Treesearch
Search National Treesearch
Displaying 1 - 10 of 1,325 Publications
- Everwet tropical forests, defined by the absence of a pronounced dry season, are globally significant carbon sinks, covering roughly 80% of Southeast Asian tropical forests, 30% of the Amazon basin, and 10% of the Congo Basin. Yet the climatic drivers of stem radial growth in these ecosystems remain understudied. The prevailing hypothesis is that growth is primarily light‐limited, as persistent cloud cover constrains photosynthesis. Evaluating this assumption is critical as climate projections for the humid tropics point towards rising atmospheric evaporative demand, episodic drought, and...AuthorsLaura E. Boeschoten, Chris M. Smith‐Martin, Jose A. Medina‐Vega, Kristina J. Anderson‐Teixeira, Luis A. Esbrí Ruiz, Rebecca A. Montgomery, Monique Picón, Mukund P. Rao, Tana E. Wood, Xiangtao Xu, Jess K. Zimmerman, María UriarteKeywordsSourceGlobal Change BiologyYear2026
- Fire is a disturbance that alters nutrient cycling, but its legacy is often reduced to shifts in carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). This C:N:P paradigm overlooks the vast suite of other elements critical to decomposer organisms. Post-fire changes in the abiotic environment—especially when interacting with co-occurring stressors such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation—may reorganize the entire multi-element stoichiometric network within litter, yet the direct implications for arthropod decomposer communities remain largely unknown.In a 469-day factorial field experiment in a subtropica...AuthorsWei Huang, Grizelle Gonzalez, Weili Liu, Xiaoming ZouKeywordsSourceFire EcologyYear2026
- The effects of climate warming on phenological patterns and species distributions have been described for many species but understanding how changes in behavior and demography lead to these shifts is less understood. We followed a population of the common frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, as part of an in-situ field warming experiment (Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment; TRACE), in a humid tropical forest using capture-markrecapture methods. We assessed how growth, body size, and survival varied by warming treatment, sex, and developmental stage of frogs. In warmed plots (+4◦C...AuthorsT.J.Hawley Matlaga, P.A. Burrowes, J.E. Paterson, Tana E. WoodKeywordsSourceJournal of Thermal BiologyYear2026
Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico: assessing effects and adaptive responses in agriculture and forestry
Hurricanes pose risks for agriculture and forestry in regions where successive storms contribute to cumulative effects that hinder recovery and reduce adaptive capacity. Hurricanes also provide learning opportunities, and successive hurricanes provide opportunity to evaluate whether lessons have been applied and if they reduce the negative effects or improve recovery times. In Puerto Rico, hurricane Fiona made landfall on September 18, 2022, while many communities and landscapes were still facing the longstanding impacts of hurricanes Irma and María, major hurricanes of 2017. This study...AuthorsNora Alvarez-Berrios, Kathleen McGinley, Paloma S. Rodríguez-Serrano, Luis Alexis Rodríguez-Cruz, William A. GouldKeywordsSourceFrontiers in Sustainable Food SystemsYear2026- Biodiversity generally enhances ecosystem productivity, but whether such effects persist or intensify during climate extremes is unclear. Here we synthesized data from 75 biodiversity experiments across grasslands and forests to assess how aridity and soil nutrients modulate plant diversity effects under drought and heat extremes. Biodiversity most strongly enhanced productivity under extreme drought in more arid grasslands but had limited effects in forests under such conditions. More arid grasslands showed enhanced complementarity effects under extreme drought, whereas less arid grassland...AuthorsTakehiro Sasaki, Daniela Hoss, Yuanyuan Huang, Yuki Iwachido, Liting Zheng, Luis Abdala-Roberts, Eric Allan, Harald Auge, Nadia Barsoum, Jürgen Bauhus, Christel Baum, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Friderike Beyer, Pedro Brancalion, Seraina L. Cappelli, Chengjin Chu, Dylan Craven, Caroline Daniel, Jiri Dolezal, Anne Ebeling, Marina Fagundes, Olga Ferlian, Gislene Ganade, Tobias Gebauer, Benoit Gendreau-Berthiaume, Douglas Godbold, Nathaly Guerrero-Ramírez, Joannès Guillemot, Peter Hajek, Andy Hector, Dirk Hölscher, Hervé Jactel, Anke Jentsch, Julia Koricheva, Holger Kreft, Juergen Kreyling, Vojtech Lanta, Jan Leps, Wei Lin, Maybeth Mendoza-Espinosa, Celine Meredieu, Christian Messier, Sebastian T. Meyer, Florencia Montagnini, Bart Muys, Charles Nock, Alain Paquette, William C. Parker, John D. Parker, Victor Parra-Tabla, John A. Parrotta, Gustavo B. Paterno, Noémie A. Pichon, Daniel Piotto, Wayne Polley, Quentin Ponette, Catherine Potvin, Peter B. Reich, Boris Rewald, Agnès Robin, Christiane Roscher, Hans Sanden, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Florian Schnabel, Eric B. Searle, Alrun Siebenkäs, Rachel J. Standish, David Tilman, Jasper van Ruijven, Kris Verheyen, Alexandra Weigelt, Martin Weih, Ramona Werner, Brian Wilsey, Bernhard Schmid, Forest Isbell, Nico EisenhauerKeywordsSourceNature Ecology & EvolutionYear2026
- Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas, and tropical forests account for roughly one–third of global atmospheric CH4 uptake by soils. Projected warming and more frequent hurricanes in these ecosystems may alter soil CH4 sink strength, as warmer and wetter soils enhance methanogenesis activity. We measured soil CH4 and CO2 efflux during the calendar summer months of 2023 and 2024 alongside continuous records of soil moisture, soil and air temperature, and precipitation in an in–situ warming experiment (TRACE) located in a lowland tropical forest in Puerto Rico, six to seven years after...AuthorsGabriele Larocca Conte, Lucia Zuvela, Rachel Cruz-Pérez, Tatiana Barreto-Vélez, Nibia Becerra-Santillan, Sophia F. Campbell, Hieu P. Chu, Trung Dam, Iana F. Grullón-Penkova, Miriam Kleit, Deyaneira A. Ortiz-Iglesias, Laura C. Rubio-Lebrón, Molly A. Cavaleri, Sasha C. Reed, Debjani Sihi, Tana E. Wood, Christine S. O’ConnellKeywordsSourceAgricultural and Forest MeteorologyYear2026
- Understanding how plant functional traits mediate ecosystem resilience to extreme events is central to predicting ecological responses under variable climates. We asked: does edaphic filtering in serpentine versus volcanic soils shape plant functional composition in ways that determine forest stability (resistance, resilience, temporal stability, and recovery) following a major hurricane (Hurricane Maria)? We hypothesized that stress‐tolerant serpentine plant communities would be more resistant but recover less quickly from environmental disturbances, while volcanic plant communities would...AuthorsClaudia Garnica Díaz, Grizelle Gonzalez, Ramón Agosto, Gustavo Garay, María M. Rivera, Humberto Robles, Luis E. Velázquez Román, Catherine M. HulshofKeywordsSourceJournal of Vegetation ScienceYear2026
- Wet tropical forests are experiencing rising temperatures and increased frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events, such as cyclones, which can increase rates of soil erosion and surface runoff. Fungal litter mats, formed by agaric decomposer fungi, play a crucial role in stabilizing slopes, preventing erosion, and aiding nutrient cycling; however, little is known about how warming affects litter mat growth and function. We investigated two litter mat‐forming fungi, Gymnopus johnstonii and Marasmius aff. crinis‐equi , in warmed (+4°C above ambient) and control plots in the Luquillo...AuthorsAri E. Puentes, D. Jean Lodge, Deyaneira A. Ortiz‐Iglesias, Tatiana Barreto‐Vélez, Laura C. Rubio‐Lebrón, Hieu Chu, Christine S. O'Connell, Sasha C. Reed, Tana E. WoodKeywordsSourceBiotropicaYear2026
- This report summarizes the results of the National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) for the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). The charge of the NWOS includes gathering and reporting information on private forest ownerships from across all U.S. States, protectorates, and territories. The survey was conducted in the USVI for the first time in 2021. This report focuses on families, individuals, trusts, estates, and family partnerships, collectively referred to as family forest ownerships, that own at least 1 acre of forest land in the USVI. The summary results include information about their forest...AuthorsEmmalyn Terracciano, Kathleen McGinley, Jesse Caputo, Brett J. ButlerKeywordsSourceUSDA Forest ServiceYear2026
- Tropical forests are major contributors to the global carbon budget but are affected by disturbances such as hurricanes, which cause extensive yet spatially variable tree damage and mortality. High-resolution maps of forest aboveground biomass (AGB) and its temporal change aid in quantifying disturbance impacts, assessing resilience, and supporting forest management. This study presents wall-to-wall, high-resolution mapping of pre- and post-hurricane AGB and AGB change across Puerto Rico. The maps represent forest AGB measured 0–2 years before and after two major hurricanes (Irma and...AuthorsNafiseh Haghtalab, Tamara Heartsill Scalley, Tana E. Wood, J. Aaron Hogan, Humfredo Marcano-Vega, Thomas Brandeis, Thomas Ruzycki, Eileen HelmerKeywordsSourceRemote SensingYear2026