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Detailed analysis of tropical climate dynamics is lacking for the Early to Middle Miocene, even though this time interval bears important analogies for future climates. Based on high-resolution proxy reconstructions of sea surface temperature, export productivity and dust supply at Ocean Drilling Program Site 959, we investigate astronomical forcing of the West African monsoon in the eastern equatorial Atlantic across the prelude, onset, and continuation of the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO; 18–15 Ma). Along with previously identified eccentricity periodicities of ∼400 and ∼100 kyr, our records show that climate varied on ∼27–17 kyr, ∼41 kyr, and ∼60–50 kyr timescales, which we attribute to precession, obliquity, and their combination tones, respectively. The relative contribution of these astronomical cycles differed between proxies and through time. Three intervals with distinct variability were recognized, which are particularly clear in the temperature record: (a) strong eccentricity, obliquity, and precession variability prior to the MCO (18.2–17.7 Ma), (b) strong influence of obliquity just after the onset of the MCO (16.9–16.3 Ma) concurring with a 2.4 Myr eccentricity minimum, and (c) dominant eccentricity and precession variability during the MCO between 16.3 and 15.0 Ma. Sedimentation at Site 959 was influenced by astronomically paced variations in upwelling intensity and North African aridity related to West African monsoon dynamics. Continuously present patterns of precession imply low-latitude forcing, while asymmetric eccentricity and obliquity imprints and strong obliquity influence suggest that Site 959 was also affected by high-latitude, glacial-interglacial dynamics.

Fungi are among the most diverse and ecologically important kingdoms in life. However, the distributional ranges of fungi remain largely unknown as do the ecological mechanisms that shape their distributions1,2. To provide an integrated view of the spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi, we implemented a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores3. The vast majority of operational taxonomic units were detected within only one climatic zone, and the spatiotemporal patterns of species richness and community composition were mostly explained by annual mean air temperature. Tropical regions hosted the highest fungal diversity except for lichenized, ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi, which reached their peak diversity in temperate regions. The sensitivity in climatic responses was associated with phylogenetic relatedness, suggesting that large-scale distributions of some fungal groups are partially constrained by their ancestral niche. There was a strong phylogenetic signal in seasonal sensitivity, suggesting that some groups of fungi have retained their ancestral trait of sporulating for only a short period. Overall, our results show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude. Our study reports patterns resembling those described for other major groups of organisms, thus making a major contribution to the long-standing debate on whether organisms with a microbial lifestyle follow the global biodiversity paradigms known for macroorganisms4,5.

This study examined changes in the activity patterns of tropical dairy cows during the transition period to assess their potential for predicting calving days. This study used the AfiTag-II biosensor to monitor activity, rest time, rest per bout, and restlessness ratio in 298 prepartum and 347 postpartum Holstein Friesian cows across three lactation groups (1, 2, and ≥3). The data were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models in SPSS, and five machine learning models, including random forest, decision tree, gradient boosting, Naïve Bayes, and neural networks, were used to predict the calving day, with their performance evaluated via ROC curves and AUC metrics. For all lactations, activity levels peak on the calving day, followed by a gradual return to prepartum levels within two weeks. First-lactation cows displayed the shortest rest duration, with a prepartum rest time of 568.8 ± 5.4 (mean ± SE), which is significantly lower than higher-lactation animals. The random forest and gradient boosting displayed an effective performance, achieving AUCs of 85% and 83%, respectively. These results indicate that temporal changes in activity behavior have the potential to be a useful indicator for calving day prediction, particularly in tropical climates where seasonal variations can obscure traditional prepartum indicators.

Numerous studies have shown reduced performance in plants that are surrounded by neighbours of the same species1,2, a phenomenon known as conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD)3. A long-held ecological hypothesis posits that CNDD is more pronounced in tropical than in temperate forests4,5, which increases community stabilization, species coexistence and the diversity of local tree species6,7. Previous analyses supporting such a latitudinal gradient in CNDD8,9 have suffered from methodological limitations related to the use of static data10-12. Here we present a comprehensive assessment of latitudinal CNDD patterns using dynamic mortality data to estimate species-site-specific CNDD across 23 sites. Averaged across species, we found that stabilizing CNDD was present at all except one site, but that average stabilizing CNDD was not stronger toward the tropics. However, in tropical tree communities, rare and intermediate abundant species experienced stronger stabilizing CNDD than did common species. This pattern was absent in temperate forests, which suggests that CNDD influences species abundances more strongly in tropical forests than it does in temperate ones13. We also found that interspecific variation in CNDD, which might attenuate its stabilizing effect on species diversity14,15, was high but not significantly different across latitudes. Although the consequences of these patterns for latitudinal diversity gradients are difficult to evaluate, we speculate that a more effective regulation of population abundances could translate into greater stabilization of tropical tree communities and thus contribute to the high local diversity of tropical forests.

Successful alien species may experience a period of quiescence, known as the lag phase, before becoming invasive and widespread. The existence of lags introduces severe uncertainty in risk analyses of aliens as the present state of species is a poor predictor of future distributions, invasion success and impact. Predicting a species' ability to invade and pose negative impacts requires a quantitative understanding of the commonality and magnitude of lags, environmental factors and mechanisms likely to terminate lag. Using herbarium and climate data, we analysed over 5,700 time series (species × regions) in 3,505 naturalized plant species from nine regions in temperate and tropical climates to quantify lags and test whether there have been shifts in the species' climatic space during the transition from the lag phase to the expansion phase. Lags were identified in 35% of the assessed invasion events. We detected phylogenetic signals for lag phases in temperate climate regions and that annual self-fertilizing species were less likely to experience lags. Where lags existed, they had an average length of 40 years and a maximum of 320 years. Lengthy lags (>100 years) were more likely to occur in perennial plants and less frequent in self-pollinating species. For 98% of the species with a lag phase, the climate spaces sampled during the lag period differed from those in the expansion phase based on the assessment of centroid shifts or degree of climate space overlap. Our results highlight the importance of functional traits for the onset of the expansion phase and suggest that climate discovery may play a role in terminating the lag phase. However, other possibilities, such as sampling issues and climate niche shifts, cannot be ruled out.

Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to severely impact the global hydrological cycle1, particularly in tropical regions where agriculture-based economies depend on monsoon rainfall2. In the Horn of Africa, more frequent drought conditions in recent decades3,4 contrast with climate models projecting precipitation to increase with rising temperature5. Here we use organic geochemical climate-proxy data from the sediment record of Lake Chala (Kenya and Tanzania) to probe the stability of the link between hydroclimate and temperature over approximately the past 75,000 years, hence encompassing a sufficiently wide range of temperatures to test the 'dry gets drier, wet gets wetter' paradigm6 of anthropogenic climate change in the time domain. We show that the positive relationship between effective moisture and temperature in easternmost Africa during the cooler last glacial period shifted to negative around the onset of the Holocene 11,700 years ago, when the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration exceeded 250 parts per million and mean annual temperature approached modern-day values. Thus, at that time, the budget between monsoonal precipitation and continental evaporation7 crossed a tipping point such that the positive influence of temperature on evaporation became greater than its positive influence on precipitation. Our results imply that under continued anthropogenic warming, the Horn of Africa will probably experience further drying, and they highlight the need for improved simulation of both dynamic and thermodynamic processes in the tropical hydrological cycle.

Forest restoration is increasingly heralded as a global strategy to conserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change, yet long-term studies that compare the effects of different restoration strategies on tree recruit demographics are lacking. We measured tree recruit survival and growth annually in three restoration treatments-natural regeneration, applied nucleation and tree plantations-replicated at 13 sites in southern Costa Rica-and evaluated the changes over a decade. Early-successional seedlings had 14% higher survival probability in the applied nucleation than natural regeneration treatments. Early-successional sapling growth rates were initially 227% faster in natural regeneration and 127% faster in applied nucleation than plantation plots but converged across restoration treatments over time. Later-successional seedling and sapling survival were similar across treatments but later-successional sapling growth rates were 39% faster in applied nucleation than in plantation treatments. Results indicate that applied nucleation was equally or more effective in enhancing survival and growth of naturally recruited trees than the more resource-intensive plantation treatment, highlighting its promise as a restoration strategy. Finally, tree recruit dynamics changed quickly over the 10-year period, underscoring the importance of multi-year studies to compare restoration interventions and guide ambitious forest restoration efforts planned for the coming decades. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.

Cycles of heat transfer between the tropical ocean and atmosphere help drive some of the Planet’s most important modes of climate variability. Subsurface turbulent heat fluxes (Jq) that redistribute ocean heat are known to mediate ocean-atmosphere dynamics at multiple timescales. However, a relative scarcity of observations has slowed down the inclusion of Jq in dynamical frameworks and theories of coupled tropical climate. This dissertation includes three chapters that use in-situ ocean measurements to explore the relations between atmospheric forcing, Jq, and other oceanic variables. Two case studies give special attention to the immediate and long-term ocean response to tropical cyclones (TCs), while a third chapter uses year-long records of Jq to explain their relation to the Asian Monsoon, and interpret their impacts on the seasonality of ocean temperatures in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP). Overall, the results highlight the importance of atmospheric extremes in regulating Jq and ocean heat uptake by the WPWP and by cold water masses that lay beneath it. Most attention is given to TCs, the near-inertial internal waves (NIWs) they generate, and how NIWs allow TCs to transform ocean currents and thermodynamics for weeks after the storms have dissipated. Besides TCs, it is also emphasized that large scale dynamics can also give rise to atmospheric extremes in which background conditions cause dramatic seasonal shifts in Jq and ocean heat uptake.

Animal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife-human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards humans was lower (i.e., escape distance was longer) in rural rather than urban populations and in populations exposed to lower human disturbance (measured as human footprint index). In addition, larger species and species with larger clutches and enhanced flight ability are less tolerant to human approaches and escape distances increase when birds were approached during the wet season compared to the dry season and from longer starting distances. Identification of key factors affecting animal tolerance towards humans across large spatial and taxonomic scales may help us to better understand and predict the patterns of species distributions in the Anthropocene.

The application of environmental DNA (eDNA) methods in tropical environments has been limited due to assumptions of poor preservation of genomic material given drastic climate variations (high temperature, soil acidity, high precipitation). However, improvements in technologies and methods (Orlando et al 2021; Shapiro et al 2019; Rizzi et al 2012; Mumy et al 2004; Miller et al 1999) have made it possible to extract and sequence highly degraded DNA (aDNA) from some tropical environments, drastically changing our previous understanding of DNA preservation capacities. Addressing the need to reclaim material from archaeological collections, I visited the Paleogenomics lab at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and performed DNA extraction experiments on sediment samples from three archaeological sites in Borikén (Puerto Rico) - Tierras Nuevas, Cueva María de la Cruz, and Puerto del Rey - in search of the presence of aDNA, and the levels of degradation they present. The ability to extract genomic material from tropical sediments, could provide high value proxy data to inquiry past climate, migration patterns, biomonitoring, and landscape formation processes, in addition to providing mitigation strategies to deal with the ongoing curation crisis exacerbated by the colonial system.

Terrestrial ecosystems have taken up about 32% of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions in the past six decades1. Large uncertainties in terrestrial carbon-climate feedbacks, however, make it difficult to predict how the land carbon sink will respond to future climate change2. Interannual variations in the atmospheric CO2 growth rate (CGR) are dominated by land-atmosphere carbon fluxes in the tropics, providing an opportunity to explore land carbon-climate interactions3-6. It is thought that variations in CGR are largely controlled by temperature7-10 but there is also evidence for a tight coupling between water availability and CGR11. Here, we use a record of global atmospheric CO2, terrestrial water storage and precipitation data to investigate changes in the interannual relationship between tropical land climate conditions and CGR under a changing climate. We find that the interannual relationship between tropical water availability and CGR became increasingly negative during 1989-2018 compared to 1960-1989. This could be related to spatiotemporal changes in tropical water availability anomalies driven by shifts in El Niño/Southern Oscillation teleconnections, including declining spatial compensatory water effects9. We also demonstrate that most state-of-the-art coupled Earth System and Land Surface models do not reproduce the intensifying water-carbon coupling. Our results indicate that tropical water availability is increasingly controlling the interannual variability of the terrestrial carbon cycle and modulating tropical terrestrial carbon-climate feedbacks.

