Treesearch

Abstract Climate change is predicted to result in warmer and drier Neotropical forests relative to current conditions. Negative density-dependent feedbacks, mediated by natural enemies, are key to maintaining the high diversity of tree species found in the tropics, yet we have little understanding of how projected changes in climate are likely to affect these critical controls. Over three years, we evaluated the effects of a natural drought and in situ experimental warming on density-dependent feedbacks on seedling demography in a wet tropical forest in Puerto Rico. In the +4oC warming...

Soil respiration in tropical forests represents a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. The magnitude of this large flux is projected to change in response to climate change, with global implications due to the disproportionate role of tropical forests in the carbon cycle. Evaluating diel patterns of soil respiration concomitantly with biophysical drivers is a valuable approach for elucidating the mechanisms controlling soil respiration. We measured hourly soil respiration rates in a tropical moist forest in Puerto Rico over a 3‐year period using automated chambers, as...

Fine roots play an important role in plant nutrition, as well as in carbon, water, and nutrient cycling. Fine roots account for a third of terrestrial net primary production (NPP), and inclusion of their structure and function in global carbon models should improve predictions of ecosystem responses to climate change. However, studies focusing on underground plant components are much less frequent than those on aboveground structure. This is more marked in the tropics, where one-third of the planet's terrestrial NPP is produced. Some tropical forests have been more represented in the...

Fire in tropical forests increases tree mortality, degrades forest structure, and reduces carbon stocks. Currently, there are large gaps in understanding how fire affects understory forest structure and composition, interactions with fire recurrence, and longterm impacts. Understanding these changes is critical to evaluate the present and future response of tropical forests to fire. We studied post-fire changes in understory regeneration in forests in Mato Grosso State, southern Amazonia, Brazil, aiming to answer the following questions: (i) does forest structure (basal area) and tree...

A new species of Furculanurida is described and illustrated. Furculanurida bistribus sp. nov. differs from other species of the genus by the presence of three eyes, three setae on the dens, and the white and purple coloration pattern. A key for identification of the world species of the genus is included.

In Puerto Rico, the Green Iguana, Iguana iguana, is considered an introduced and invasive species responsible for annual losses estimated in millions of dollars to local governmental and private sectors. The purpose of this study was to use GAP analyses to generate habitat distribution models for Green Iguanas in Puerto Rico. The two models had 79.7% and 88.4% predictability, respectively. The second model, which included road corridors as a habitat widely known to be used by iguanas for dispersal, basking, and mating displays, might have overestimated the Green Iguana’s distribution. The...

This paper describes data of earthworm abundance and functional group diversity regulate plant litter decay and soil organic carbon (SOC) level in global terrestrial ecosystems. The data also describes the potential effect of vegetation types, litter quality, litterbag mesh size, soil C/N, soil aggregate size, experimental types and length of experimental time on earthworm induced plant litter and SOC decay. The data were collected from 69 studies published between 1985 and 2018, covering 340 observations. This data article is related to the paper “Earthworm Abundance and Functional Group...

Cuba and Puerto Rico have much in common and have been referred to in a poem by Lola Rodríguez de Tío as “…son de un pájaro las dos alas” (two wings of one bird). Throughout their histories, they have faced similar challenges in maintaining food security and ecosystem health. Global climate change now threatens both islands with parallel challenges to their similar cropping systems, forests, and producer demographics. Rising temperatures and resultant shifts in climate patterns have led to an increased occurrence of drought, punctuated by tropical storms and hurricanes of increasing...

We used a distance-sampling survey method and multivariate statistics to obtain a unique estimate of bird species density and seasonal variation in shade-coffee plantations. Our aim was to determine which cultivation practices among plantations contribute most to bird abundance. We conducted avian species counts at 200 points distributed across 10 shade-coffee plantations bordering the lower slopes of the Mombacho Volcano Natural Reserve, in western Nicaragua. We measured vegetation structure (coffee plants and overstory). We used principal components analysis (PCA) among 14 habitat...

A previous review of earthworm impacts on greenhouse-gas emissions concluded that earthworms elevated soil CO2 emissions with no apparent influence on soil organic carbon (SOC), especially in laboratory incubations and in agroecosystems. This conclusion suggests that the elevated soil CO2 emissions may come from enhanced plant litter decomposition. Despite the known important role of earthworms on regulating ecosystem processes, a quantitative analysis of the relationship between earthworms and decomposition in global terrestrial ecosystems is still missing. Here, we present a quantitative...