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- 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
- Growing evidence has shown that, apart from local environmental factors, changes in landscape-level factors by accelerated land-use change can also shape soil pathogenic fungal diversity. However, the global representativeness of such patterns remains unclear. Here, we assess how pathogenic fungal diversity in 511 soil samples worldwide responds to landscape factors, including landscape complexity index based on eight landscape metrics and quantity of different land cover types across six spatial scales (i.e., surrounding landscape, 250m to 10,000m radii from the sampling coordinate). We...AuthorsYawen Lu, Nico Eisenhauer, Guillaume Patoine, Ying Chen, Anna Heintz-Buschart, Kirsten Küsel, Carl-Eric Wegner, François Buscot, Xiang Liu, Ademir S.F. Araujo, Beat Frey, Fernando T. Maestre, Matthew Vadeboncoeur, Liesbeth van den Brink, Quentin Ponette, Markus Didion, Georg Wohlfahrt, Aurora Gaxiola, Cristina Branquinho, Henning Meesenburg, Karibu Fukuzawa, E. Carol Adair, Andrijana Andrić, Milan Barna, Qicheng Bei, Helge Bruelheide, Adriano Caliman, Rafaella Canessa, Michele Carbognani, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Chiling Chen, Casper T. Christiansen, Michaël Danger, Evgeny A. Davydov, Marie-Anne de Graaff, Christine Delire, Valter Di Cecco, Luciano Di Martino, Ika Djukic, Simon Drollinger, Tsutomu Enoki, István Fekete, Petra Fransson, Martin Freitag, Mark Frenzel, Rosario G. Gavilán, Stephan Glatzel, Maria Glushkova, Grizelle Gonzalez, Anderson da R. Gripp, Peter Haase, Ute Hamer, Takuo Hishi, Tsutom Hiura, Elisabeth Hornung, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Heinke Jäger, Juan J. Jiménez, Megan J. Kelly-Slatten, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Zsolt Kotroczó, Kaie Kriiska, Hiroko Kurokawa, Kate Lajtha, John Loehr, Stefan Löfgren, Vincent Maire, Rodrigo L. Martins, Florence Maunoury-Danger, Inara Melece, Victoria Ochoa, Ivika Ostonen, Alain Paquette, William C. Parker, Pablo Luis Peri, Rebecca Mast, Alessandro Petraglia, Petr Petřík, Mihai Pușcaș, Corinna Rebmann, Peter B. Reich, Matthias C. Rillig, Martin Schädler, Marcus Schaub, Anja Schmidt, Julia Seeber, Helena Cristina Serrano, Ana I. Sousa, Stefan Scheu, Artur Stefanski, Marcello Tomaselli, Zsolt Tóth, Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett, Stefan Trogisch, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Tudor M. Ursu, Susanna E. Venn, Arne Verstraeten, Jeyanny Vijayanathan, Dušanka Vujanović, Markus Wagner, Martin Weih, Franz Zehetner, Carlos A. GuerraSourceNature CommunicationsYear2026
- Leaf litter in headwater streams serves as an important energy source for the aquatic food web. However, the timing, magnitude, and source dynamics of leaf litter inputs into tropical montane streams have received less attention. Here we present an 8-year study of leaf litter inputs from two tropical montane first-order headwater streams in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico that include a prolonged drought period and major hurricanes. Leaf litter was collected across different landscape sources such as canopy and riparian inputs, and litter transported from upstream. The...AuthorsBianca M. Rodríguez-Cardona, Alonso Ramírez, Tamara Heartsill ScalleyKeywordsSourceJournal of Tropical EcologyYear2026
- Natural disturbances are major drivers of tropical forest dynamics, yet their role in Central Africa’s old-growth rainforests, the world’s second largest tropical forest block, remains poorly quantified. Here we present the first regional assessment of windthrow, the uprooting or breakage of trees by wind. Using Landsat imagery from 2019 to 2020, we detected 74 windthrow events ≥30 ha, collectively affecting ~18,600 ha. These events were concentrated in eastern regions where mesoscale convective systems and extreme rainfall are most frequent. Sizes of windthrow events followed a Weibull...AuthorsRobinson Negron-Juarez, Yanlei Feng, Douglas Sheil, Michael Keller, Elsa M. Ordway, Daniel Magnabosco Marra, Jose D. Urquiza-MuñozSourcenpj Natural HazardsYear2026
Water availability modulates maximum canopy heights of low-elevation Amazonian second-growth forests
Tropical second-growth forests of the Amazon sequester large amounts of carbon and are important carbon sinks, contributing substantially to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and providing crucial ecosystem services. Deforestation due to selective logging and shifting cultivation is expanding second-growth forest areas in tropical forest regions, which if well managed, regenerate rapidly over time. Maximum forest canopy height is an important metric of biomass and carbon accumulation in second-growth forests and is strongly influenced by water availability. The water...AuthorsMidhun Mohan, Gilberto Z. Pastorello, Yanlei Feng, Esmaeel Adrah, Michael Keller, Ewane Basil Ewane, Marcos Longo, Ovidiu Csillik, Antonio Ferraz, Abhilash Dutta Roy, Lin Meng, Jeffrey Q. ChambersKeywordsSourceTropical EcologyYear2026- Water resource managers need Streamflow Duration Assessment Methods (SDAMs) to predict if streams are ephemeral, intermittent or perennial. Although SDAMs exist for some regions of the United States, no validated SDAM has been developed for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. This review lays the foundation for a US Caribbean SDAM that will be accurate and practical by characterizing trends in stream research and identifying flow class documentation, candidate indicators of streamflow duration and a hydrogeographic framework. We screened 2081 titles and abstracts and 750 full-text...AuthorsKatiana Garcia-Rosado, Ken M. Fritz, Augustin C. Engman, Tamara Heartsill Scalley, Sean P. Kelly, Carlos E. Ramos-Scharrón, Sofía Olivero-LoraKeywordsSourceAquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater EcosystemsYear2026
- Brazil contains 15–20% of the world’s biodiversity, with forests originally covering 88% of its territory, now reduced to about 58%. The country has committed to restoring at least 12 million ha of forests by 2030. Seeding is a cost-effective method for tropical forest restoration, widely used in Brazil, but its effectiveness for species-rich forests is still uncertain due to low establishment rates for many species. Most seeding research has involved relatively few species, and many are short-lived, raising concerns about long-term ecosystem development. Invasive grasses and loss of...AuthorsVera Lex Engel, Diego Carveira de Souza, John A. ParrottaKeywordsSourceREFORESTAYear2026