Search results

Funding Information: The analysis undertaken here was largely funded by the NERC-funded TREMOR project (NE/N004655/1) to D.G., R.J.W.B., E.G. and O.L.P. A.E.-M. was funded by TREMOR and by two ERC awards (T-FORCES 291585, TreeMort 758873). D.G. acknowledges further support from a Newton-funded consortium award (ARBOLES, NE/S011811/1). O.L.P. was supported by an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. T.A.M.P. was funded by the ERC award TreeMort 758873. This is paper number 47 of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research. T.R.F., L.E.O.C.A. and O.L.P. were supported by NERC NE/N011570/1. Support for RAINFOR has come from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Urgency Grants and NERC Consortium Grants AMAZONICA (NE/F005806/ 1), TROBIT (NE/D005590/1) and BIO-RED (NE/N012542/1), a European Research Council (ERC) grant T-FORCES (291585), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (#1656), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (282664, AMAZA-LERT) and the Royal Society (CH160091). This is paper #47 of the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR). ; 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 120,000 trees representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While tree mortality rates vary greatly Amazon-wide, on average trees are as likely to die standing as they are broken or uprooted—modes of death with different ecological consequences. Species-level growth rate is the single most important predictor of tree death in Amazonia, with faster-growing species being at higher risk. Within species, however, the slowest-growing trees are at greatest risk while the effect of tree size varies across the basin. In the driest Amazonian region species-level bioclimatic distributional patterns also predict the risk of death, suggesting that these forests are experiencing climatic conditions beyond their adaptative limits. These results provide not only a holistic pan-Amazonian picture of tree death but large-scale evidence for the overarching importance of the growth–survival trade-off in driving tropical tree mortality. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

Open Acess journal ; While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few 'hyperdominant' 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 producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits. We find that dominance of forest function is even more concentrated in a few species than is dominance of tree abundance, with only ≈1% of Amazon tree species responsible for 50% of carbon storage and productivity. Although those species that contribute most to biomass and productivity are often abundant, species maximum size is also influential, while the identity and ranking of dominant species varies by function and by region. ; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation ; European Union Seventh Framework Programme ; ERC ; Natural Environment Research Council ; PRONEX—FAPEAM/CNPq ; Hidroveg FAPESP/FAPEAM ; Universal/CNPq ; INCT-CENBAM ; Fitogeografia da Transição Amazônia/Cerrado CNPq ; Transição Amazônia/Cerrado ; French ANR - Investissement d'Avenir grants ; CNPq ; Royal Society - Wolfson Research Merit Award ; Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs

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 least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%. We show that the trends observed in Amazonia apply to trees throughout the tropics, and we predict that most of the world's >40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as globally threatened. A gap analysis suggests that existing Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories will protect viable populations of most threatened species if these areas suffer no further degradation, highlighting the key roles that protected areas, indigenous peoples, and improved governance can play in preventing large-scale extinctions in the tropics in this century. ; Alberta Mennega Stichting ; ALCOA Suriname ; Amazon Conservation Association ; Banco de la República ; CELOS Suriname ; CAPES (PNPG) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvovimento Científico e Tecnológico of Brazil (CNPq) Projects CENBAM, PELD (558069/2009-6), PRONEX-FAPEAM (1600/2006), Áreas Úmidas, MAUA; PELD (403792/2012-6), PPBio, PVE 004/2012, Universal (479599/2008-4), and Universal 307807- 2009-6 ; FAPEAM projects DCR/2006, Hidroveg with FAPESP, and PRONEX with CNPq ; FAPESP ; Colciencias ; CONICIT ; Duke University ; Ecopetrol ; FEPIM 044/2003 ; The Field Museum ; Conservation International/DC (TEAM/Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia Manaus ; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation ; Guyana Forestry Commission ; Investissement d'Avenir grant of the French ANR (CEBA: ANR-10-LABX-0025 ; IVIC ; Margaret Mee Amazon Trust ; Miquel fonds ; MCTI–Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi–Proc. 407232/2013-3–PVE-MEC/MCTI/CAPES/CNPq; National Geographic Society (7754-04 and 8047-06 to P.M.J.; 6679-99, 7435-03, and 8481-08 to T.W.H.); NSF-0726797 to K.R.Y ; NSF Dissertation Improvement ; Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research WOTRO (grants WB85-335 and W84-581) ; Primate Conservation Inc. ; Programme Ecosystèmes Tropicaux (French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development) ; Shell Prospecting and Development Peru ; Smithsonian Institution's Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program ; Stichting het van Eeden-fonds ; The Body Shop ; The Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador ; TROBIT ; Tropenbos International ; U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF-0743457 and NSF-0101775 to P.M.J.; NSF-0918591 to T.W.H.) ; USAID ; Variety Woods Guyana ; Wenner-Gren Foundation ; WWF-Brazi ; WWF-Guianas ; XIIéme Contrat de Plan Etat Région-Guyane (French Government and European Union) ; European Union ; UK Natural Environment Research Counci ; European Research Council ; Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award