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127 results on '"John R. Poulsen"'

1. Linking crop availability, forest elephant visitation and perceptions of human–elephant interactions in villages bordering Ivindo National Park, Gabon

Author

Walter Mbamy, Christopher Beirne, Graden Z.L. Froese, Medard Obiang Ebanega, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
Crop raiding, forest elephant, Gabon, GPS tracking, human–wildlife conflict, Loxodonta cyclotis, perceptions, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution, QH1-199.5
Abstract

Feeding by Critically Endangered forest elephants Loxodonta cyclotis in rural plantations is a conservation issue in Gabon, but studies characterizing drivers of spatiotemporal patterns of human–elephant interactions remain sparse, hindering mitigation. In this study, we use GPS tracking data from two elephants to characterize temporal patterns of village visitation, and surveys of 101 local farmers across seven villages to determine local patterns of crop planting and harvesting and of human–elephant interactions. Local farmers' perceptions of elephant visitations and empirical data on such visits were positively correlated with local crop availability. However, considering the two elephants separately revealed that the correlations were driven by just one individual, with the second elephant showing weak links between crop availability and visitation, highlighting the challenges in reliably predicting human–wildlife interactions. The most popular local perceptions of the drivers of elephant visitation were the presence of crops (53% of responses) and logging (39%). The most popular proposed interventions were letting the government find a solution (32%), killing problem elephants (30%) and providing compensation for lost crops (22%). We discuss the potential feasibility and efficacy of the proposed solutions in the context of human–elephant interactions. Future research efforts should focus on collaring elephants in zones with high potential for negative human–elephant interaction and expanding perception surveys to villages with contrasting ecological contexts (e.g. with and without logging in their surrounding forests), as these could influence local perceptions of conflicts and conservation initiatives.

Published
2024
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2. Disturbance sensitivity shapes patterns of tree species distribution in Afrotropical lowland rainforests more than climate or soil

Author

Chase L. Núñez, James S. Clark, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
Anthropocene, biodiversity, climate change, joint species distribution modeling, plant traits, tropical forest, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

Abstract Understanding how tropical forests respond to abiotic environmental changes is critical for preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and maintaining ecosystem services in the coming century. To evaluate the relative roles of the abiotic environment and human disturbance on Central African tree community composition, we employ tree inventory data, remotely sensed climatic data, and soil nutrient data collected from 30 1‐ha plots distributed across a large‐scale observational experiment in forests that had been differently impacted by logging and hunting in northern Republic of Congo. We show that the composition of Afrotropical plant communities at this scale responds to human disturbance more than to climate, with particular sensitivities to hunting and distance to the nearest village (a proxy for other human activities, including tree‐cutting and gathering). These findings contrast neotropical predictions, highlighting the unique ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic history of Afrotropical forests.

Published
2024
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3. Fluid hunter motivation in Central Africa: Effects on behaviour, bushmeat and income

Author

Graden Z. L. Froese, Alex Ebang Mbélé, Christopher Beirne, Blaise Bazza, Sylvain Dzime N’noh, Jovin Ebeba, Jocelin Edzidzie, Serge Ekazama Koto, Jonas Landry Metandou, Clotaire Mossindji, Irma Ngoboutseboue, Eric Nzemfoule, Daniel J. Ingram, Christopher Krapu, Abhishek Baral, Srishti Saha, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
common‐pool resource, community hunting management, Gabon, human ecology, paraecology, rural livelihoods, Human ecology. Anthropogeography, GF1-900, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

Abstract Individual motivation for the rural use of common‐pool resources (CPRs) can be fluid, with the line between subsistence and commercial often unclear and in flux. Implications of fluid motivation are understudied yet important for social–ecological systems (SESs), such as bushmeat hunting throughout Central Africa that is essential to local protein/nutrition, income and culture. Making locally informative predictions of multiple SESs nested within a landscape‐scale SES has been historically difficult, but community‐driven participatory approaches provide new kinds and quantities of data, opening previously inaccessible doors for research and governance. We apply hierarchical Bayesian structural equation modelling to a novel dataset of 910 hunts from 111 gun and trap hunters across nine villages in Gabon, generated in a participatory process whereby hunters conducted GPS self‐follows in conjunction with paraecologist surveys of their motivation, behaviour and offtake. We (i) establish the human behaviour driving gun‐hunting and trapping success and predict its effect on offtake across villages and (ii) link fluid motivation of gun hunters to their behaviour, number of animals hunted, biomass yielded and income earned. Gun hunts across villages yielded more animals during the night than the day, and when hunters brought high amounts of ammunition and walked far distances from villages. Gun hunts were less successful when coupled with trapping while per‐hunt success of trapping itself was generally low and difficult to predict. Fluid gun hunters hunted fewer animals when motivated strictly by subsistence, despite no reduction in ammunition brought or distance walked, while offtake from strictly commercial versus mixed motivation was the same. Numbers of animals hunted, biomass and income were tightly linked. We discuss the implications of these results for the ecological sustainability of hunting and participatory forecasting in bushmeat research and policy. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Published
2023
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4. Wild mockingbirds distinguish among familiar humans

Author

Douglas J. Levey, John R. Poulsen, Andrew P. Schaeffer, Michelle E. Deochand, Jessica A. Oswald, Scott K. Robinson, and Gustavo A. Londoño

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Abstract Although individuals of some species appear able to distinguish among individuals of a second species, an alternative explanation is that individuals of the first species may simply be distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar individuals of the second species. In that case, they would not be learning unique characteristics of any given heterospecific, as commonly assumed. Here we show that female Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) can quickly learn to distinguish among different familiar humans, flushing sooner from their nest when approached by people who pose increasingly greater threats. These results demonstrate that a common small songbird has surprising cognitive abilities, which likely facilitated its widespread success in human-dominated habitats. More generally, urban wildlife may be more perceptive of differences among humans than previously imagined.

Published
2023
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5. African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior

Author

Christopher Beirne, Thomas M. Houslay, Peter Morkel, Connie J. Clark, Mike Fay, Joseph Okouyi, Lee J. T. White, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Abstract The critically endangered African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a vital role in maintaining the structure and composition of Afrotropical forests, but basic information is lacking regarding the drivers of elephant movement and behavior at landscape scales. We use GPS location data from 96 individuals throughout Gabon to determine how five movement behaviors vary at different scales, how they are influenced by anthropogenic and environmental covariates, and to assess evidence for behavioral syndromes—elephants which share suites of similar movement traits. Elephants show some evidence of behavioral syndromes along an ‘idler’ to ‘explorer’ axis—individuals that move more have larger home ranges and engage in more ‘exploratory’ movements. However, within these groups, forest elephants express remarkable inter-individual variation in movement behaviours. This variation highlights that no two elephants are the same and creates challenges for practitioners aiming to design conservation initiatives.

Published
2021
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6. Distinct Community-Wide Responses to Forecasted Climate Change in Afrotropical Forests

Author

Chase L. Núñez, John R. Poulsen, Lee J. T. White, Vincent Medjibe, and James S. Clark

Subjects
afrotropics, Gabon, joint attribute modeling, biodiversity, community, Evolution, QH359-425, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

More refined knowledge of how tropical forests respond to changes in the abiotic environment is necessary to mitigate climate change, maintain biodiversity, and preserve ecosystem services. To evaluate the unique response of diverse Afrotropical forest communities to disturbances in the abiotic environment, we employ country-wide tree species inventories, remotely sensed climate data, and future climate predictions collected from 104 1-ha plots in the central African country of Gabon. We predict a 3–8% decrease in Afrotropical forest species richness by the end of the century, in contrast to the 30–50% loss of plant diversity predicted to occur with equivalent warming in the Neotropics. This work reveals that forecasts of community species composition are not generalizable across regions, and more representative studies are needed in understudied diverse biomes. This study serves as an important counterpoint to work done in the Neotropics by providing contrasting predictions for Afrotropical forests with substantially different ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic histories.

Published
2022
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7. Long Distance Seed Dispersal by Forest Elephants

Author

John R. Poulsen, Christopher Beirne, Colin Rundel, Melissa Baldino, Seokmin Kim, Julia Knorr, Taylor Minich, Lingrong Jin, Chase L. Núñez, Shuyun Xiao, Walter Mbamy, Guichard Ndzeng Obiang, Juliana Masseloux, Tanguy Nkoghe, Médard Obiang Ebanega, Connie J. Clark, Michael J. Fay, Pete Morkel, Joseph Okouyi, Lee J. T. White, and Justin P. Wright

Subjects
seed dispersal, elephant, tropical forest, animal movement, central Africa, gut passage time, Evolution, QH359-425, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

By dispersing seeds long distances, large, fruit-eating animals influence plant population spread and community dynamics. After fruit consumption, animal gut passage time and movement determine seed dispersal patterns and distances. These, in turn, are influenced by extrinsic, environmental variables and intrinsic, individual-level variables. We simulated seed dispersal by forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) by integrating gut passage data from wild elephants with movement data from 96 individuals. On average, elephants dispersed seeds 5.3 km, with 89% of seeds dispersed farther than 1 km. The longest simulated seed dispersal distance was 101 km, with an average maximum dispersal distance of 40.1 km. Seed dispersal distances varied among national parks, perhaps due to unmeasured environmental differences such as habitat heterogeneity and configuration, but not with human disturbance or habitat openness. On average, male elephants dispersed seeds farther than females. Elephant behavioral traits strongly influenced dispersal distances, with bold, exploratory elephants dispersing seeds 1.1 km farther than shy, idler elephants. Protection of forest elephants, particularly males and highly mobile, exploratory individuals, is critical to maintaining long distance seed dispersal services that shape plant communities and tropical forest habitat.

