Canopy functional trait variation across Earth’s tropical forests.
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús
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, Göran
Joly, Carlos A.
Abernethy, Katharine
Adu-Bredu, Stephen
Alexandre Silva, Celice
de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida
Almeida, Danilo R. A.
Alvarez-Davila, Esteban
Asner, Gregory P.
Baker, Timothy R.
Benchimol, Maíra
Bentley, Lisa Patrick
Berenguer, Erika
Blanc, Lilian
Bonal, Damien
Bordin, Kauane
Borges de Lima, Robson
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 José
dos Santos Alves da Silva, Robson
de Andrade Iguatemy, Mariana
De Sousa Oliveira, Tony César
Dechant, Benjamin
Derroire, Géraldine
Dexter, Kyle G.
Rodrigues, Domingos J.
Espírito-Santo, Mário
Silva, Letícia Fernandes
Domingues, Tomas Ferreira
Ferreira, Joice
Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni
Girardin, Cécile A. J.
Hérault, Bruno
Jeffery, Kathryn J.
Kalpuzha Ashtamoorthy, Sreejith
Kavidapadinjattathil Sivadasan, Arunkumar
Klitgaard, Bente
Laurance, William F.
Dan, Maurício Lima
Magnusson, William E.
Campos-Filho, Eduardo Malta
Manoel dos Santos, Rubens
Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto
Silveira, Marcos
Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur
Martin, Roberta E.
Vieira, Daniel Luis Mascia
Metzker, Thiago
Milliken, William
Moonlight, Peter
Moraes de Seixas, Marina Maria
Morandi, Paulo S.
Muscarella, Robert
Nava-Miranda, María Guadalupe
Nyirambangutse, Brigitte
Silva, Jhonathan Oliveira
Oliveras Menor, Imma
Francisco Pena Rodrigues, Pablo José
Pereira de Oliveira, Cinthia
Pereira Zanzini, Lucas
Peres, Carlos A.
Punjayil, Vignesh
Quesada, Carlos A.
Réjou-Méchain, Maxime
Riutta, Terhi
Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo
Rosa, Clarissa
Salinas, Norma
Bergamin, Rodrigo Scarton
Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes
Shenkin, Alexander
Silva Rodrigues, Priscyla Maria
Figueiredo, Axa Emanuelle Simões
Garcia, Queila Souza
Spósito, Tereza
Storck-Tonon, Danielle
Sullivan, Martin J. P.
Svátek, Martin
Vieira Santiago, Wagner Tadeu
Arn Teh, Yit
Theruvil Parambil Sivan, Prasad
Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade
Veenendaal, Elmar
Zo-Bi, Irie Casimir
Dago, Marie Ruth
Traoré, 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, Jérôme
Enquist, Brian J.
Barlow, Jos
Phillips, Oliver L.
Coomes, David A.
Malhi, Yadvinder
Date published
March 5, 2025
Abstract
Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere’s most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy . 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 . This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically . 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.
Project(s)
Priority 4: Accelerated Taxonomy
Priority 5: Enhanced Partnerships
Journal title
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Place of publication
Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany
ISSN
0028-0836
eISSN
1476-4687
Date accepted
January 16, 2025
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
IF = 64.8 (2023-2024)