The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) is a controversial explanation for the maintenance of tropical forest tree diversity, but empirical tests of it are rare. Two data-intensive evaluations have recently yielded contradictory outcomes: one for and one against the IDH. We propose that the explanation for these results lies in the subtleties of divergent interpretations and approaches, a...

Tropical soft-bottom communities-complex associations of fish and invertebrates living on the smooth Continental Shelf areas between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn-are both a marine ecologist's dream and a nightmare. They are a dream because their wide variety of species adaptations and lifehistory str.Hegies implies myriads of possible interactions and allows the foundation of large numbe...

Halving carbon emissions from tropical deforestation by 2020 could help bring the international community closer to the agreed goal of <2 degree increase in global average temperature change and is consistent with a target set last year by the governments, corporations, indigenous peoples' organizations and non-governmental organizations that signed the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF). W...

Vegetation diversity assessment in tropical forests have mostly been concentrated on tree species than other plant life forms, because tree species diversity is an important aspect of forest ecosystem structure and fundamental to tropical forest biodiversity. Tropical forests, the major repository of biodiversity, are undergoing rapid fragmentation and degradation all over the world [1]. These ...

Although clouds are the most recognisable and defining feature of tropical montane cloud forests, little research has focussed on how clouds affect plant functioning. We used satellite and ground-based observations to study cloud and leaf wetting patterns in contrasting tropical montane and pre-montane cloud forests. We then studied the consequences of leaf wetting for the direct uptake of wate...

Disentangling the mechanisms that shape community assembly across diversity gradients is a central matter in ecology. While many studies have explored community assembly through species average trait values, there is a growing understanding that intraspecific trait variation (ITV) can also play a critical role in species coexistence. Classic biodiversity theory hypothesizes that higher diversit...

Hunting affects a considerably greater area of the tropical forest biome than deforestation and logging combined. Often even large remote protected areas are depleted of a substantial proportion of their vertebrate fauna. However, understanding of the long-term ecological consequences of defaunation in tropical forests remains poor. Using tree census data from a large-scale plot monitored over ...

Less than half of anthropogenic carbon emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere, due to large net fluxes into both the oceans and the land (Le Qu er e et al., 2012). The land sink in particular has increased markedly, doubling in strength since the 1960s, to reach 26 petagrams of carbon in the latest decade. However, the location and drivers of this large terrestrial sink are still relative...

Many tropical rain forest regions are at risk of increased future drought. The net effects of drought on forest ecosystem functioning will be substantial if important ecological thresholds are passed. However, understanding and predicting these effects is challenging using observational studies alone. Field-based rainfall exclusion (canopy throughfall exclusion; TFE) experiments can offer mecha...

Stefan A. Schnitzer* and Frans Bongers University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Department of Biological Sciences, PO Box 413, 53201, USA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama Wageningen University, Centre for Ecosystem Studies, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Tropical...