Published
2021
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8. Using Model Analysis to Unveil Hidden Patterns in Tropical Forest Structures

Author

Nicolas Picard, Frédéric Mortier, Pierre Ploton, Jingjing Liang, Géraldine Derroire, Jean-François Bastin, Narayanan Ayyappan, Fabrice Bénédet, Faustin Boyemba Bosela, Connie J. Clark, Thomas W. Crowther, Nestor Laurier Engone Obiang, Éric Forni, David Harris, Alfred Ngomanda, John R. Poulsen, Bonaventure Sonké, Pierre Couteron, and Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury

Subjects
forest structure, forest typology, null model, pattern and process, rain forest, correlation, Evolution, QH359-425, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

When ordinating plots of tropical rain forests using stand-level structural attributes such as biomass, basal area and the number of trees in different size classes, two patterns often emerge: a gradient from poorly to highly stocked plots and high positive correlations between biomass, basal area and the number of large trees. These patterns are inherited from the demographics (growth, mortality and recruitment) and size allometry of trees and tend to obscure other patterns, such as site differences among plots, that would be more informative for inferring ecological processes. Using data from 133 rain forest plots at nine sites for which site differences are known, we aimed to filter out these patterns in forest structural attributes to unveil a hidden pattern. Using a null model framework, we generated the anticipated pattern inherited from individual allometric patterns. We then evaluated deviations between the data (observations) and predictions of the null model. Ordination of the deviations revealed site differences that were not evident in the ordination of observations. These sites differences could be related to different histories of large-scale forest disturbance. By filtering out patterns inherited from individuals, our model analysis provides more information on ecological processes.

Published
2021
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9. Climatic and Resource Determinants of Forest Elephant Movements

Author

Christopher Beirne, Amelia C. Meier, Gabriela Brumagin, Liam Jasperse-Sjolander, Matthew Lewis, Juliana Masseloux, Kimberly Myers, Mike Fay, Joseph Okouyi, Lee J. T. White, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
behavior, path segmentation, resource availability, human-elephant conflict, individual variation, Evolution, QH359-425, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

As a keystone megafaunal species, African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) influence the structure and composition of tropical forests. Determining the links between food resources, environmental conditions and elephant movement behavior is crucial to understanding their habitat requirements and their effects on the ecosystem, particularly in the face of poaching and global change. We investigate whether fruit abundance or climate most strongly influence forest elephant movement behavior at the landscape scale in Gabon. Trained teams of “elephant trackers” performed daily fruit availability and dietary composition surveys over a year within two relatively pristine and intact protected areas. With data from 100 in-depth field follows of 28 satellite-collared elephants and remotely sensed environmental layers, we use linear mixed-effects models to assess the effects of sites, seasons, focal elephant identification, elephant diet, and fruit availability on elephant movement behavior at monthly and 3-day time scales. At the month-level, rainfall, and to a lesser extent fruit availability, most strongly predicted the proportion of time elephants spent in long, directionally persistent movements. Thus, even elephants in moist tropical rainforests show seasonal behavioral phenotypes linked to rainfall. At the follow-level (2–4 day intervals), relative support for both rainfall and fruit availability decreased markedly, suggesting that at finer spatial scales forest elephants make foraging decisions largely based on other factors not directly assessed here. Focal elephant identity explained the majority of the variance in the data, and there was strong support for interindividual variation in behavioral responses to rainfall. Taken together, this highlights the importance of approaches which follow individuals through space and time. The links between climate, resource availability and movement behavior provide important insights into the behavioral ecology of forest elephants that can contribute to understanding their role as seed dispersers, improving management of populations, and informing development of solutions to human-elephant conflict.

Published
2020
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10. Stronger together: comparing and integrating camera trap, visual, and dung survey data in tropical forest communities

Author

Chase L. Nuñez, Graden Froese, Amelia C. Meier, Chris Beirne, Johanna Depenthal, Seokmin Kim, Alex Ebang Mbélé, Anna Nordseth, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
data fusion, joint species distribution modeling, population estimation, survey comparison, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

Abstract Accurate estimations of animal populations are necessary for management, conservation, and policy decisions. However, methods for surveying animal communities disproportionately represent specific groups or guilds. For example, transect surveys can provide robust data for large arboreal species but underestimate cryptic or small‐bodied terrestrial species, whereas camera traps have the inverse tendency. The integration of information from multiple methodologies would provide the most complete inference on population size or responses to putative covariates, yet a simple, robust framework that allows integration and comparison of multiple data sources has been lacking. We use 27,813 counts of 35 species or species groups derived from concurrent visual transects, dung transects, and camera trap surveys in tropical forests and compare them within a generalized joint attribute modeling framework (GJAM) that both compares and integrates field‐collected dung, visual, and camera trap data to quantify the species‐ and trait‐specific differences in detection for each method. The effectiveness of survey method was strongly dependent on species, as well as animal traits. These differences in effectiveness contributed to meaningful differences in the reported strength of a known important covariate for animal communities (distance to nearest village). Data fusion through GJAM allows clear and unambiguous comparisons of the counts provided from each different methodology, the incorporation of trait information, and fusion of all three data streams to generate a more complete estimate of the effects of an anthropogenic disturbance covariate. Research and conservation resources are extremely limited, which often means that field campaigns attempt to maximize the amount of information gathered especially in remote, hard‐to‐access areas. Advances in these understudied areas will be accelerated by analytical methods that can fully leverage the total body of diverse biodiversity field data, even when they are collected using different methods. We demonstrate that survey methods vary in their effectiveness for counting species based on biological traits, but more importantly that generative models like GJAM can integrate data from multiple sources in one cohesive statistical framework to make improved inference in understudied environments.

Published
2019
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11. A pantropical assessment of vertebrate physical damage to forest seedlings and the effects of defaunation

Author

Cooper Rosin, John R. Poulsen, Varun Swamy, and Alys Granados

Subjects
Defaunation, Hunting, Logging, Plant–animal interactions, Trampling, Tropical forest, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

Many of the forces that shape tropical forest plant communities are facilitated by interactions with animals, which can either promote or inhibit plant reproduction and survival across ontogenetic stages. Hunting-induced defaunation can disrupt these interactions, altering tree recruitment, forest structure, and carbon storage, with strong effects at the seed and seedling stages. Research to date has largely focused on how changes to prominent interactions (especially seed dispersal) affect plant species and communities, while concurrent disruptions to less-studied processes may have opposing effects. With a particularly limited understanding of non-trophic interactions – such as physical damage to seedlings by vertebrate trampling, rooting, and digging – it remains difficult to predict the outcomes of defaunation for tropical forest plant communities. We established 1800 artificial seedlings in 18 intact and disturbed sites across the three main tropical forest regions – the Neotropics (Peru), the Afrotropics (Gabon) and the Indo-Malayan tropics (Malaysian Borneo) – to isolate non-trophic vertebrate physical damage from other causes of seedling mortality (herbivory, pathogens, abiotic desiccation, etc.), and to understand its effects in intact and anthropogenically-disturbed forests. We found that vertebrate physical damage is a consistent force in forests across the tropics, and that hunting significantly alters its strength, with a ∼70% decrease in damage in hunted vs. intact sites that resulted in a ∼3.5-fold (350%) increase in artificial seedling survival. Our results reveal an understudied mechanism that may contribute to changes in seedling survival, stem density, and plant community composition in tropical forests subjected to hunting.

Published
2017
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12. Unsustainable vs. Sustainable Hunting for Food in Gabon: Modeling Short- and Long-Term Gains and Losses

Author

David S. Wilkie, Michelle Wieland, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
bushmeat, hunting, unsustainable, protein deficit, simulation, Evolution, QH359-425, Ecology, QH540-549.5
Abstract

Today, rural people continue to consume wild animals (aquatic and terrestrial) because they are often cheaper and more available than farmed livestock and fish. In many places where the meat from wild animals is an important source of food and income for poor rural families, the capture, consumption or trade of wild animals is illegal and remains within the informal sector and outside of national accounting and regulatory systems. Few studies exist to help policy makers and wildlife managers develop and implement systems designed to halt unsustainable hunting, prevent species loss, and maintain, over the long term, flows of wildlife available to people as a source of food and income. This paper uses empirical data from a tropical forest area in Gabon within a heuristic simulation model to explore how hunter capture rates would need to change over time to halt unsustainable hunting and to maximize the nutritional and economic value of wildlife as a source of food and income over the long term. Results show that sustainable hunting of wildlife populations that are at or near 50% of carrying capacity (0.5 K) generates more biomass available for consumption and income generation over 25 years than either hunting to maintain current population densities or continuing to hunt unsustainably. Unsustainable hunting generates more biomass than sustainable hunting but only for the first 1 to 3 years after which offtake dwindles rapidly. Achieving sustainable hunting will require that hunters reduce their offtake for 3–13 years until depleted populations recover, which may be unlikely unless they have access to alternative sources of food and income.

Published
2019
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13. Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence

Author

Tong Qiu, Marie-Claire Aravena, Robert Andrus, Davide Ascoli, Yves Bergeron, Roberta Berretti, Michal Bogdziewicz, Thomas Boivin, Raul Bonal, Thomas Caignard, Rafael Calama, J. Julio Camarero, Connie J. Clark, Benoit Courbaud, Sylvain Delzon, Sergio Donoso Calderon, William Farfan-Rios, Catherine A. Gehring, Gregory S. Gilbert, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Qinfeng Guo, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Ines Ibanez, Valentin Journé, Christopher L. Kilner, Richard K. Kobe, Walter D. Koenig, Georges Kunstler, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Mateusz Ledwon, James A. Lutz, Renzo Motta, Jonathan A. Myers, Thomas A. Nagel, Chase L. Nuñez, Ian S. Pearse, Łukasz Piechnik, John R. Poulsen, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Miranda D. Redmond, Chantal D. Reid, Kyle C. Rodman, C. Lane Scher, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Barbara Seget, Shubhi Sharma, Miles Silman, Jennifer J. Swenson, Margaret Swift, Maria Uriarte, Giorgio Vacchiano, Thomas T. Veblen, Amy V. Whipple, Thomas G. Whitham, Andreas P. Wion, S. Joseph Wright, Kai Zhu, Jess K. Zimmerman, Magdalena Żywiec, and James S. Clark

Published
2021
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14. The NASA AfriSAR Campaign: Airborne SAR and Lidar Measurements of Tropical Forest Structure and Biomass in Support of Current and Future Space Missions