The Amazon Forest, the largest contiguous tropical forest in the world, stores a significant fraction of the carbon on land. Changes in climate and land use affect total carbon stocks, making it critical to continuously update and revise the best estimates for the region, particularly considering changes in forest dynamics. Forest inventory data cover only a tiny fraction of the Amazon region, and the coverage is not sufficient to ensure reliable data interpolation and validation. This paper presents a new forest above-ground biomass map for the Brazilian Amazon and the associated uncertainty both with a resolution of 250 meters and baseline for the satellite dataset the year of 2016 (i.e., the year of the satellite observation). A significant increase in data availability from forest inventories and remote sensing has enabled progress towards high-resolution biomass estimates. This work uses the largest airborne LiDAR database ever collected in the Amazon, mapping 360,000 km2 through transects distributed in all vegetation categories in the region. The map uses airborne laser scanning (ALS) data calibrated by field forest inventories that are extrapolated to the region using a machine learning approach with inputs from Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), vegetation indices obtained from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite, and precipitation information from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). A total of 174 field inventories geolocated using a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) were used to validate the biomass estimations. The experimental design allowed for a comprehensive representation of several vegetation types, producing an above-ground biomass map varying from a maximum value of 518 Mg ha-1, a mean of 174 Mg ha-1, and a standard deviation of 102 Mg ha-1. This unique dataset enabled a better representation of the regional distribution of the forest biomass and structure, providing further studies and crit

This project is a consulting project for Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC) on how to obtain and communicate to relevant stakeholders an understanding of the impact of land use change and climate change on the hydrological balance of the cloud forest ecosystem in the Sierra Yalijux. The outcomes of the project will be used by CCFC and partners in four areas: Rural water committee capacity building with municipal and village leadership groups, environmental education with the ministry of education, reforestation, and conservation carbon/water credit prioritization with the national forestry institute, and to create thesis topics for bachelors level students with Universidad Rafael Landívar and Universidad de San Carlos. In order to achieve this goal, we divided our efforts in four areas: First, a description of the situation and a review of literature to identify gaps in scientific and practical understanding of local cloud forest hydrology (Chapter 2). Second, an analysis of the situation at a regional scale using publicly available historical data such as remote sensing data and data from the national meteorological authority (Chapter 3). Third, identifying important hydrological processes in the Cloud Forest micro-climate (Chapter 4) and prototyping and testing measurement setups (Chapter 5). Fourth, making suggestions on how to apply the results to the intended impact areas that CCFC has (Chapter 6). Our recommendations to CCFC for capacity building with water committees are based on a literature re view, we found that the presence of Cloud Forest is expected to increase base flow in springs due to its ability to capture additional hydrological inputs in the dry season, increase moisture recycling after heavy rain events, and store water in the soil. We recommend working with water committees to outline the recharge zones of their springs, run some simple calculations on water availability based on precipitation, and develop manage ment plans for the area, Civil Engineering

Deadwood is a large global carbon store with its store size partially determined by biotic decay. Microbial wood decay rates are known to respond to changing temperature and precipitation. Termites are also important decomposers in the tropics but are less well studied. An understanding of their climate sensitivities is needed to estimate climate change effects on wood carbon pools. Using data from 133 sites spanning six continents, we found that termite wood discovery and consumption were highly sensitive to temperature (with decay increasing >6.8 times per 10°C increase in temperature)-even more so than microbes. Termite decay effects were greatest in tropical seasonal forests, tropical savannas, and subtropical deserts. With tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth's surface.

Lianas are a key growth form in tropical forests. Their lack of self-supporting tissues and their vertical position on top of the canopy make them strong competitors of resources. A few pioneer studies have shown that liana optical traits differ on average from those of colocated trees. Those trait discrepancies were hypothesized to be responsible for the competitive advantage of lianas over trees. Yet, in the absence of reliable modelling tools, it is impossible to unravel their impact on the forest energy balance, light competition, and on the liana success in Neotropical forests. To bridge this gap, we performed a meta-analysis of the literature to gather all published liana leaf optical spectra, as well as all canopy spectra measured over different levels of liana infestation. We then used a Bayesian data assimilation framework applied to two radiative transfer models (RTMs) covering the leaf and canopy scales to derive tropical tree and liana trait distributions, which finally informed a full dynamic vegetation model. According to the RTMs inversion, lianas grew thinner, more horizontal leaves with lower pigment concentrations. Those traits made the lianas very efficient at light interception and significantly modified the forest energy balance and its carbon cycle. While forest albedo increased by 14% in the shortwave, light availability was reduced in the understorey (-30% of the PAR radiation) and soil temperature decreased by 0.5°C. Those liana-specific traits were also responsible for a significant reduction of tree (-19%) and ecosystem (-7%) gross primary productivity (GPP) while lianas benefited from them (their GPP increased by +27%). This study provides a novel mechanistic explanation to the increase in liana abundance, new evidence of the impact of lianas on forest functioning, and paves the way for the evaluation of the large-scale impacts of lianas on forest biogeochemical cycles.

Biophysical effects from deforestation have the potential to amplify carbon losses but are often neglected in carbon accounting systems. Here we use both Earth system model simulations and satellite-derived estimates of aboveground biomass to assess losses of vegetation carbon caused by the influence of tropical deforestation on regional climate across different continents. In the Amazon, warming and drying arising from deforestation result in an additional 5.1 ± 3.7% loss of aboveground biomass. Biophysical effects also amplify carbon losses in the Congo (3.8 ± 2.5%) but do not lead to significant additional carbon losses in tropical Asia due to its high levels of annual mean precipitation. These findings indicate that tropical forests may be undervalued in carbon accounting systems that neglect climate feedbacks from surface biophysical changes and that the positive carbon-climate feedback from deforestation-driven climate change is higher than the feedback originating from fossil fuel emissions.

Despite its potential, daylighting strategies in school classrooms in the tropical climate regions is little explored in the literature. The use of two-sided or bilateral daylight opening, as well as the self-shading mechanism using sloped walls, are currently seen as potential strategies to achieve good daylighting in tropical buildings. This study thus aims at exploring and optimizing self-shading design possibilities for creating daylight-friendly, tropical elementary school classrooms with bilateral openings, by means of sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Design parameters such as façade orientation, window-to-wall ratio, window elevations, wall slopes, interior surface reflectance and glazing transmittance are considered in the model of a hypothetical, typical classroom without shading devices. Climate-based daylight metrics such as UDI250-750 lx, sDA300/50% and ASE1000,250 are utilized as the performance indicators. Computational modelling with Honeybee [+] in Rhinoceros/ Grasshopper platform is employed to conduct the annual daylight simulation. Multi-objective optimizations using genetic algorithms (GA) through Octopus with SPEA-2 algorithms are performed to determine the optimum design solutions following the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The slope and WWR of the wall that faces west, southwest, south, or southeast, has the strongest influence on the defined objective function that includes all daylight metrics. To achieve the optimum daylight performance, design of the opposing window façades of school classrooms with bilateral openings should not be identical.

The aim of this paper is to broaden understanding of the social housing prototype that students and researchers at the University of Seville developed in response to tropical climate conditions to achieve the maximum level of hygrothermal comfort through the use of passive retrofit strategies. This prototype, known as Aura 1.0, was presented at the Solar Decathlon competition where hygrothermal conditions inside the prototype were monitored over a ten-day period. Nevertheless, as the monitoring period of the environmental conditions was so reduced, the aim of this research is to assess the environmental behaviour of the prototype for a full year, under tropical climate conditions. To do so, energy and environmental simulation instruments will evaluate the performance of the architectural proposal and its passive construction systems, in particular the double skin designed with different objectives (architectural, construction, socio-economic). The simulation model has been verified by the data monitored during the exhibition phase and the performance of the building. Various hypotheses have been analysed which demonstrate that employing a double skin in the dwelling contributed to improving interior thermal comfort, especially in the roof area as opposed to the facades, given the sun’s path at a latitude close to the equator.

