos, V. A. (2016). Amazon forest response to repeated droughts. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 30(7), 964-982. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GB005133

©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. The Amazon Basin has experienced more variable climate over the last decade, with a severe and widespread drought in 2005 causing large basin-wide losses of biomass. A drought of similar climato... Read More about Amazon forest response to repeated droughts.

Variation in stem mortality rates determines patterns of above-ground biomass in Amazonian forests: implications for dynamic global vegetation models (2016)
Journal Article
Johnson, M., Galbraith, D., Gloor, M., De Deaurwaerder, H., Guimberteau, M., Rammig, A., …Baker, T. (in press). Variation in stem mortality rates determines patterns of above-ground biomass in Amazonian forests: implications for dynamic global vegetation models. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13315

Understanding the processes that determine above-ground biomass (AGB) in Amazonian forests is important for predicting the sensitivity of these ecosystems to environmental change and for designing and evaluating dynamic global vegetation models (DGVM... Read More about Variation in stem mortality rates determines patterns of above-ground biomass in Amazonian forests: implications for dynamic global vegetation models.

Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics (2016)
Journal Article
Esquivel Muelbert, A., Baker, T., Dexter, K., Lewis, S., ter Steege, H., Lopez-Gonzales, G., …Cornejo, F. (2017). Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics. Ecography, 40(5), https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01904

Within 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 physiolog... Read More about Seasonal drought limits tree species across the Neotropics.

Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species (2015)
Journal Article
ter Steege, H., Pitman, N. C., Killeen, T. J., Laurance, W. F., Peres, C. A., Guevara, J. E., …Gamarra, L. V. (in press). Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species. Science Advances, 1(10), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500936

Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at... Read More about Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species.

Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests (2015)
Journal Article
van der Heijden, G. M., Powers, J. S., & Schnitzer, S. A. (2015). Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(43), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504869112

Tropical forests store vast quantities of carbon, account for a third of the carbon fixed by photosynthesis, and are a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Recent evidence suggests that competition between lianas (woody vines) and trees may reduce... Read More about Lianas reduce carbon accumulation and storage in tropical forests.

Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling (2015)
Journal Article
Fauset, S., Johnson, M. O., Gloor, M., Baker, T. R., Monteagudo M., A., Brienen, R. J., …Phillips, O. L. (2015). Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling. Nature Communications, 6, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7857

© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. 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 t... Read More about Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling.

Lianas in gaps reduce carbon accumulation in a tropical forest (2014)
Journal Article
Schnitzer, S. A., van der Heijden, G., Mascaro, J., & Carson, W. P. (2014). Lianas in gaps reduce carbon accumulation in a tropical forest. Ecology, 95(11), https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1718.1

Treefall gaps are the “engines of regeneration” in tropical forests and are loci of high tree recruitment, growth, and carbon accumulation. Gaps, however, are also sites of intense competition between lianas and trees, whereby lianas can dramatically... Read More about Lianas in gaps reduce carbon accumulation in a tropical forest.

Impacts of lianas on forest-level carbon storage and sequestration (2014)
Book Chapter
Van Der Heijden, G. M., Phillips, O. L., & Schnitzer, S. A. (2015). Impacts of lianas on forest-level carbon storage and sequestration. In S. A. Schnitzer, F. Bongers, R. J. Burnham, & F. E. Putz (Eds.), Ecology of Lianas (164-174). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118392409.ch13

© 2015 by JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved. The liana-induced reduction in carbon stored in tropical forests is likely caused by: (1) reduced tree growth; (2), increased tree mortality; and (3) a shift in tree species composition due to d... Read More about Impacts of lianas on forest-level carbon storage and sequestration.