Author

Temilola Fatoyinbo, John Armston, Marc Simard, Sassan Saatchi, Michael Denbina, Marco Lavalle, Michelle Hofton, Hao Tang, Suzanne Marselis, Naiara Pinto, Steven Hancock, Brian Hawkins, Laura Duncanson, Bryan Blair, Christy Hansen, Yunling Lou, Ralph Dubayah, Scott Hensley, Carlos Silva, John R Poulsen, Nicolas Labrière, Nicolas Barbier, Kathryn Jeffery, David Kenfack, Herve Memiaghe, Pulcherie Bissengou, Alfonso Alonso, Ghislain Moussavou, Lee T. J. White, Simon Lewis, and Kathleen Hibbard

Subjects
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Abstract

In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcoming ESA BIOMASS, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Initiative (GEDI) missions. The NASA contribution to the campaign was conducted in 2016 with the NASA LVIS (Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor) Lidar, the NASA L-band UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar). A central motivation for the AfriSAR deployment was the common AGBD estimation requirement for the three future spaceborne missions, the lack of sufficient airborne and ground calibration data covering the full range of ABGD in tropical forest systems, and the intercomparison and fusion of the technologies. During the campaign, over 7000 km2 of waveform Lidar data from LVIS and 30000 km2 of UAVSAR data were collected over 10 key sites and transects. In addition, field measurements of forest structure and biomass were collected in sixteen 1 hectare sized plots. The campaign produced gridded Lidar canopy structure products, gridded aboveground biomass and associated uncertainties, Lidar based vegetation canopy cover profile products, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR and Tomographic SAR products and field measurements. Our results showcase the types of data products and scientific results expected from the spaceborne Lidar and SAR missions; we also expect that the AfriSAR campaign data will facilitate further analysis and use of waveform Lidar and multiple baseline polarimetric SAR datasets for carbon cycle, biodiversity, water resources and more applications by the greater scientific community.

Published
2021
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15. Coupling paraecology and hunter GPS self‐follows to quantify village bushmeat hunting dynamics across the landscape scale

Author

Graden Z. L. Froese, Alex Ebang Mbélé, Christopher Beirne, Lucie Atsame, Charlottte Bayossa, Blaise Bazza, Martine Bidzime Nkoulou, Sylvain Dzime N'noh, Jovin Ebeba, Jocelin Edzidzie, Serge Ekazama Koto, Serge Imbomba, Edouard Mandomobo Mapio, Hervé Gildas Mandou Mabouanga, Edouard Mba Edang, Jonas Landry Metandou, Clotaire Mossindji, Irma Ngoboutseboue, Christ Nkwele, Eric Nzemfoule, Bonaventure Sala Elie, Aimé‐Placide Sergent, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Published
2022

16. Forest elephant movement and habitat use in a tropical forest-grassland mosaic in Gabon.

Author

Emily C Mills, John R Poulsen, J Michael Fay, Peter Morkel, Connie J Clark, Amelia Meier, Christopher Beirne, and Lee J T White

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Poaching of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) for ivory has decimated their populations in Central Africa. Studying elephant movement can provide insight into habitat and resource use to reveal where, when, and why they move and guide conservation efforts. We fitted 17 forest elephants with global positioning system (GPS) collars in 2015 and 2016 in the tropical forest-grassland mosaic of the Wonga Wongué Presidential Reserve (WW), Gabon. Using the location data, we quantified movement distances, home ranges, and habitat use to examine the environmental drivers of elephant movements and predict where elephants occur spatially and temporally. Forest elephants, on average, traveled 2,840 km annually and had home ranges of 713 km2, with males covering significantly larger home ranges than females. Forest elephants demonstrated both daily and seasonal movement patterns. Daily, they moved between forest and grassland at dawn and dusk. Seasonally, they spent proportionally more time in grassland than forest during the short-wet season when grasses recruit. Forest elephants also traveled faster during the short-wet season when fruit availability was greatest, likely reflecting long, direct movements to preferred fruiting tree species. Forest elephants tended to select areas with high tree and shrub density that afford cover and browse. When villages occurred in their home ranges elephants spent a disproportionate amount of time near them, particularly in the dry season, probably for access to agricultural crops and preferred habitat. Given the importance of the grassland habitat for elephants, maintenance of the forest-grassland matrix is a conservation priority in WW. Law enforcement, outreach, and education should focus on areas of potential human-elephant conflict near villages along the borders of the reserve. GPS-tracking should be extended into multi-use areas in the peripheries of protected areas to evaluate the effects of human disturbance on elephant movements and to maintain connectivity among elephant populations in Gabon.

Published
2018
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17. Author response for 'Evenness mediates the global relationship between forest productivity and richness'

Author

null Iris Hordijk, null Daniel S. Maynard, null Simon P. Hart, null Mo Lidong, null Hans ter Steege, null Jingjing Liang, null Sergio de‐Miguel, null Gert‐Jan Nabuurs, null Peter B. Reich, null Meinrad Abegg, null C. Yves Adou Yao, null Giorgio Alberti, null Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, null Braulio V. Alvarado, null Alvarez‐Davila Esteban, null Patricia Alvarez‐Loayza, null Luciana F. Alves, null Christian Ammer, null Clara Antón‐Fernández, null Alejandro Araujo‐Murakami, null Luzmila Arroyo, null Valerio Avitabile, null Gerardo A. Aymard C, null Timothy Baker, null Radomir Bałazy, null Olaf Banki, null Jorcely Barroso, null Meredith L. Bastian, null Jean‐Francois Bastin, null Luca Birigazzi, null Philippe Birnbaum, null Robert Bitariho, null Pascal Boeckx, null Frans Bongers, null Olivier Bouriaud, null Pedro H. S. Brancalion, null Susanne Brandl, null Roel Brienen, null Eben N. Broadbent, null Helge Bruelheide, null Filippo Bussotti, null Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, null Ricardo G. César, null Goran Cesljar, null Robin Chazdon, null Han Y. H. Chen, null Chelsea Chisholm, null Emil Cienciala, null Connie J. Clark, null David B. Clark, null Gabriel Colletta, null David Coomes, null Fernando Cornejo Valverde, null Jose J. Corral‐Rivas, null Philip Crim, null Jonathan Cumming, null Selvadurai Dayanandan, null André L. de Gasper, null Mathieu Decuyper, null Géraldine Derroire, null Ben DeVries, null Ilija Djordjevic, null Amaral Iêda, null Aurélie Dourdain, null Engone Obiang Nestor Laurier, null Brian Enquist, null Teresa Eyre, null Adandé Belarmain Fandohan, null Tom M. Fayle, null Leandro V. Ferreira, null Ted R. Feldpausch, null Leena Finér, null Markus Fischer, null Christine Fletcher, null Lorenzo Frizzera, null Javier G. P. Gamarra, null Damiano Gianelle, null Henry B. Glick, null David Harris, null Andrew Hector, null Andreas Hemp, null Geerten Hengeveld, null Bruno Hérault, null John Herbohn, null Annika Hillers, null Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado, null Cang Hui, null Hyunkook Cho, null Thomas Ibanez, null Il Bin Jung, null Nobuo Imai, null Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, null Bogdan Jaroszewicz, null Vivian Johanssen, null Carlos A. Joly, null Tommaso Jucker, null Viktor Karminov, null Kuswata Kartawinata, null Elizabeth Kearsley, null David Kenfack, null Deborah Kennard, null Sebastian Kepfer‐Rojas, null Gunnar Keppel, null Mohammed Latif Khan, null Timothy Killeen, null Kim Hyun Seok, null Kanehiro Kitayama, null Michael Köhl, null Henn Korjus, null Florian Kraxner, null Diana Laarmann, null Mait Lang, null Simon Lewis, null Huicui Lu, null Natalia Lukina, null Brian Maitner, null Yadvinder Malhi, null Eric Marcon, null Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, null Ben Hur Marimon‐Junior, null Andrew Robert Marshall, null Emanuel Martin, null Olga Martynenko, null Jorge A. Meave, null Omar Melo‐Cruz, null Casimiro Mendoza, null Cory Merow, null Miscicki Stanislaw, null Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, null Vanessa Moreno, null Sharif A. Mukul, null Philip Mundhenk, null Maria G. Nava‐Miranda, null David Neill, null Victor Neldner, null Radovan Nevenic, null Michael Ngugi, null Pascal A. Niklaus, null Jacek Oleksyn, null Petr Ontikov, null Edgar Ortiz‐Malavasi, null Yude Pan, null Alain Paquette, null Alexander Parada‐Gutierrez, null Elena Parfenova, null Minjee Park, null Marc Parren, null Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, null Pablo L. Peri, null Sebastian Pfautsch, null Oliver L. Phillips, null Nicolas Picard, null Maria Teresa Piedade, null Daniel Piotto, null Nigel C. A. Pitman, null Irina Polo, null Lourens Poorter, null Axel Dalberg Poulsen, null John R. Poulsen, null Hans Pretzsch, null Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, null Zorayda Restrepo‐Correa, null Mirco Rodeghiero, null Samir Rolim, null Anand Roopsind, null Francesco Rovero, null Ervan Rutishauser, null Purabi Saikia, null Christian Salas‐Eljatib, null Peter Schall, null Dmitry Schepaschenko, null Michael Scherer‐Lorenzen, null Bernhard Schmid, null Jochen Schöngart, null Eric B. Searle, null Vladimír Šebeň, null Josep M. Serra‐Diaz, null Douglas Sheil, null Anatoly Shvidenko, null Javier Silva‐Espejo, null Marcos Silveira, null James Singh, null Plinio Sist, null Ferry Slik, null Bonaventure Sonké, null Alexandre F. Souza, null Krzysztof Stereńczak, null Jens‐Christian Svenning, null Miroslav Svoboda, null Ben Swanepoel, null Natalia Targhetta, null Nadja Tchebakova, null Raquel Thomas, null Elena Tikhonova, null Peter Umunay, null Vladimir Usoltsev, null Renato Valencia, null Fernando Valladares, null Fons van der Plas, null Do Van Tran, null Michael E. Van Nuland, null Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, null Hans Verbeeck, null Helder Viana, null Alexander C. Vibrans, null Simone Vieira, null Klaus von Gadow, null Hua‐Feng Wang, null James Watson, null Gijsbert D. A. Werner, null Susan K. Wiser, null Florian Wittmann, null Verginia Wortel, null Roderick Zagt, null Tomasz Zawila‐Niedzwiecki, null Chunyu Zhang, null Xiuhai Zhao, null Mo Zhou, null Zhi‐Xin Zhu, null Irie Casimir Zo‐Bi, and null Thomas W. Crowther