Monsoons have historically been understood to be caused by the low thermal inertia of land, allowing more energy from summer insolation to be transferred to the overlying atmosphere than over adjacent ocean. Here, we show that during boreal summer, the global maximum net energy input (NEI) to the atmosphere unexpectedly lies over the Indian Ocean, not over land. Observed radiative fluxes suggest that cloud-radiative effects (CRE) almost double the NEI over ocean, shifting the NEI peak from land to ocean. Global climate model experiments with both land and interactive sea surface temperatures confirm that CRE create the oceanic NEI maximum. Interactions between CRE, NEI, circulation, and land-sea contrast in surface heat capacity shift precipitation from Southeast to South Asia. CRE thus alter the global partitioning of precipitation between land and ocean and the spatial structure of Earth's strongest monsoon, in ways that can be understood through the NEI.

Understanding tropical biology is important for solving complex problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and zoonotic pandemics, but biology curricula view research mostly via a temperate-zone lens. Integrating tropical research into biology education is urgently needed to tackle these issues.

Dwelling Amidst the tropics, Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences

Crown damage can account for over 23% of canopy biomass turnover in tropical forests and is a strong predictor of tree mortality; yet, it is not typically represented in vegetation models. We incorporate crown damage into the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES), to evaluate how lags between damage and tree recovery or death alter demographic rates and patterns of carbon turnover. We represent crown damage as a reduction in a tree's crown area and leaf and branch biomass, and allow associated variation in the ratio of aboveground to belowground plant tissue. We compare simulations with crown damage to simulations with equivalent instant increases in mortality and benchmark results against data from Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. In FATES, crown damage causes decreases in growth rates that match observations from BCI. Crown damage leads to increases in carbon starvation mortality in FATES, but only in configurations with high root respiration and decreases in carbon storage following damage. Crown damage also alters competitive dynamics, as plant functional types that can recover from crown damage outcompete those that cannot. This is a first exploration of the trade-off between the additional complexity of the novel crown damage module and improved predictive capabilities. At BCI, a tropical forest that does not experience high levels of disturbance, both the crown damage simulations and simulations with equivalent increases in mortality does a reasonable job of capturing observations. The crown damage module provides functionality for exploring dynamics in forests with more extreme disturbances such as cyclones and for capturing the synergistic effects of disturbances that overlap in space and time.

Reversing large-scale habitat degradation and deforestation goes beyond what can be achieved by site-level ecological restoration and a landscape ecology perspective is fundamental. Here we assess the relative importance of tree cover and its configuration on forest-dependent birds and late-successional tree seedlings in restoration sites in southern Costa Rica. The abundance and species richness of birds increased in landscapes with more corridors, higher tree cover, and lower levels of fragmentation, highlighting the importance of riparian corridors for connectivity, and continuous tree cover as suitable habitat. Landscape variables affected abundance and species richness of seedlings similarly, but effects were weaker, possibly because seedlings face establishment limitation in addition to dispersal limitation. Moreover, the scale of landscape effects on seedlings was small, likely because proximal individual trees can significantly influence recruitment in restoration plots. Results underscore the importance of incorporating landscape-level metrics to restoration projects, as knowing the extent, and how the landscape may affect restoration outcomes can help to infer what kind of species will arrive to restoration plots.

The growth and survival of individual trees determine the physical structure of a forest with important consequences for forest function. However, given the diversity of tree species and forest biomes, quantifying the multitude of demographic strategies within and across forests and the way that they translate into forest structure and function remains a significant challenge. Here, we quantify the demographic rates of 1961 tree species from temperate and tropical forests and evaluate how demographic diversity (DD) and demographic composition (DC) differ across forests, and how these differences in demography relate to species richness, aboveground biomass (AGB), and carbon residence time. We find wide variation in DD and DC across forest plots, patterns that are not explained by species richness or climate variables alone. There is no evidence that DD has an effect on either AGB or carbon residence time. Rather, the DC of forests, specifically the relative abundance of large statured species, predicted both biomass and carbon residence time. Our results demonstrate the distinct DCs of globally distributed forests, reflecting biogeography, recent history, and current plot conditions. Linking the DC of forests to resilience or vulnerability to climate change, will improve the precision and accuracy of predictions of future forest composition, structure, and function.

Vegetation demographic models (VDMs) endeavor to predict how global forests will respond to climate change. This requires simulating which trees, if any, are able to recruit under changing environmental conditions. We present a new recruitment scheme for VDMs in which functional-type-specific recruitment rates are sensitive to light, soil moisture and the productivity of reproductive trees. We evaluate the scheme by predicting tree recruitment for four tropical tree functional types under varying meteorology and canopy structure at Barro Colorado Island, Panama. We compare predictions to those of a current VDM, quantitative observations and ecological expectations. We find that the scheme improves the magnitude and rank order of recruitment rates among functional types and captures recruitment limitations in response to variable understory light, soil moisture and precipitation regimes. Our results indicate that adopting this framework will improve VDM capacity to predict functional-type-specific tree recruitment in response to climate change, thereby improving predictions of future forest distribution, composition and function.

Excessive precipitation over the southeastern tropical Pacific is a major common bias that persists through generations of global climate models. While recent studies suggest an overly warm Southern Ocean as the cause, models disagree on the quantitative importance of this remote mechanism in light of ocean circulation feedback. Here, using a multimodel experiment in which the Southern Ocean is radiatively cooled, we show a teleconnection from the Southern Ocean to the tropical Pacific that is mediated by a shortwave subtropical cloud feedback. Cooling the Southern Ocean preferentially cools the southeastern tropical Pacific, thereby shifting the eastern tropical Pacific rainbelt northward with the reduced precipitation bias. Regional cloud locking experiments confirm that the teleconnection efficiency depends on subtropical stratocumulus cloud feedback. This subtropical cloud feedback is too weak in most climate models, suggesting that teleconnections from the Southern Ocean to the tropical Pacific are stronger than widely thought.

