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Tropical ecology is the study of all aspects of the ecology of tropical areas, which are those found approximately 23.5 degrees either side of the Equator. Notable tropical ecosystems include the rainforests of Amazonia, Africa and South East Asia, savannah grasslands and coral reefs.
Optimal regeneration success in Amazonian forests is mapped by simple ecological indicators, providing reference values for measuring restoration success across successional stages based on a large compiled dataset on forest regeneration.
More than 8.4 million cubic metres of timber, 197 million live plants, and 4.6 million kilograms of plant products listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species were traded globally from 2000 to 2020, according to an analysis that uses trade data and a statistical approach.
Tropical forest landscapes are increasingly being modified by human activities. Here the authors apply a causal inference approach to Neotropical forest data to disentangle the role of landscape-level and local drivers and reveal replacement of ‘loser’ by ‘winner’ tree species with distinct functional profiles.
Caribbean peatlands are a critical ecosystem that remain poorly understood, according to a synthesis of paleoecology, carbon dynamics and mapping data: estimations of distribution and extent vary by more than 200% depending upon mapping technique
A field experiment in Uganda shows how potassium and phosphorus keep leaves functioning during times of water scarcity, highlighting the need to consider ecosystem-scale processes in studying the response of forests to nutrient limitation.
A network of more than 100 researchers tracked trees for up to 30 years in forest plots across South America, enabling estimation of the impacts of record temperatures and drought on carbon dynamics. The carbon sink in these forests ceased during the 2015–2016 El Niño, with drier forests losing the most carbon.
An analysis of millions of wildlife photographs has revealed that survival and colonization probabilities of mammals in protected areas are associated with people and what they do both inside and outside these areas.
Many coral reefs suffer from the effects of overfishing, which threatens biodiversity and erodes human livelihoods. A study now reveals where fished reefs boost their total productivity, providing a means of resilience.