Published
2022

20. Old growth Afrotropical forests critical for maintaining forest carbon

Author

John R. Poulsen, Connie J. Clark, Jean-Louis Doucet, Charles T. Scott, Ludovic Banak‐Ngok, Michelle E. Lee, Lee J. T. White, Sassan Saatchi, Vincent P. Medjibe, Jan Reitsma, Christopher Beirne, Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Zewei Miao, Chase L. Nuñez, Simon L. Lewis, Mathias Disney, and Edward T. A. Mitchard

Subjects
Global and Planetary Change, geography, geography.geographical_feature_category, Ecology, chemistry.chemical_element, Climate change, Central africa, Tropical forest, Old-growth forest, chemistry, Environmental science, Aboveground biomass, Carbon, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Abstract

AimLarge trees [≥ 70 cm diameter at breast height (DBH)] contribute disproportionately to aboveground carbon stock (AGC) across the tropics but may be vulnerable to changing climate and human activities. Here we determine the distribution, drivers and threats to large trees and high carbon forest.LocationCentral Africa.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedTrees.MethodsUsing Gabon's new National Resource Inventory of 104 field sites, AGC was calculated from 67,466 trees from 578 species and 97 genera. Power and Michaelis–Menten models assessed the contribution of large trees to AGC. Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of AGC, large trees, and stand variables were modelled using Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) weights to calculate average regression coefficients for all possible models.ResultsMean AGC for trees ≥ 10 cm DBH in Gabonese forestlands was 141.7 Mg C/ha, with averages of 166.6, 171.3 and 96.6 Mg C/ha in old growth, concession and secondary forest. High carbon forests occurred where large trees are most abundant: 31% of AGC was stored in large trees (2.3% of all stems). Human activities largely drove variation in AGC and large trees, but climate and edaphic conditions also determined stand variables (basal area, tree height, wood density, stem density). AGC and large trees increased with distance from human settlements; AGC was 40% lower in secondary than primary and concession forests and 33% higher in protected than non‐managed areas.Main conclusionsAGC and large trees were negatively associated with human activities, highlighting the importance of forest management. Redefining large trees as ≥ 50 cm DBH (4.3% more stems) would account for 20% more AGC. This study demonstrates that protecting relatively undisturbed forests can be disproportionately effective in conserving carbon and suggests that including sustainable forestry in programs like reduced emissions for deforestation and forest degradation could maintain carbon dense forests in logging concessions that are a large proportion of remaining Central African forests.

Published
2020

22. Aboveground biomass density models for NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar mission

Author

Laura Duncanson, James R. Kellner, John Armston, Ralph Dubayah, David M. Minor, Steven Hancock, Sean P. Healey, Paul L. Patterson, Svetlana Saarela, Suzanne Marselis, Carlos E. Silva, Jamis Bruening, Scott J. Goetz, Hao Tang, Michelle Hofton, Bryan Blair, Scott Luthcke, Lola Fatoyinbo, Katharine Abernethy, Alfonso Alonso, Hans-Erik Andersen, Paul Aplin, Timothy R. Baker, Nicolas Barbier, Jean Francois Bastin, Peter Biber, Pascal Boeckx, Jan Bogaert, Luigi Boschetti, Peter Brehm Boucher, Doreen S. Boyd, David F.R.P. Burslem, Sofia Calvo-Rodriguez, Jérôme Chave, Robin L. Chazdon, David B. Clark, Deborah A. Clark, Warren B. Cohen, David A. Coomes, Piermaria Corona, K.C. Cushman, Mark E.J. Cutler, James W. Dalling, Michele Dalponte, Jonathan Dash, Sergio de-Miguel, Songqiu Deng, Peter Woods Ellis, Barend Erasmus, Patrick A. Fekety, Alfredo Fernandez-Landa, Antonio Ferraz, Rico Fischer, Adrian G. Fisher, Antonio García-Abril, Terje Gobakken, Jorg M. Hacker, Marco Heurich, Ross A. Hill, Chris Hopkinson, Huabing Huang, Stephen P. Hubbell, Andrew T. Hudak, Andreas Huth, Benedikt Imbach, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Masato Katoh, Elizabeth Kearsley, David Kenfack, Natascha Kljun, Nikolai Knapp, Kamil Král, Martin Krůček, Nicolas Labrière, Simon L. Lewis, Marcos Longo, Richard M. Lucas, Russell Main, Jose A. Manzanera, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Renaud Mathieu, Herve Memiaghe, Victoria Meyer, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Alessandra Monerris, Paul Montesano, Felix Morsdorf, Erik Næsset, Laven Naidoo, Reuben Nilus, Michael O’Brien, David A. Orwig, Konstantinos Papathanassiou, Geoffrey Parker, Christopher Philipson, Oliver L. Phillips, Jan Pisek, John R. Poulsen, Hans Pretzsch, Christoph Rüdiger, Sassan Saatchi, Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Nuria Sanchez-Lopez, Robert Scholes, Carlos A. Silva, Marc Simard, Andrew Skidmore, Krzysztof Stereńczak, Mihai Tanase, Chiara Torresan, Ruben Valbuena, Hans Verbeeck, Tomas Vrska, Konrad Wessels, Joanne C. White, Lee J.T. White, Eliakimu Zahabu, Carlo Zgraggen, Department of Natural Resources, UT-I-ITC-FORAGES, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Maryland [College Park], University of Maryland System, Brown University, University of Edinburgh, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech [Gembloux], and Université de Liège

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, CANOPY STRUCTURE, LiDAR, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Soil Science, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, Geological & Geomatics Engineering, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience, CARBON, Remote Sensing, ITC-HYBRID, BOREAL FOREST, HEIGHT, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, Settore BIO/07 - ECOLOGIA, GEDI, Waveform, Forest, Aboveground biomass, Modeling, ddc:630, INVERSION, Computers in Earth Sciences, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, GROUND BIOMASS, Geology, VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400, 15. Life on land, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, REGIONS, ddc, Geomatic Engineering, 13. Climate action, AIRBORNE LIDAR, Earth and Environmental Sciences, ITC-ISI-JOURNAL-ARTICLE, TROPICAL FOREST BIOMASS, cavelab, VEGETATION, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology
Abstract

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is collecting spaceborne full waveform lidar data with a primary science goal of producing accurate estimates of forest aboveground biomass density (AGBD). This paper presents the development of the models used to create GEDI’s footprint-level (~25 m) AGBD (GEDI04_A) product, including a description of the datasets used and the procedure for final model selection. The data used to fit our models are from a compilation of globally distributed spatially and temporally coincident field and airborne lidar datasets, whereby we simulated GEDI-like waveforms from airborne lidar to build a calibration database. We used this database to expand the geographic extent of past waveform lidar studies and divided the globe into four broad strata by Plant Functional Type (PFT) and six geographic regions. GEDI’s waveform-to- biomass models take the form of parametric Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models with simulated Relative Height (RH) metrics as predictor variables. From an exhaustive set of candidate models, we selected the best input predictor variables, and data transformations for each geographic stratum in the GEDI domain to produce a set of comprehensive predictive footprint-level models. We found that model selection frequently favored combinations of RH metrics at the 98th, 90th, 50th, and 10th height above ground-level percentiles (RH98, RH90, RH50, and RH10, respectively), but that inclusion of lower RH metrics (e.g., RH10) did not markedly improve model performance. Second, forced inclusion of RH98 in all models was important and did not degrade model performance, and the best performing models were parsimonious, typically having only 1-3 predictors. Third, stratification by geographic domain (PFT, geographic region) improved model performance in comparison to global models without stratification. Fourth, for the vast majority of strata, the best performing models were fit using square root transformation of field AGBD and/or height metrics. There was considerable variability in model performance across geographic strata, and areas with sparse training data and/or high AGBD values had the poorest performance. These models are used to produce global predictions of AGBD, but will be improved in the future as more and better training data become available.

Published
2022

23. The number of tree species on Earth

Author

Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Peter B. Reich, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Tom Crowther, Cang Hui, Albert Morera, Jean-Francois Bastin, Sergio de-Miguel, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Jens-Christian Svenning, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Cory Merow, Brian Enquist, Maria Kamenetsky, Junho Lee, Jun Zhu, Jinyun Fang, Douglass F. Jacobs, Bryan Pijanowski, Arindam Banerjee, Robert A. Giaquinto, Giorgio Alberti, Angelica Maria Almeyda Zambrano, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard, Radomir Balazy, Chris Baraloto, Jorcely G. Barroso, Meredith L. Bastian, Philippe Birnbaum, Robert Bitariho, Jan Bogaert, Frans Bongers, Olivier Bouriaud, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Francis Q. Brearley, Eben North Broadbent, Filippo Bussotti, Wendeson Castro da Silva, Ricardo Gomes César, Goran Češljar, Víctor Chama Moscoso, Han Y. H. Chen, Emil Cienciala, Connie J. Clark, David A. Coomes, Selvadurai Dayanandan, Mathieu Decuyper, Laura E. Dee, Jhon Del Aguila Pasquel, Géraldine Derroire, Marie Noel Kamdem Djuikouo, Tran Van Do, Jiri Dolezal, Ilija Đ. Đorđević, Julien Engel, Tom M. Fayle, Ted R. Feldpausch, Jonas K. Fridman, David J. Harris, Andreas Hemp, Geerten Hengeveld, Bruno Herault, Martin Herold, Thomas Ibanez, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Vivian Kvist Johannsen, Tommaso Jucker, Ahto Kangur, Victor N. Karminov, Kuswata Kartawinata, Deborah K. Kennard, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Gunnar Keppel, Mohammed Latif Khan, Pramod Kumar Khare, Timothy J. Kileen, Hyun Seok Kim, Henn Korjus, Amit Kumar, Ashwani Kumar, Diana Laarmann, Nicolas Labrière, Mait Lang, Simon L. Lewis, Natalia Lukina, Brian S. Maitner, Yadvinder Malhi, Andrew R. Marshall, Olga V. Martynenko, Abel L. Monteagudo Mendoza, Petr V. Ontikov, Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi, Nadir C. Pallqui Camacho, Alain Paquette, Minjee Park, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Pablo Luis Peri, Pascal Petronelli, Sebastian Pfautsch, Oliver L. Phillips, Nicolas Picard, Daniel Piotto, Lourens Poorter, John R. Poulsen, Hans Pretzsch, Hirma Ramírez-Angulo, Zorayda Restrepo Correa, Mirco Rodeghiero, Rocío Del Pilar Rojas Gonzáles, Samir G. Rolim, Francesco Rovero, Ervan Rutishauser, Purabi Saikia, Christian Salas-Eljatib, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Vladimír Šebeň, Marcos Silveira, Ferry Slik, Bonaventure Sonké, Alexandre F. Souza, Krzysztof Jan Stereńczak, Miroslav Svoboda, Hermann Taedoumg, Nadja Tchebakova, John Terborgh, Elena Tikhonova, Armando Torres-Lezama, Fons van der Plas, Rodolfo Vásquez, Helder Viana, Alexander C. Vibrans, Emilio Vilanova, Vincent A. Vos, Hua-Feng Wang, Bertil Westerlund, Lee J. T. White, Susan K. Wiser, Tomasz Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Lise Zemagho, Zhi-Xin Zhu, Irié C. Zo-Bi, Jingjing Liang, Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto, Reich, Peter B, Gamarra, Javier GP, Crowther, Tom, Keppel, Gunnar, Liang, Jingjing, Cazzolla Gatti R., Reich P.B., Gamarra J.G.P., Crowther T., Hui C., Morera A., Bastin J.-F., de-Miguel S., Nabuurs G.-J., Svenning J.-C., Serra-Diaz J.M., Merow C., Enquist B., Kamenetsky M., Lee J., Zhu J., Fang J., Jacobs D.F., Pijanowski B., Banerjee A., Giaquinto R.A., Alberti G., Almeyda Zambrano A.M., Alvarez-Davila E., Araujo-Murakami A., Avitabile V., Aymard G.A., Balazy R., Baraloto C., Barroso J.G., Bastian M.L., Birnbaum P., Bitariho R., Bogaert J., Bongers F., Bouriaud O., Brancalion P.H.S., Brearley F.Q., Broadbent E.N., Bussotti F., Castro da Silva W., Cesar R.G., Cesljar G., Chama Moscoso V., Chen H.Y.H., Cienciala E., Clark C.J., Coomes D.A., Dayanandan S., Decuyper M., Dee L.E., Del Aguila Pasquel J., Derroire G., Djuikouo M.N.K., Van Do T., Dolezal J., Dordevic I.D., Engel J., Fayle T.M., Feldpausch T.R., Fridman J.K., Harris D.J., Hemp A., Hengeveld G., Herault B., Herold M., Ibanez T., Jagodzinski A.M., Jaroszewicz B., Jeffery K.J., Johannsen V.K., Jucker T., Kangur A., Karminov V.N., Kartawinata K., Kennard D.K., Kepfer-Rojas S., Keppel G., Khan M.L., Khare P.K., Kileen T.J., Kim H.S., Korjus H., Kumar A., Laarmann D., Labriere N., Lang M., Lewis S.L., Lukina N., Maitner B.S., Malhi Y., Marshall A.R., Martynenko O.V., Monteagudo Mendoza A.L., Ontikov P.V., Ortiz-Malavasi E., Pallqui Camacho N.C., Paquette A., Park M., Parthasarathy N., Peri P.L., Petronelli P., Pfautsch S., Phillips O.L., Picard N., Piotto D., Poorter L., Poulsen J.R., Pretzsch H., Ramirez-Angulo H., Restrepo Correa Z., Rodeghiero M., Rojas Gonzales R.D.P., Rolim S.G., Rovero F., Rutishauser E., Saikia P., Salas-Eljatib C., Schepaschenko D., Scherer-Lorenzen M., Seben V., Silveira M., Slik F., Sonke B., Souza A.F., Sterenczak K.J., Svoboda M., Taedoumg H., Tchebakova N., Terborgh J., Tikhonova E., Torres-Lezama A., van der Plas F., Vasquez R., Viana H., Vibrans A.C., Vilanova E., Vos V.A., Wang H.-F., Westerlund B., White L.J.T., Wiser S.K., Zawila-Niedzwiecki T., Zemagho L., Zhu Z.-X., Zo-Bi I.C., Liang J., Purdue University [West Lafayette], University of Wisconsin-Madison, FAO Forestry, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Rome, Italie] (FAO), SILVA (SILVA), AgroParisTech-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Département Systèmes Biologiques (Cirad-BIOS), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Nouvelle-Calédonie]), Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto [0000-0001-5130-8492], Reich, Peter B [0000-0003-4424-662X], Hui, Cang [0000-0002-3660-8160], Morera, Albert [0000-0002-6777-169X], de-Miguel, Sergio [0000-0002-9738-0657], Svenning, Jens-Christian [0000-0002-3415-0862], Serra-Diaz, Josep M [0000-0003-1988-1154], Alberti, Giorgio [0000-0003-2422-3009], Bongers, Frans [0000-0002-8431-6189], Bouriaud, Olivier [0000-0002-8046-466X], Brancalion, Pedro HS [0000-0001-8245-4062], César, Ricardo Gomes [0000-0002-3392-8089], Chen, Han YH [0000-0001-9477-5541], Cienciala, Emil [0000-0002-1254-4254], Coomes, David [0000-0002-8261-2582], Djuikouo, Marie Noel Kamdem [0000-0003-0064-5151], Van Do, Tran [0000-0001-9059-5842], Feldpausch, Ted R [0000-0002-6631-7962], Jaroszewicz, Bogdan [0000-0002-2042-8245], Jeffery, Kathryn J [0000-0002-2632-0008], Kennard, Deborah K [0000-0003-4842-8260], Kim, Hyun Seok [0000-0002-3440-6071], Labrière, Nicolas [0000-0002-8037-2001], Maitner, Brian S [0000-0002-2118-9880], Malhi, Yadvinder [0000-0002-3503-4783], Peri, Pablo Luis [0000-0002-5398-4408], Phillips, Oliver L [0000-0002-8993-6168], Poorter, Lourens [0000-0003-1391-4875], Poulsen, John R [0000-0002-1532-9808], Salas-Eljatib, Christian [0000-0002-8468-0829], Schepaschenko, Dmitry [0000-0002-7814-4990], Silveira, Marcos [0000-0003-0485-7872], Slik, Ferry [0000-0003-3988-7019], Sonké, Bonaventure [0000-0002-4310-3603], Terborgh, John [0000-0003-1853-8311], Wiser, Susan K [0000-0002-8938-8181], Liang, Jingjing [0000-0001-9439-9320], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, and Coomes, David A [0000-0002-8261-2582]

Subjects
Cambios Antropogénicos, Richness, SAMPLE, Earth, Planet, Rarity, Bos- en Landschapsecologie, DIVERSITY, Forests, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, Trees, forest, Bioma, Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, Biome, espèce (taxon), HETEROGENEITY, Forest and Landscape Ecology, Forest Biodiversity, hyperdominance, Riqueza de Especies, Ecosystem Services, biodiversity, forests, hyperdominance, rarity, richness, biodiversity, Multidisciplinary, Hyperdominance, Overall Scale, F70 - Taxonomie végétale et phytogéographie, Biodiversity, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, Écologie des populations, PE&RC, COVERAGE, Boscos i silvicultura, Biometris, Forest Ecosystems, ABUNDANCE, Anthropogenic Changes, Vegetatie, Bos- en Landschapsecologie, Biodiversité, леса, Conservation of Natural Resources, F40 - Écologie végétale, Servicios de los Ecosistemas, Vulnerability, ECOLOGIA DE POPULAÇÕES, Arbre, ECOLOGY, Biodiversidad, forests, rarity, richness, Ecosistemas Forestales, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, COMPLETENESS, Árboles, Settore BIO/07 - ECOLOGIA, Richness Species, Bosecologie en Bosbeheer, Laboratorium voor Geo-informatiekunde en Remote Sensing, K70 - Dégâts causés aux forêts et leur protection, Biodiversidad Forestal, Escala Global, Vegetatie, деревья, Vegetation, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, biodiversité forestière, биоразнообразие, PATTERNS, Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, Vulnerabilidad
Abstract

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (6), ISSN:0027-8424, ISSN:1091-6490

Published
2022

24. Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients

Author

Jingjing Liang, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Nicolas Picard, Mo Zhou, Bryan Pijanowski, Douglass F. Jacobs, Peter B. Reich, Thomas W. Crowther, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Sergio de-Miguel, Jingyun Fang, Christopher W. Woodall, Jens-Christian Svenning, Tommaso Jucker, Jean-Francois Bastin, Susan K. Wiser, Ferry Slik, Bruno Hérault, Giorgio Alberti, Gunnar Keppel, Geerten M. Hengeveld, Pierre L. Ibisch, Carlos A. Silva, Hans ter Steege, Pablo L. Peri, David A. Coomes, Eric B. Searle, Klaus von Gadow, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Akane O. Abbasi, Meinrad Abegg, Yves C. Adou Yao, Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Jan Altman, Esteban Alvarez-Dávila, Juan Gabriel Álvarez-González, Luciana F. Alves, Bienvenu H. K. Amani, Christian A. Amani, Christian Ammer, Bhely Angoboy Ilondea, Clara Antón-Fernández, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard, Akomian F. Azihou, Johan A. Baard, Timothy R. Baker, Radomir Balazy, Meredith L. Bastian, Rodrigue Batumike, Marijn Bauters, Hans Beeckman, Nithanel Mikael Hendrik Benu, Robert Bitariho, Pascal Boeckx, Jan Bogaert, Frans Bongers, Olivier Bouriaud, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Susanne Brandl, Francis Q. Brearley, Jaime Briseno-Reyes, Eben N. Broadbent, Helge Bruelheide, Erwin Bulte, Ann Christine Catlin, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Ricardo G. César, Han Y. H. Chen, Chelsea Chisholm, Emil Cienciala, Gabriel D. Colletta, José Javier Corral-Rivas, Anibal Cuchietti, Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Javid A. Dar, Selvadurai Dayanandan, Thales de Haulleville, Mathieu Decuyper, Sylvain Delabye, Géraldine Derroire, Ben DeVries, John Diisi, Tran Van Do, Jiri Dolezal, Aurélie Dourdain, Graham P. Durrheim, Nestor Laurier Engone Obiang, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Teresa J. Eyre, Tom M. Fayle, Lethicia Flavine N. Feunang, Leena Finér, Markus Fischer, Jonas Fridman, Lorenzo Frizzera, André L. de Gasper, Damiano Gianelle, Henry B. Glick, Maria Socorro Gonzalez-Elizondo, Lev Gorenstein, Richard Habonayo, Olivier J. Hardy, David J. Harris, Andrew Hector, Andreas Hemp, Martin Herold, Annika Hillers, Wannes Hubau, Thomas Ibanez, Nobuo Imai, Gerard Imani, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Stepan Janecek, Vivian Kvist Johannsen, Carlos A. Joly, Blaise Jumbam, Banoho L. P. R. Kabelong, Goytom Abraha Kahsay, Viktor Karminov, Kuswata Kartawinata, Justin N. Kassi, Elizabeth Kearsley, Deborah K. Kennard, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Mohammed Latif Khan, John N. Kigomo, Hyun Seok Kim, Carine Klauberg, Yannick Klomberg, Henn Korjus, Subashree Kothandaraman, Florian Kraxner, Amit Kumar, Relawan Kuswandi, Mait Lang, Michael J. Lawes, Rodrigo V. Leite, Geoffrey Lentner, Simon L. Lewis, Moses B. Libalah, Janvier Lisingo, Pablito Marcelo López-Serrano, Huicui Lu, Natalia V. Lukina, Anne Mette Lykke, Vincent Maicher, Brian S. Maitner, Eric Marcon, Andrew R. Marshall, Emanuel H. Martin, Olga Martynenko, Faustin M. Mbayu, Musingo T. E. Mbuvi, Jorge A. Meave, Cory Merow, Stanislaw Miscicki, Vanessa S. Moreno, Albert Morera, Sharif A. Mukul, Jörg C. Müller, Agustinus Murdjoko, Maria Guadalupe Nava-Miranda, Litonga Elias Ndive, Victor J. Neldner, Radovan V. Nevenic, Louis N. Nforbelie, Michael L. Ngoh, Anny E. N’Guessan, Michael R. Ngugi, Alain S. K. Ngute, Emile Narcisse N. Njila, Melanie C. Nyako, Thomas O. Ochuodho, Jacek Oleksyn, Alain Paquette, Elena I. Parfenova, Minjee Park, Marc Parren, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Sebastian Pfautsch, Oliver L. Phillips, Maria T. F. Piedade, Daniel Piotto, Martina Pollastrini, Lourens Poorter, John R. Poulsen, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, Hans Pretzsch, Mirco Rodeghiero, Samir G. Rolim, Francesco Rovero, Ervan Rutishauser, Khosro Sagheb-Talebi, Purabi Saikia, Moses Nsanyi Sainge, Christian Salas-Eljatib, Antonello Salis, Peter Schall, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Bernhard Schmid, Jochen Schöngart, Vladimír Šebeň, Giacomo Sellan, Federico Selvi, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Douglas Sheil, Anatoly Z. Shvidenko, Plinio Sist, Alexandre F. Souza, Krzysztof J. Stereńczak, Martin J. P. Sullivan, Somaiah Sundarapandian, Miroslav Svoboda, Mike D. Swaine, Natalia Targhetta, Nadja Tchebakova, Liam A. Trethowan, Robert Tropek, John Tshibamba Mukendi, Peter Mbanda Umunay, Vladimir A. Usoltsev, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Riccardo Valentini, Fernando Valladares, Fons van der Plas, Daniel José Vega-Nieva, Hans Verbeeck, Helder Viana, Alexander C. Vibrans, Simone A. Vieira, Jason Vleminckx, Catherine E. Waite, Hua-Feng Wang, Eric Katembo Wasingya, Chemuku Wekesa, Bertil Westerlund, Florian Wittmann, Verginia Wortel, Tomasz Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Chunyu Zhang, Xiuhai Zhao, Jun Zhu, Xiao Zhu, Zhi-Xin Zhu, Irie C. Zo-Bi, Cang Hui, Liang, Jingjing, Gamarra, Javier GP, Picard, Nicolas, Zhou, Mo, Keppel, Gunnar, Hui, Cang, Liang J., Gamarra J.G.P., Picard N., Zhou M., Pijanowski B., Jacobs D.F., Reich P.B., Crowther T.W., Nabuurs G.-J., de-Miguel S., Fang J., Woodall C.W., Svenning J.-C., Jucker T., Bastin J.-F., Wiser S.K., Slik F., Herault B., Alberti G., Keppel G., Hengeveld G.M., Ibisch P.L., Silva C.A., ter Steege H., Peri P.L., Coomes D.A., Searle E.B., von Gadow K., Jaroszewicz B., Abbasi A.O., Abegg M., Yao Y.C.A., Aguirre-Gutierrez J., Zambrano A.M.A., Altman J., Alvarez-Davila E., Alvarez-Gonzalez J.G., Alves L.F., Amani B.H.K., Amani C.A., Ammer C., Ilondea B.A., Anton-Fernandez C., Avitabile V., Aymard G.A., Azihou A.F., Baard J.A., Baker T.R., Balazy R., Bastian M.L., Batumike R., Bauters M., Beeckman H., Benu N.M.H., Bitariho R., Boeckx P., Bogaert J., Bongers F., Bouriaud O., Brancalion P.H.S., Brandl S., Brearley F.Q., Briseno-Reyes J., Broadbent E.N., Bruelheide H., Bulte E., Catlin A.C., Cazzolla Gatti R., Cesar R.G., Chen H.Y.H., Chisholm C., Cienciala E., Colletta G.D., Corral-Rivas J.J., Cuchietti A., Cuni-Sanchez A., Dar J.A., Dayanandan S., de Haulleville T., Decuyper M., Delabye S., Derroire G., DeVries B., Diisi J., Do T.V., Dolezal J., Dourdain A., Durrheim G.P., Obiang N.L.E., Ewango C.E.N., Eyre T.J., Fayle T.M., Feunang L.F.N., Finer L., Fischer M., Fridman J., Frizzera L., de Gasper A.L., Gianelle D., Glick H.B., Gonzalez-Elizondo M.S., Gorenstein L., Habonayo R., Hardy O.J., Harris D.J., Hector A., Hemp A., Herold M., Hillers A., Hubau W., Ibanez T., Imai N., Imani G., Jagodzinski A.M., Janecek S., Johannsen V.K., Joly C.A., Jumbam B., Kabelong B.L.P.R., Kahsay G.A., Karminov V., Kartawinata K., Kassi J.N., Kearsley E., Kennard D.K., Kepfer-Rojas S., Khan M.L., Kigomo J.N., Kim H.S., Klauberg C., Klomberg Y., Korjus H., Kothandaraman S., Kraxner F., Kumar A., Kuswandi R., Lang M., Lawes M.J., Leite R.V., Lentner G., Lewis S.L., Libalah M.B., Lisingo J., Lopez-Serrano P.M., Lu H., Lukina N.V., Lykke A.M., Maicher V., Maitner B.S., Marcon E., Marshall A.R., Martin E.H., Martynenko O., Mbayu F.M., Mbuvi M.T.E., Meave J.A., Merow C., Miscicki S., Moreno V.S., Morera A., Mukul S.A., Muller J.C., Murdjoko A., Nava-Miranda M.G., Ndive L.E., Neldner V.J., Nevenic R.V., Nforbelie L.N., Ngoh M.L., N'Guessan A.E., Ngugi M.R., Ngute A.S.K., Njila E.N.N., Nyako M.C., Ochuodho T.O., Oleksyn J., Paquette A., Parfenova E.I., Park M., Parren M., Parthasarathy N., Pfautsch S., Phillips O.L., Piedade M.T.F., Piotto D., Pollastrini M., Poorter L., Poulsen J.R., Poulsen A.D., Pretzsch H., Rodeghiero M., Rolim S.G., Rovero F., Rutishauser E., Sagheb-Talebi K., Saikia P., Sainge M.N., Salas-Eljatib C., Salis A., Schall P., Schepaschenko D., Scherer-Lorenzen M., Schmid B., Schongart J., Seben V., Sellan G., Selvi F., Serra-Diaz J.M., Sheil D., Shvidenko A.Z., Sist P., Souza A.F., Sterenczak K.J., Sullivan M.J.P., Sundarapandian S., Svoboda M., Swaine M.D., Targhetta N., Tchebakova N., Trethowan L.A., Tropek R., Mukendi J.T., Umunay P.M., Usoltsev V.A., Vaglio Laurin G., Valentini R., Valladares F., van der Plas F., Vega-Nieva D.J., Verbeeck H., Viana H., Vibrans A.C., Vieira S.A., Vleminckx J., Waite C.E., Wang H.-F., Wasingya E.K., Wekesa C., Westerlund B., Wittmann F., Wortel V., Zawila-Niedzwiecki T., Zhang C., Zhao X., Zhu J., Zhu X., Zhu Z.-X., Zo-Bi I.C., Hui C., Purdue University [West Lafayette], Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [Rome, Italie] (FAO), Groupement d'Interêt Public Ecosystèmes Forestiers GIP ECOFOR (GIP ECOFOR ), Forêts et Sociétés (UPR Forêts et Sociétés), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad), Département Environnements et Sociétés (Cirad-ES), Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Territoires, Environnement, Télédétection et Information Spatiale (UMR TETIS), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-AgroParisTech-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université de Montpellier (UM), SILVA (SILVA), AgroParisTech-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and Stellenbosch University

Subjects
Bos- en Landschapsecologie, WASS, Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, Forests, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, Co-limitation, Ontwikkelingseconomie, Forest and Nature Conservation Policy, Trees, Soil, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, Development Economics, Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, Settore BIO/07 - ECOLOGIA, Life Science, Laboratorium voor Moleculaire Biologie, Bos- en Natuurbeleid, Forest and Landscape Ecology, Bosecologie en Bosbeheer, Laboratorium voor Geo-informatiekunde en Remote Sensing, BIOS Plant Development Systems, Vegetatie, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, biogeography, biodiversity, Vegetation, Ecology, Biodiversity, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, Latitudinal gradients, PE&RC, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Bioclimatic dominance, Biogeography, LATITUDE, Plantenecologie en Natuurbeheer, Vegetatie, Bos- en Landschapsecologie, Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, Corporate Governance & Legal Services, Tree, Global LDG
Abstract

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most recognized global patterns of species richness exhibited across a wide range of taxa. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed in the past two centuries to explain LDG, but rigorous tests of the drivers of LDGs have been limited by a lack of high-quality global species richness data. Here we produce a high-resolution (0.025° × 0.025°) map of local tree species richness using a global forest inventory database with individual tree information and local biophysical characteristics from ~1.3 million sample plots. We then quantify drivers of local tree species richness patterns across latitudes. Generally, annual mean temperature was a dominant predictor of tree species richness, which is most consistent with the metabolic theory of biodiversity (MTB). However, MTB underestimated LDG in the tropics, where high species richness was also moderated by topographic, soil and anthropogenic factors operating at local scales. Given that local landscape variables operate synergistically with bioclimatic factors in shaping the global LDG pattern, we suggest that MTB be extended to account for co-limitation by subordinate drivers. The team collaboration and manuscript development are supported by the web-based team science platform: science-i.org, with the project number 202205GFB2. We thank the following initiatives, agencies, teams and individuals for data collection and other technical support: the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) for establishing the data standards and collaborative framework; United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program; University of Alaska Fairbanks; the SODEFOR, Ivory Coast; University Félix Houphouët-Boigny (UFHB, Ivory Coast); the Queensland Herbarium and past Queensland Government Forestry and Natural Resource Management departments and staff for data collection for over seven decades; and the National Forestry Commission of Mexico (CONAFOR). We thank M. Baker (Carbon Tanzania), together with a team of field assistants (Valentine and Lawrence); all persons who made the Third Spanish Forest Inventory possible, especially the main coordinator, J. A. Villanueva (IFN3); the French National Forest Inventory (NFI campaigns (raw data 2005 and following annual surveys, were downloaded by GFBI at https://inventaire-forestier.ign.fr/spip.php?rubrique159; site accessed on 1 January 2015)); the Italian Forest Inventory (NFI campaigns raw data 2005 and following surveys were downloaded by GFBI at https://inventarioforestale.org/; site accessed on 27 April 2019); Swiss National Forest Inventory, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Switzerland; the Swedish NFI, Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SLU; the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (89967 and 109244) and the South African Research Chair Initiative; the Danish National Forestry, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, UCPH; Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel of Brazil (CAPES, grant number 88881.064976/2014-01); R. Ávila and S. van Tuylen, Instituto Nacional de Bosques (INAB), Guatemala, for facilitating Guatemalan data; the National Focal Center for Forest condition monitoring of Serbia (NFC), Institute of Forestry, Belgrade, Serbia; the Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems (Germany) for providing National Forest Inventory data; the FAO and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for undertaking the SAFE (Safe Access to Fuel and Energy) and CBIT-Forest projects; and the Amazon Forest Inventory Network (RAINFOR), the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network (AfriTRON) and the ForestPlots.net initiative for their contributions from Amazonian and African forests. The Natural Forest plot data collected between January 2009 and March 2014 by the LUCAS programme for the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment are provided by the New Zealand National Vegetation Survey Databank https://nvs.landcareresearch.co.nz/. We thank the International Boreal Forest Research Association (IBFRA); the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales, Australia; the National Forest Directory of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Argentine Republic (MAyDS) for the plot data of the Second National Forest Inventory (INBN2); the National Forestry Authority and Ministry of Water and Environment of Uganda for their National Biomass Survey (NBS) dataset; and the Sabah Biodiversity Council and the staff from Sabah Forest Research Centre. All TEAM data are provided by the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network, a collaboration between Conservation International, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and partially funded by these institutions, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and other donors, with thanks to all current and previous TEAM site manager and other collaborators that helped collect data. We thank the people of the Redidoti, Pierrekondre and Cassipora village who were instrumental in assisting with the collection of data and sharing local knowledge of their forest and the dedicated members of the field crew of Kabo 2012 census. We are also thankful to FAPESC, SFB, FAO and IMA/SC for supporting the IFFSC. This research was supported in part through computational resources provided by Information Technology at Purdue, West Lafayette, Indiana.This work is supported in part by the NASA grant number 12000401 ‘Multi-sensor biodiversity framework developed from bioacoustic and space based sensor platforms’ (J. Liang, B.P.); the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture McIntire Stennis projects 1017711 (J. Liang) and 1016676 (M.Z.); the US National Science Foundation Biological Integration Institutes grant NSF‐DBI‐2021898 (P.B.R.); the funding by H2020 VERIFY (contract 776810) and H2020 Resonate (contract 101000574) (G.-J.N.); the TEAM project in Uganda supported by the Moore foundation and Buffett Foundation through Conservation International (CI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS); the Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences (TREECHANGE, grant 6108- 00078B) and VILLUM FONDEN grant number 16549 (J.-C.S.); the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK (NERC) project NE/T011084/1 awarded to J.A.-G. and NE/S011811/1; ERC Advanced Grant 291585 (‘T-FORCES’) and a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award (O.L.P.); RAINFOR plots supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the UK Natural Environment Research Council, notably NERC Consortium Grants ‘AMAZONICA’ (NE/F005806/1), ‘TROBIT’ (NE/D005590/1) and ‘BIO-RED’ (NE/N012542/1); CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+ funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the European Union, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CRP-FTA) and donors to the CGIAR Fund; AfriTRON network plots funded by the local communities and NERC, ERC, European Union, Royal Society and Leverhume Trust; a grant from the Royal Society and the Natural Environment Research Council, UK (S.L.L.); National Science Foundation CIF21 DIBBs: EI: number 1724728 (A.C.C.); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800374) and Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2019BC083) (H.L.). UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant code: NE/S01537X/1) (T.J.); a Serra-Húnter Fellowship provided by the Government of Catalonia (Spain) (S.d.-M.); the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, grant 442640/2018-8, CNPq/Prevfogo-Ibama number 33/2018) (C.A.S.); a grant from the Franklinia Foundation (D.A.C.); Russian Science Foundation project number 19-77-300-12 (R.V.); the Takenaka Scholarship Foundation (A.O.A.); the German Research Foundation (DFG), grant number Am 149/16-4 (C.A.); the Romania National Council for Higher Education Funding, CNFIS, project number CNFIS-FDI-2022-0259 (O.B.); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-05109 and STPGP506284) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (36014) (H.Y.H.C.); the project SustES—Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000797) (E.C.); Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del estado de Durango (2019-01-155) (J.J.C.-R.); Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), New Delhi, Government of India (file number PDF/2015/000447)— ‘Assessing the carbon sequestration potential of different forest types in Central India in response to climate change’ (J.A.D.); Investissement d’avenir grant of the ANR (CEBA: ANR-10-LABEX-0025) (G.D.); National Foundation for Science & Technology Development of Vietnam, 106-NN.06-2013.01 (T.V.D.); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (T.J.E.); a Czech Science Foundation Standard grant (19-14620S) (T.M.F.); European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007– 2013) under grant agreement number 265171 (L. Finer, M. Pollastrini, F. Selvi); grants from the Swedish National Forest Inventory, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (J.F.); CNPq productivity grant number 311303/2020-0 (A.L.d.G.); DFG grant HE 2719/11-1,2,3; HE 2719/14-1 (A. Hemp); European Union’s Horizon Europe research project OpenEarthMonitor grant number 101059548, CGIAR Fund INIT-32-MItigation and Transformation Initiative for GHG reductions of Agrifood systems RelaTed Emissions (MITIGATE+) (M.H.); General Directorate of the State Forests, Poland (1/07; OR-2717/3/11; OR.271.3.3.2017) and the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (BIOSTRATEG1/267755/4/NCBR/2015) (A.M.J.); Czech Science Foundation 18-10781 S (S.J.); Danish of Ministry of Environment, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Integrated Forest Monitoring Program—NFI (V.K.J.); State of São Paulo Research Foundation/FAPESP as part of the BIOTA/FAPESP Program Project Functional Gradient-PELD/BIOTA-ECOFOR 2003/12595-7 & 2012/51872-5 (C.A.J.); Danish Council for Independent Research—social sciences—grant DFF 6109– 00296 (G.A.K.); Russian Science Foundation project 21-46-07002 for the plot data collected in the Krasnoyarsk region (V.K.); BOLFOR (D.K.K.); Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, Government of India (grant number BT/PR7928/ NDB/52/9/2006, dated 29 September 2006) (M.L.K.); grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (J.N.K.); Korea Forest Service (2018113A00-1820-BB01, 2013069A00-1819-AA03, and 2020185D10- 2022-AA02) and Seoul National University Big Data Institute through the Data Science Research Project 2016 (H.S.K.); the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, grant 442640/2018-8, CNPq/Prevfogo-Ibama number 33/2018) (C.K.); CSIR, New Delhi, government of India (grant number 38(1318)12/EMR-II, dated: 3 April 2012) (S.K.); Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, government of India (grant number BT/ PR12899/ NDB/39/506/2015 dated 20 June 2017) (A.K.); Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) #88887.463733/2019-00 (R.V.L.); National Natural Science Foundation of China (31800374) (H.L.); project of CEPF RAS ‘Methodological approaches to assessing the structural organization and functioning of forest ecosystems’ (AAAA-A18-118052590019-7) funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia (N.V.L.); Leverhulme Trust grant to Andrew Balmford, Simon Lewis and Jon Lovett (A.R.M.); Russian Science Foundation, project 19-77-30015 for European Russia data processing (O.M.); grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (M.T.E.M.); the National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (BIOSTRATEG1/267755/4/NCBR/2015) (S.M.); the Secretariat for Universities and of the Ministry of Business and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia and the European Social Fund (A. Morera); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (V.J.N.); Pinnacle Group Cameroon PLC (L.N.N.); Queensland government, Department of Environment and Science (M.R.N.); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2018-05201) (A.P.); the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project number 20-05-00540 (E.I.P.); European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 778322 (H.P.); Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi, government of India (grant number YSS/2015/000479, dated 12 January 2016) (P.S.); the Chilean Government research grants Fondecyt number 1191816 and FONDEF number ID19 10421 (C.S.-E.); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Program 1374 Biodiversity Exploratories (P.S.); European Space Agency projects IFBN (4000114425/15/NL/FF/gp) and CCI Biomass (4000123662/18/I-NB) (D. Schepaschenko); FunDivEUROPE, European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement number 265171 (M.S.-L.); APVV 20-0168 from the Slovak Research and Development Agency (V.S.); Manchester Metropolitan University’s Environmental Science Research Centre (G.S.); the project ‘LIFE+ ForBioSensing PL Comprehensive monitoring of stand dynamics in Białowieża Forest supported with remote sensing techniques’ which is co-funded by the EU Life Plus programme (contract number LIFE13 ENV/PL/000048) and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Poland (contract number 485/2014/WN10/OP-NM-LF/D) (K.J.S.); Global Challenges Research Fund (QR allocation, MMU) (M.J.P.S.); Czech Science Foundation project 21-27454S (M.S.); the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project number 20-05-00540 (N. Tchebakova); Botanical Research Fund, Coalbourn Trust, Bentham Moxon Trust, Emily Holmes scholarship (L.A.T.); the programmes of the current scientific research of the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (V.A.U.); FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology—Project UIDB/04033/2020. Inventário Florestal Nacional—ICNF (H. Viana); Grant from Kenya Coastal Development Project (KCDP), which was funded by World Bank (C.W.); grants from the Swedish National Forest Inventory, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (B.W.); ATTO project (grant number MCTI-FINEP 1759/10 and BMBF 01LB1001A, 01LK1602F) (F.W.); ReVaTene/ PReSeD-CI 2 is funded by the Education and Research Ministry of Côte d’Ivoire, as part of the Debt Reduction-Development Contracts (C2Ds) managed by IRD (I.C.Z.-B.); the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF, grant 89967) (C.H.). The Tropical Plant Exploration Group 70 1 ha plots in Continental Cameroon Mountains are supported by Rufford Small Grant Foundation, UK and 4 ha in Sierra Leone are supported by the Global Challenge Research Fund through Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; the National Geographic Explorer Grant, NGS-53344R-18 (A.C.-S.); University of KwaZulu-Natal Research Office grant (M.J.L.); Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Dirección General de Asuntos de Personal Académico, Grant PAPIIT IN-217620 (J.A.M.). Czech Science Foundation project 21-24186M (R.T., S. Delabye). Czech Science Foundation project 20-05840Y, the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (LTAUSA19137) and the long-term research development project of the Czech Academy of Sciences no. RVO 67985939 (J.A.). The American Society of Primatologists, the Duke University Graduate School, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Science Foundation (grant number 0452995) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (grant number 7330) (M.B.). Research grants from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnologico (CNPq, Brazil) (309764/2019; 311303/2020) (A.C.V., A.L.G.). The Project of Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (grant number CKJ-JYRC-2022-83) (H.-F.W.). The Ugandan NBS was supported with funds from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the Austrian Development Agency (ADC) and FAO. FAO’s UN-REDD Program, together with the project on ‘Native Forests and Community’ Loan BIRF number 8493-AR UNDP ARG/15/004 and the National Program for the Protection of Native Forests under UNDP funded Argentina’s INBN2.