Lianas, climbing woody plants, influence the structure and function of tropical forests. Climbing traits have evolved multiple times, including ancestral groups such as gymnosperms and pteridophytes, but the genetic basis of the liana strategy is largely unknown. Here, we use a comparative transcriptomic approach for 47 tropical plant species, including ten lianas of diverse taxonomic origins, to identify genes that are consistently expressed or downregulated only in lianas. Our comparative analysis of full-length transcripts enabled the identification of a core interactomic network common to lianas. Sets of transcripts identified from our analysis reveal features related to functional traits pertinent to leaf economics spectrum in lianas, include upregulation of genes controlling epidermal cuticular properties, cell wall remodeling, carbon concentrating mechanism, cell cycle progression, DNA repair and a large suit of downregulated transcription factors and enzymes involved in ABA-mediated stress response as well as lignin and suberin synthesis. All together, these genes are known to be significant in shaping plant morphologies through responses such as gravitropism, phyllotaxy and shade avoidance.

Situada en el trópico de Cáncer, Ahmedabad albergó los primeros proyectos de vivienda realizados por Le Corbusier en la India. La Villa Chimanbhai fue el único no construido, pero sí se llevó a cabo una maqueta a la que Le Corbusier se referiría en El Modulor 2 como una “concha de caracol”. La ubicación en la que se fotografía, junto al agua y entre plantas y guijarros, como un gasterópodo que buscase el frescor de la sombra y la humedad, enfatiza el discurso climático del arquitecto por “un pacto con la naturaleza”. Un pacto que a la hora de afrontar el confort doméstico ante el calor recurre a combinar los vientos con la ubicación estratégica de láminas de agua, así como mediante otros dispositivos arquitectónicos recogidos en la Grille Climatique, que quedan enfatizados en el despiece de la maqueta. La fusión entre lugar y maqueta a través de la fotografía, se repite en las posteriores realizadas para la Villa Shodhan y el Palacio del Gobernador, así como el carácter manual de estos objetos, que refuerza la idea de una producción por y para el pueblo de la nueva nación.La sombra de un innovador climatizador de ventana en las fotografías de la inauguración de la Villa Shodhan señala la predominan-cia de las máquinas sobre las atmósferas adiabáticas de las arquitecturas indias de Le Corbusier. Hoy en día, Ahmedabad es una de las ciudades del mundo con mayor huella energética de emisión por climatización., Situated in the tropic of Cancer, A$hmedabad was the site of the first housing projects carried out by Le Corbusier in India. Chimanbhai Villa was the only one that was not built, but a scale model was made, which Le Corbusier would refer to in The Modulor 2 as a “snail shell”. The location in which photographs were taken, next to the water and among plants and pebbles, like a gastropod seeking the cool of the shade and humidity, emphasises the climactic discourse of the architect for “a pact with nature”. A pact that when it comes to setting domestic comfort against heat, resorts to combining winds as a strategic location of expanses of water, and with other architectural devices set out in La Grille Climatique, that are emphasised in the dismantling of the model. The fusion between place and model through photography is repeated in the ones subsequently carried out for the Shodhan Villa and the Governor’s Palace, in addition to the manual character of these objects, which reinforces the idea of a production by and for the people of a new nation.The shadow of an innovative window-mounted air-conditioning unit in the photographs of the opening of the Shodhan Villa highlights the predominance of machines over adiabatic atmospheres in Le Corbusier’s Indian architectures. Today, Ahmedabad is one of the world’s cities with the largest air-conditioning emission energy footprint.

There is a debate concerning the definition and extent of tropical dry forest biome and vegetation type at a global spatial scale. We identify the potential extent of the tropical dry forest biome based on bioclimatic definitions and climatic data sets to improve global estimates of distribution, cover, and change. We compared four bioclimatic definitions of the tropical dry forest biome-Murphy and Lugo, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), DryFlor, aridity index-using two climatic data sets: WorldClim and Climatologies at High-resolution for the Earth's Land Surface Areas (CHELSA). We then compared each of the eight unique combinations of bioclimatic definitions and climatic data sets using 540 field plots identified as tropical dry forest from a literature search and evaluated the accuracy of World Wildlife Fund tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregions. We used the definition and climate data that most closely matched field data to calculate forest cover in 2000 and change from 2001 to 2020. Globally, there was low agreement (< 58%) between bioclimatic definitions and WWF ecoregions and only 40% of field plots fell within these ecoregions. FAO using CHELSA had the highest agreement with field plots (81%) and was not correlated with the biome extent. Using the FAO definition with CHELSA climatic data set, we estimate 4,931,414 km2 of closed canopy (≥ 40% forest cover) tropical dry forest in 2000 and 4,369,695 km2 in 2020 with a gross loss of 561,719 km2 (11.4%) from 2001 to 2020. Tropical dry forest biome extent varies significantly based on bioclimatic definition used, with nearly half of all tropical dry forest vegetation missed when using ecoregion boundaries alone, especially in Africa. Using site-specific field validation, we find that the FAO definition using CHELSA provides an accurate, standard, and repeatable way to assess tropical dry forest cover and change at a global scale.

Daylighting is one of the significant factors affecting the working environment in an office which is recognized as a vital source of energy savings. Occupants require proper daylight for desk jobs in their working spaces which largely depends on a set of internal and external aspects. This paper aims at analyzing the natural daylighting performance of the office buildings in Dhaka and providing a few design options concerning light shelves in order to enhance interior daylighting performance. A total of eleven commercial office buildings were selected in the survey based on a set of building parameters that has significant effects on daylighting. Among those selected buildings, one typical office building was further analyzed and simulated for a more detailed assessment of daylighting performance. Daylighting performance is assessed in terms of illuminance value concerning useful daylighting illuminance. The resultant data shows the inner office region lags in terms of illuminance value and is not very suitable for office works. Hence, light shelves were introduced as architectural design elements which were then simulated at different heights and angles to find out the optimum solution for daylighting enhancement which will save electrical lighting energy consumption.

BackgroundEnvironmental conditions affect the biology of mosquito vectors. Aedes albopictus is a major vector of many important diseases including dengue, Zika, and chikungunya in China. Understanding the development, fecundity, and survivorship of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes in different environmental conditions is beneficial for the implementation of effective vector control measures.MethodsAedes albopictus larval and adult life-table experiments were conducted under natural conditions in indoor, half-shaded, and fully shaded settings, simulating the three major habitat types in Hainan Province, a tropical island in the South China Sea. Temperature, humidity, and light intensity were recorded daily. Larval rearing used habitat water and tap water, with and without additional artificial food. Development time, survivorship, pupation rate, and adult emergence rates were monitored. Adult mosquito survivorship and fecundity were monitored daily and reproductive rates were determined, and age-dependent survivorship and reproduction were analyzed.ResultsThe pupation time and male and female emergence times were significantly shorter in indoor conditions than in shaded and half-shaded conditions for both tap water with added food and habitat water with added food groups. For habitat water with added food, the shaded environment had the lowest pupation rate among the settings. For tap water with added food group, the shaded environment had the lowest pupation rate. The mean survival time of females was 27.3 ± 0.8 days in the indoor condition, which was significantly longer than that in the half-shaded (18.4 ± 0.6 days) and shaded (13.8 ± 1.2 days) conditions. Adult mortality was age-dependent, and the rate of change in mortality with age was not significantly different among different environmental conditions. The mean net replacement rate (R0) of female mosquitoes showed no significant difference among the three conditions, whereas the per capita intrinsic g

