Canopy functional trait variation across Earth's tropical forests

Author(s):Show less -

Aguirre-Gutierrez, Jesus ; Rifai, Sami W. ; Deng, Xiongjie ; ter Steege, Hans ; Thomson, Eleanor ; Corral-Rivas, Jose Javier ; Guimaraes, Aretha Franklin ; Muller, Sandra ; Klipel, Joice ; Fauset, Sophie ; Resende, Angelica F. ; Wallin, Goran ; Joly, Carlos A. ; Abernethy, Katharine ; Adu-Bredu, Stephen ; Silva, Celice Alexandre ; de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida ; Almeida, Danilo R. A. ; Alvarez-Davila, Esteban ; Asner, Gregory P. ; Baker, Timothy R. ; Benchimol, Maira ; Bentley, Lisa Patrick ; Berenguer, Erika ; Blanc, Lilian ; Bonal, Damien ; Bordin, Kauane ; de Lima, Robson Borges ; Both, Sabine ; Cabezas Duarte, Jaime ; Cardoso, Domingos ; de Lima, Haroldo C. ; Cavalheiro, Larissa ; Cernusak, Lucas A. ; dos Santos Prestes, Nayane Cristina C. ; da Silva Zanzini, Antonio Carlos ; da Silva, Ricardo Jose ; Alves da Silva, Robson dos Santos ; Iguatemy, Mariana de Andrade ; Oliveira, Tony Cesar De Sousa ; Dechant, Benjamin ; Derroire, Geraldine ; Dexter, Kyle G. ; Rodrigues, Domingos J. ; Espirito-Santo, Mario ; Silva, Leticia Fernandes ; Domingues, Tomas Ferreira ; Ferreira, Joice ; Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni ; Girardin, Cecile A. J. ; Herault, Bruno ; Jeffery, Kathryn J. ; Ashtamoorthy, Sreejith Kalpuzha ; Sivadasan, Arunkumar Kavidapadinjattathil ; Klitgaard, Bente ; Laurance, William F. ; Dan, Mauricio Lima ; Magnusson, William E. ; Campos-Filho, Eduardo Malta ; Manoel dos Santos, Rubens ; Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto ; Silveira, Marcos ; Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur ; Martin, Roberta E. ; Mascia Vieira, Daniel Luis ; Metzker, Thiago ; Milliken, William ; Moonlight, Peter ; Moraes de Seixas, Marina Maria ; Morandi, Paulo S. ; Muscarella, Robert ; Nava-Miranda, Maria Guadalupe ; Nyirambangutse, Brigitte ; Silva, Jhonathan Oliveira ; Menor, Imma Oliveras ; Francisco Pena Rodrigues, Pablo Jose ; de Oliveira, Cinthia Pereira ; Zanzini, Lucas Pereira ; Peres, Carlos A. ; Punjayil, Vignesh ; Quesada, Carlos A. ; Rejou-Mechain, Maxime ; Riutta, Terhi ; Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo ; Rosa, Clarissa ; Salinas, Norma ; Bergamin, Rodrigo Scarton ; Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes ; Shenkin, Alexander ; Silva Rodrigues, Priscyla Maria ; Simes Figueiredo, Axa Emanuelle ; Garcia, Queila Souza ; Sposito, Tereza ; Storck-Tonon, Danielle ; Sullivan, Martin J. P. ; Svatek, Martin ; Vieira Santiago, Wagner Tadeu ; Teh, Yit Arn ; Sivan, Prasad Theruvil Parambil ; Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade ; Veenendaal, Elmar ; Zo-Bi, Irie Casimir ; Dago, Marie Ruth ; Traore, Soulemane ; Patacca, Marco ; Badouard, Vincyane ; de Padua Chaves e Carvalho, Samuel ; White, Lee J. T. ; Zhang-Zheng, Huanyuan ; Zibera, Etienne ; Zwerts, Joeri Alexander ; Burslem, David F. R. P. ; Silman, Miles ; Chave, Jerome ; Enquist, Brian J. ; Barlow, Jos ; Phillips, Oliver L. ; Coomes, David A. ; Malhi, Yadvinder

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Nature; v. N/A, p. 19-pg., 2025-03-05.

Abstract

Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere's most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy(1,2). However, in most Earth System Models, the diverse and heterogeneous tropical forest biome is represented as a largely uniform ecosystem with either a singular or a small number of fixed canopy ecophysiological properties(3). This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically(4). Here, by combining field-collected data from more than 1,800 vegetation plots and tree traits with satellite remote-sensing, terrain, climate and soil data, we predict variation across 13 morphological, structural and chemical functional traits of trees, and use this to compute and map the functional diversity of tropical forests. Our findings reveal that the tropical Americas, Africa and Asia tend to occupy different portions of the total functional trait space available across tropical forests. Tropical American forests are predicted to have 40% greater functional richness than tropical African and Asian forests. Meanwhile, African forests have the highest functional divergence-32% and 7% higher than that of tropical American and Asian forests, respectively. An uncertainty analysis highlights priority regions for further data collection, which would refine and improve these maps. Our predictions represent a ground-based and remotely enabled global analysis of how and why the functional traits of tropical forest canopies vary across space. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/24049-5 - Monitoring São Paulo State restoration forests: application of new remote sensing tools and subsidies for public policies
• Grantee: Angelica Faria de Resende
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 22/14605-0 - Monitoring São Paulo State restoration forests: application of remote sensing and deep learning to classify successional stages and subsidize public policies
• Grantee: Angelica Faria de Resende
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• FAPESP's process: 12/51872-5 - ECOFOR: Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in degraded and recovering Amazonian and Atlantic Forests
• Grantee: Carlos Alfredo Joly
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 03/12595-7 - Floristic composition, structure and functioning of the Dense Rainforest nuclei of Picinguaba and Santa Virgínia of Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, State of São Paulo, Brazil
• Grantee: Carlos Alfredo Joly
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants