The majority of terrestrial plants associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which typically facilitate the uptake of limiting mineral nutrients by plants in exchange for plant carbon. However, hundreds of non-photosynthetic plant species-mycoheterotrophs-depend entirely on AM fungi for carbon as well as mineral nutrition. Mycoheterotrophs can provide insight into the operation and regu...

The accumulation and distribution of 40K and 137Cs in tropical plant species were studied through measurements of gamma-ray spectra from mango, avocado, guava, pomegranate, chili pepper, papaya and manioc trees. Our goal was to infer their differences in the uptake and translocation of ions to the aboveground plant parts and to establish the suitability of using radiocaesium as a tracer for the...

Tropical savannas have been increasingly viewed as an opportunity for carbon sequestration through fire suppression and afforestation, but insufficient attention has been given to the consequences for biodiversity. To evaluate the biodiversity costs of increasing carbon sequestration, we quantified changes in ecosystem carbon stocks and the associated changes in communities of plants and ants r...

Theory predicts that higher biodiversity in the tropics is maintained by specialized interactions among plants and their natural enemies that result in conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). By using more than 3000 species and nearly 2.4 million trees across 24 forest plots worldwide, we show that global patterns in tree species diversity reflect not only stronger CNDD at tropical vers...

Within-stand species richness of tropical rain forests is typically high, so that it is not unusual for more than 200 species, including more than 100 tree species, to coexist within 1 ha of tropical rain forest (Whitmore, 1984; Gentry, 1988). However, not all tropical forests have high species richness. Forests growing in suboptimal environments can have reduced richness of higher plants, some...

Mycobacterium ulcerans, the etiologic agent of Buruli ulcer, has been detected on aquatic plants in endemic tropical regions. Here, we tested the effect of several tropical plant extracts on the growth of M. ulcerans and the closely related Mycobacterium marinum. M. ulcerans and M. marinum were inoculated on Middlebrook 7H11 medium with and without extracts from tropical aquatic plants, includi...

We provide a cross-taxon and historical analysis of what makes tropical forest species vulnerable to extinction. Several traits have been important for species survival in the recent and distant geological past, including seed dormancy and vegetative growth in plants, small body size in mammals, and vagility in insects. For major past catastrophes, such as the five mass extinction events, large...

Biodiversity assessment has been the focus of intense debate and conceptual and methodological advances in recent years. The cultural, academic and aesthetic impulses to recognise and catalogue the diversity in our surroundings, in this case of living objects, is furthermore propelled by the urgency of understanding that we may be responsible for a dramatic reduction of biodiversity, comparable...

Frugivory is a widespread mutualistic interaction in which frugivores obtain nutritional resources while favoring plant recruitment through their seed dispersal services. Nonetheless, how these complex interactions are organized in diverse communities, such as tropical forests, is not fully understood. In this study we evaluated the existence of plant-frugivore sub-assemblages and their phyloge...