Energy consumption to cool an indoor environment is a substantial part of total energy end-use, particularly in a tropical climate with high energy demand for cooling. To improve energy efficiency, cooling systems can be optimized using a variety of neutral indoor temperatures to maintain a balance between an occupant’s thermal comfort and cooling energy demand. This explanatory study investigated the thermal quality and cooling energy demand of a Platinum-certified office building in the tropical climate of Malaysia. The investigation aimed to suggest a balance between occupant thermal comfort and cooling energy demand. The thermal investigation includes an objective field measurement that implements environmental equipment to monitor thermal quality and a subjective occupant’s thermal feedback using a questionnaire survey. To calculate cooling energy demand, the total equivalent temperature difference method (TETD) is applied. The results suggested an occupant’s cooling sensation of around 24 °C, with no significant difference concerning age and gender. Cooling load calculation indicated a 36% energy reduction by increasing air temperature to 26 °C, for occupants to feel thermally comfortable in a tropical climate. These findings contribute to improving sustainable energy policies, sustainable construction, and thermal comfort improvement for a tropical climate., Building Services

In orthopaedic medicine, post-operative infections are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and higher health care costs. There exists a need to improve understanding of factors influencing infection rates and antimicrobial resistance. Particularly for orthopaedic surgery performed in hotter, wetter climates where the tropical microbial niche presents unique challenges. This clinical research analyses the risks of orthopaedic post-operative infections associated with weather and climatic variables. Detailed epidemiological data is presented which describes features of bacteria complicating orthopaedic surgery in North Eastern Australia and the relationship between multi-drug resistance, geographic location, season and weather. Antimicrobial prescribing recommendations are also provided.

Woodchip bioreactors have the capability to promote the reduction of reactive nitrogen in the nitrate (NO3−) form to dinitrogen (N2), a harmless gas in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, during the reaction the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is produced and can be released if denitrification is not complete. The aim of this experiment was to quantify the effect of a soil cap, the concentration of NO3− inflow and drying-rewetting cycles (DRW) on N2O emissions from bench top bioreactors (BTBs, 36.2 × 24.2 × 16.8 cm). The soil cap effect was quantified by comparing the performance of two treatments (n = 3): soil cap (CAP) and soil cap free (UNCAP). The NO3− inflow was simulated by feeding the BTBs with two NO3− concentrations (10 and 5 mg N L−1), and DRW were simulated by saturating and draining the BTBs. Nitrous oxide was quantified in the water samples as well as measured from the surface of the BTBs. The soil cap proved effective at decreasing surface N2O emissions with a reduction of total N2O emissions (calculated as the sum of dissolved N2O and surface N2O emissions) ranging from 30.4 to 42.9%. The NO3− inflow affected dissolved N2O and surface N2O emissions with higher values (average of 3.41 and 0.36 mg m−2 d−1, respectively for CAP, and average of 2.92 and 2.52 mg m−2 d−1, respectively for UNCAP) measured at high NO3− inflow. Drying-rewetting cycles influenced dissolved N2O and surface N2O emissions, with values following rewetting that accounted for more than 56% of the total N2O emissions for both treatments. This study confirmed that soil caps are effective at mitigating N2O emissions and contributed to a better understandin

The quality of the indoor environment has become a vital component for buildings due to the time spent indoors. To this extent, the performance of the indoor environment is considered as part of the greenery criteria by green rating schemes such as the Green Building Index in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate and assess the quality of the indoor environment of Platinum-certified office buildings in a tropical climate. This research applied a case study approach over two Platinum-certified office buildings. Post-occupancy evaluation is employed integrating full-scale measurement with an occupants’ survey. The measurement was carried out from May to August, and 112 questionnaires were retrieved to evaluate occupants’ satisfaction with aspects of the indoor environment. Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic, lighting, furniture, and cleanliness are considered as the main study variables. The findings of full-scale measurement indicated high relative humidity, and low air velocity and illuminance. While occupants reported overall indoor environment quality (IEQ) comfort, a significant correlation of variables was observed. The main sources of dissatisfaction were identified as overcooling around 24 °C, high relative humidity (RH), around 70% RH, glare, and background noise around 51.9 dB. Statistically, a significant difference between occupants’ responses to IEQ of two cases was identified, although both buildings are labelled with a Platinum certificate., Building Services

In Australia, declining water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a threat to its marine ecosystems and nitrate (NO3−) from sugar cane-dominated agricultural areas in the coastal catchments of North Queensland is a key pollutant of concern. Woodchip bioreactors have been identified as a potential low-cost remediation technology to reduce the NO3− runoff from sugar cane farms. This study aimed to trial different designs of bioreactors (denitrification walls and beds) to quantify their NO3− removal performance in the distinct tropical climates and hydrological regimes that characterize sugarcane farms in North Queensland. One denitrification wall and two denitrification beds were installed to treat groundwater and subsurface tile-drainage water in wet tropics catchments, where sugar cane farming relies only on rainfall for crop growth. Two denitrification beds were installed in the dry tropics to assess their performance in treating irrigation tailwater from sugarcane. All trialled bioreactors were effective at removing NO3−, with the beds exhibiting a higher NO3− removal rate (NRR, from 2.5 to 7.1 g N m−3 d−1 ) compared to the wall (0.15 g N m−3 d−1 ). The NRR depended on the influent NO3− concentration, as low influent concentrations triggered NO3− limitation. The highest NRR was observed in a bed installed in the dry tropics, with relatively high and consistent NO3− influent concentrations due to the use of groundwater, with elevated NO3−, for irrigation. This study demonstrates that bioreactors can be a useful edge-of-field technology for reducing NO3− in runoff to the GBR, when sited and designed to maximise NO3− removal performance.

Increasing urbanization and population growth in Thailand have altered the natural urban environment and waterways, requiring metropolitan Bangkok and the surrounding areas to develop a more sustainable and effective stormwater management plan. Pluvial flooding has become a particular challenge for these areas, especially due to frequent, high intensity rainfall events associated with a tropical climate that conventional stormwater management is not always able to effectively accommodate. This study therefore aims to introduce a newer stormwater management approach, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), which is supported by dynamic mathematical modelling, to explore and emphasize its ability in managing pluvial flooding for a mixed residential, commercial, and industrial area of peri-urban Bangkok. Different landscape architectural designs from the Thammasat Nava Nakorn Smart District Project, including bioswales, bioretention cell, raingarden and detention pond were used as the basis of the performance evaluation. A Personal Computer version of the Stormwater Management (PCSWMM) was applied to understand flooding behaviour under a 2-year design storm (72 mm for 24 hours). Design options to improve performance of the individual designs and their connectivity with respect to runoff volume and flood, frequency, duration, and severity were then evaluated. WSUD performance was varied from one feature to another depending on the design size and its ability to capture runoff volume. The WSUD scenarios had less impact on surface flood duration and peak surface flood rate, but arguably volume reduction is more important than peak reduction for pluvial flooding. Flood reduction benefits under each feature were smaller for the entire system (Nava Nakorn) compared to the localized catchment area which is attributed to the fact that WSUDs area shared a small proportion of the entire study area. Simulation result for the localized impact showed that flooding volume was reduced b

Microbial natural products are important for the understanding of microbial interactions, chemical defense and communication, and have also served as an inspirational source for numerous pharmaceutical drugs. Tropical marine cyanobacteria have been highlighted as a great source of new natural products, however, few reports have appeared wherein a multi-omics approach has been used to study their natural products potential (i.e., reports are often focused on an individual natural product and its biosynthesis). This study focuses on describing the natural product genetic potential as well as the expressed natural product molecules in benthic tropical cyanobacteria. We collected from several sites around the world and sequenced the genomes of 24 tropical filamentous marine cyanobacteria. The informatics program antiSMASH was used to annotate the major classes of gene clusters. BiG-SCAPE phylum-wide analysis revealed the most promising strains for natural product discovery among these cyanobacteria. LCMS/MS-based metabolomics highlighted the most abundant molecules and molecular classes among 10 of these marine cyanobacterial samples. We observed that despite many genes encoding for peptidic natural products, peptides were not as abundant as lipids and lipopeptides in the chemical extracts. Our results highlight a number of highly interesting biosynthetic gene clusters for genome mining among these cyanobacterial samples.

Tree mortality rates are increasing within tropical rainforests as a result of global environmental change. When trees die, gaps are created in forest canopies and carbon is transferred from the living to deadwood pools. However, little is known about the effect of tree-fall canopy gaps on the activity of decomposer communities and the rate of deadwood decay in forests. This means that the accuracy of regional and global carbon budgets is uncertain, especially given ongoing changes to the structure of rainforest ecosystems. Therefore, to determine the effect of canopy openings on wood decay rates and regional carbon flux, we carried out the first assessment of deadwood mass loss within canopy gaps in old-growth rainforest. We used replicated canopy gaps paired with closed canopy sites in combination with macroinvertebrate accessible and inaccessible woodblocks to experimentally partition the relative contribution of microbes vs. termites to decomposition within contrasting understorey conditions. We show that over a 12 month period, wood mass loss increased by 63% in canopy gaps compared with closed canopy sites and that this increase was driven by termites. Using LiDAR data to quantify the proportion of canopy openings in the study region, we modelled the effect of observed changes in decomposition within gaps on regional carbon flux. Overall, we estimate that this accelerated decomposition increases regional wood decay rate by up to 18.2%, corresponding to a flux increase of 0.27 Mg C ha-1  year-1 that is not currently accounted for in regional carbon budgets. These results provide the first insights into how small-scale disturbances in rainforests can generate hotspots for decomposer activity and carbon fluxes. In doing so, we show that including canopy gap dynamics and their impacts on wood decomposition in forest ecosystems can help improve the predictive accuracy of the carbon cycle in land surface models.

Thermal adaptation to habitat variability can determine species vulnerability to environmental change. For example, physiological tolerance to naturally low thermal variation in tropical forests species may alter their vulnerability to climate change impacts, compared with open habitat species. However, the extent to which habitat-specific differences in tolerance derive from within-generation versus across-generation ecological or evolutionary processes are not well characterized. Here we studied thermal tolerance limits of a Central African butterfly (Bicyclus dorothea) across two habitats in Cameroon: a thermally stable tropical forest and the more variable ecotone between rainforest and savanna. Second generation individuals originating from the ecotone, reared under conditions common to both populations, exhibited higher upper thermal limits (CTmax) than individuals originating from forest (∼3°C greater). Lower thermal limits (CTmin) were also slightly lower for the ecotone populations (∼1°C). Our results are suggestive of local adaptation driving habitat-specific differences in thermal tolerance (especially CTmax) that hold across generations. Such habitat-specific thermal limits may be widespread for tropical ectotherms and could affect species vulnerability to environmental change. However, microclimate and within-generation developmental processes (e.g. plasticity) will mediate these differences, and determining the fitness consequences of thermal variation for ecotone and rainforest species will require continued study of both within-generation and across-generation eco-evolutionary processes.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

In post-industrial settings, apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) is associated with increased cardiovascular and neurological disease risk. However, the majority of human evolutionary history occurred in environments with higher pathogenic diversity and low cardiovascular risk. We hypothesize that in high-pathogen and energy-limited contexts, the APOE4 allele confers benefits by reducing innate inflammation when uninfected, while maintaining higher lipid levels that buffer costs of immune activation during infection. Among Tsimane forager-farmers of Bolivia (N = 1266, 50% female), APOE4 is associated with 30% lower C-reactive protein, and higher total cholesterol and oxidized LDL. Blood lipids were either not associated, or negatively associated with inflammatory biomarkers, except for associations of oxidized LDL and inflammation which were limited to obese adults. Further, APOE4 carriers maintain higher levels of total and LDL cholesterol at low body mass indices (BMIs). These results suggest that the relationship between APOE4 and lipids may be beneficial for pathogen-driven immune responses and unlikely to increase cardiovascular risk in an active subsistence population.

The acute effect of temperature on asthma morbidity in Bangladesh is not well understood. As climate varies extensively in different parts of the world, the relation between temperature and asthma might also differ. We investigated the association between temperature and asthma-related hospital visits in the tropical city of Dhaka. We analyzed information from a total of 5989 asthma patients who received ambulatory care in the form of nebulized medication at the National Asthma Center in Mohakhali, Dhaka from February to November 2013. A time-stratified case-crossover study was conducted to estimate the effect of daily temperature, with consideration of delayed effects and possible confounders such as relative humidity and political strikes. An inverse association was observed between temperature and the number of hospital visits. The effect was delayed for approximately a week. A degree centigrade decrease in mean temperature (averaged across lags 0-6) was associated with an increase of approximately 4.5% (95% CI 1.5, 7.5) in all asthma visits. The association was evident in adult males but marginal in elderly males. A positive association (lag 0) was observed among adult females, whereas no association was observed among children. Strikes significantly modified the effect among the elderly. Findings suggest temperature declines affect asthma outcomes in a warm climate, and this effect can be delayed and vary by sex and age group.

Rhipicephalus sanguineus is a species complex of ticks that vector disease worldwide. Feeding primarily on dogs, members of the complex also feed incidentally on humans, potentially transmitting disease agents such as Rickettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia conorii, and Ehrlichia species. There are two genetic Rh. sanguineus lineages in North America, designated as the temperate and tropical lineages, which had occurred in discrete locations, although there is now range overlap in parts of California and Arizona. Rh. sanguineus in Europe are reportedly more aggressive toward humans during hot weather, increasing the risk of pathogen transmission to humans. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of hot weather on choice between humans and dog hosts among tropical and temperate lineage Rh. sanguineus individuals. Ticks in a two-choice olfactometer migrated toward a dog or human in trials at room (23.5°C) or high temperature (38°C). At 38°C, 2.5 times more tropical lineage adults chose humans compared with room temperature, whereas temperate lineage adults demonstrated a 66% reduction in preference for dogs and a slight increase in preference for humans. Fewer nymphs chose either host at 38°C than at room temperature in both lineages. These results demonstrate that risk of disease transmission to humans may be increased during periods of hot weather, where either lineage is present, and that hot weather events associated with climatic change may result in more frequent rickettsial disease outbreaks.

Purpose The requirement of indoor thermal comfort in building is crucial, including the religious building such as mosque, which accommodates high occupancy level due to the congregational prayer. With this condition, the application of air conditioning system in a mosque is common, especially the modern mosque in hot climate where the layout plan is more complex compared to the vernacular mosque. Hence, the aim of this study is to evaluate whether the modern mosque design is able to provide the required indoor thermal comfort condition in tropical climate. Design/Methodology/Approach The National University of Malaysia’s mosque was selected for the study. Two research methodologies were conducted concurrently, which were the field measurement and the questionnaire survey. The purpose of conducting these two methods was to compare the indoor thermal condition with the actual thermal sensation and satisfaction of the users. Both methods had been executed for four days, and there were 120 respondents who had participated in the survey. Findings The findings indicated that most users felt neutral thermal sensation only during the morning hours which was at the indoor operative temperature range of 28.5 °C to 30.1 °C. Meanwhile in the afternoon and late afternoon hours, where the indoor operative temperature was more than 30 °C, majority of them felt slightly warm. Despite that, they still voted for neutral or satisfied feeling during the afternoon and the late afternoon hours. Research Limitations/Implications The limitations in the study were the field measurement duration which was four days only and the location of the measuring tool which was at the prayer hall of the first floor level. Originality/Value The findings of this study can be used as a guidance in providing a modern mosque design that has good response to the tropical climate. This study also helps to embark other investigations in the future by using other methodologies such as numerical simulation and

Rising temperatures and extreme climate events are propelling tropical species into temperate marine ecosystems, but not all species can persist. Here, we used the heatwave-driven expatriation of tropical Black Rabbitfish (Siganus fuscescens) to the temperate environments of Western Australia to assess the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that may entail their persistence. Population genomic assays for this rabbitfish indicated little genetic differentiation between tropical residents and vagrants to temperate environments due to high migration rates, which were likely enhanced by the marine heatwave. DNA metabarcoding revealed a diverse diet for this species based on phytoplankton and algae, as well as an ability to feed on regional resources, including kelp. Irrespective of future climate scenarios, these macroalgae-consuming vagrants may self-recruit in temperate environments and further expand their geographic range by the year 2100. This expansion may compromise the health of the kelp forests that form Australia’s Great Southern Reef. Overall, our study demonstrates that projected favourable climate conditions, continued large-scale genetic connectivity between populations, and diet versatility are key for tropical range-shifting fish to establish in temperate ecosystems.

Producción Científica, This study presents the evaluation of the performance and acceptability of thermal comfort by students in the classrooms of a university building with minisplit-type air-conditioning systems, in a tropical climate. To carry out the study, temperature and humidity measurements were recorded, both outside and inside the selected classrooms, while the students were asked to complete thermal surveys on site. The survey model is based on the template proposed by Fanger and it was applied to a total number of 584 students. In each classroom, the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) were estimated according to Fanger’s methodology, as well as the Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) and the Actual Percentage Dissatisfied (APD), which were obtained from the measurements and the surveys. The results of this study showed that the PMV values, although they may vary with the insulation of the clothing, do not affect the TSV. Furthermore, comparing PMV vs. TSV scores, a 2 °C to 3 °C difference in operating temperature was found, whereby the thermal sensitivity for TSV was colder, so it could be assumed that the PMV model overestimates the thermal sensitivity of students in low-temperature conditions. In addition, an acceptability by 90% with thermal preferences between 23 °C and 24 °C were also found. These results indicate that it is possible to increase the temperature set point in minisplit-type air-conditioning system from 4 °C to 7 °C with respect to the currently set temperatures, without affecting the acceptability of the thermal environment to the students in the building.

[EN] Climate change is expected to increase rainfall and temperature in the tropical areas of the Ecuadorian coast. The increase in temperature will also increase evapotranspiration therefore, future water balance on Ecuadorian coast will have a slight variation. Changes in precipitation patterns and evapotranspiration will produce an increase in the water requirements for current crops, so an imbalance in the water resources systems between natural resources and water demands is expected. This study presents water resources management as an adaptation measure to climate change for reducing vulnerability in tropical areas. Twelve bias-corrected climate projections are used, from: two AR5 General Circulation Models (GCMs), two Representative Concentration Pathways, 4.5¿8.5 scenarios, and three time periods, short-term (2010¿2039), medium-term (2040¿2069) and long-term (2070¿2099). These data were incorporated into the Lumped Témez Hydrological Model. Climate change scenarios predict for the long-term period both a mean rainfall and temperature increases up to 22%-2.8¿°C, respectively. Besides, the potential evapotranspiration will increase until 12% by Penman-Monteith method and 60% by Thornthwaite method. Therefore, natural water resources will finally have an increase of 19% [8¿30%]. Additionally, water requirements for crops will increase around 4% and 45%. As this research shows, in tropical regions, currently viable water resources systems could become unsustainable under climate change scenarios. To guarantee the water supply in the future additional measures are required as reservoir operation rules and irrigation efficiency improvement of system from 0.43 to 0.65, which it involves improving the distribution and application system. In study area future irrigation areas have been estimated for 13,268¿ha, which under climate change scenarios is unsustainable, only 11,500¿ha could be expanded with a very high irrigation efficiency of 0.73. Therefore, in tropical