Published
2022

26. Using Model Analysis to Unveil Hidden Patterns in Tropical Forest Structures

Author

N. Ayyappan, Frédéric Mortier, David Harris, Faustin Boyemba Bosela, Thomas W. Crowther, Alfred Ngomanda, Pierre Couteron, Nestor Laurier Engone Obiang, Géraldine Derroire, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, John R. Poulsen, Nicolas Picard, Bonaventure Sonké, Connie J. Clark, Eric Forni, Pierre Ploton, Fabrice Bénédet, Jingjing Liang, Jean-François Bastin, Groupement d'Interêt Public Ecosystèmes Forestiers GIP ECOFOR (GIP ECOFOR ), Forêts et Sociétés (UPR Forêts et Sociétés), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad), Département Environnements et Sociétés (Cirad-ES), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Purdue University [West Lafayette], Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech [Gembloux], Université de Liège, Institut Français de Pondichéry (IFP), Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères (MEAE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Kisangani, Duke University [Durham], Department of Environmental Systems Science [ETH Zürich] (D-USYS), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich] (ETH Zürich), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CNRST), Royal Botanic Garden [Edinburgh], University of Yaoundé [Cameroun], ANR-18-CE02-0025,GAMBAS,Nouvelles avancées dans la modélisation de la biodiversité et des services écosystémiques : améliorations statistiques et pertinences écologiques des modèles de distribution multi-espèces(2018), and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, 01 natural sciences, Allométrie, K01 - Foresterie - Considérations générales, parcelle, Forêt tropicale humide, QH540-549.5, Ecology, type forestier (composition botanique), U10 - Informatique, mathématiques et statistiques, Null model, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, Correlation, Forest typology, Geography, forest structure, F40 - Écologie végétale, Evolution, 010603 evolutionary biology, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, QH359-425, Ordination, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Rain forest, 15. Life on land, Tropical forest, Structure du peuplement, forest typology, null model, pattern and process, rain forest, correlation, ordination, Modélisation, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, Modèle végétal, Pattern and process
Abstract

When ordinating plots of tropical rain forests using stand-level structural attributes such as biomass, basal area and the number of trees in different size classes, two patterns often emerge: a gradient from poorly to highly stocked plots and high positive correlations between biomass, basal area and the number of large trees. These patterns are inherited from the demographics (growth, mortality and recruitment) and size allometry of trees and tend to obscure other patterns, such as site differences among plots, that would be more informative for inferring ecological processes. Using data from 133 rain forest plots at nine sites for which site differences are known, we aimed to filter out these patterns in forest structural attributes to unveil a hidden pattern. Using a null model framework, we generated the anticipated pattern inherited from individual allometric patterns. We then evaluated deviations between the data (observations) and predictions of the null model. Ordination of the deviations revealed site differences that were not evident in the ordination of observations. These sites differences could be related to different histories of large-scale forest disturbance. By filtering out patterns inherited from individuals, our model analysis provides more information on ecological processes., Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, ISSN:2296-701X

Published
2021

27. The global abundance of tree palms

Author

Ekananda Paudel, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Erika Berenguer, Edilson J. Requena-Rojas, Xinghui Lu, Luciana F. Alves, Yves Laumonier, Matt Bradford, Keith C. Hamer, Heike Culmsee, Robert M. Ewers, Jan Reitsma, Natacha Nssi Bengone, Anne Mette Lykke, Kuswata Kartawinata, Michael J. Lawes, Géraldine Derroire, Martin Gilpin, Jean-François Bastin, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Laszlo Nagy, José Luís Camargo, Gabriella Fredriksson, Esteban Álvarez-Dávila, Casimiro Mendoza Bautista, Swapan Kumar Sarker, Jhon del Aguila-Pasquel, Ida Theilade, Erny Poedjirahajoe, Bonaventure Sonké, Jefferson S. Hall, Naret Seuaturien, Shin-ichiro Aiba, Simon L. Lewis, Francesco Rovero, Carlos Mariano Alvez-Valles, Donald R. Drake, Agustín Rudas Lleras, Lee J. T. White, Gerardo A.Aymard Corredor, Damien Catchpole, Tariq Stévart, Samuel Almeida, Janet Franklin, Mohammad Shah Hussain, Nicholas J. Berry, Jon C. Lovett, Hirma Ramírez-Angulo, Rafael de Paiva Salomão, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Onrizal Onrizal, Ted R. Feldpausch, Wannes Hubau, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Thomas L. P. Couvreur, José Luís Marcelo Peña, Juliana Schietti, Ana Andrade, Anand Roopsind, Javier E. Silva-Espejo, Carlos Alfredo Joly, Fabrício Alvim Carvalho, Connie J. Clark, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, William E. Magnusson, Shengbin Chen, K. Anitha, Ni Putu Diana Mahayani, Flávia R. C. Costa, John R. Poulsen, Faridah Hanum Ibrahim, Aurélie Dourdain, Irie Casimir Zo-Bi, Heriberto David-Higuita, Rahmad Zakaria, Mario Percy Núñez Vargas, Karina Melgaço, Marcelo Trindade Nascimento, Damien Bonal, Murray Collins, Jos Barlow, Emilio Vilanova, Yadvinder Malhi, Andes Hamuraby Rozak, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, Badru Mugerwa, Terry L. Erwin, John Pipoly, Bruno Hérault, Ervan Rutishauser, Anthony Di Fiore, William F. Laurance, Luzmila Arroyo, Jean-Louis Doucet, Lilian Blanc, Henrik Balslev, Percival Cho, Priya Davidar, Sonia Palacios-Ramos, John Terborgh, Peter M. Umunay, Shijo Joseph, Robert Muscarella, Massiel Corrales Medina, Rueben Nilus, Robert Steinmetz, Everton Cristo de Almeida, Rhett D. Harrison, Thomas E. Lovejoy, Peter S. Ashton, Sophie Fauset, Adriana Prieto, Christelle Gonmadje, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Andreas Hemp, R. Nazaré O. de Araújo, Markus Fischer, Hoang Van Sam, Ferry Slik, Jianwei Tang, Luiz Menini Neto, Plínio Barbosa de Camargo, Tran Van Do, Hidetoshi Nagamasu, Aisha Sultana, Marc P. E. Parren, Carlos Reynel Rodriguez, Frans Bongers, Campbell O. Webb, Lan Qie, Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, Justin Kassi, Kanehiro Kitayama, Francis Q. Brearley, Peter van der Hout, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Georgia Pickavance, Jérôme Millet, Joice Ferreira, Zorayda Restrepo Correa, Manichanh Satdichanh, Carlos Gabriel Hidalgo Pizango, Rodrigo Sierra, Oliver L. Phillips, Vianet Mihindou, William Milliken, Walter A. Palacios, Fernando Alzate Guarin, Charles E. Zartman, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Arachchige Upali Nimal Gunatilleke, Eddy Nurtjahya, Susan G. Laurance, Marcos Silveira, Janvier Lisingo, Nobuo Imai, Asyraf Mansor, Kenneth R. Young, Serge A. Wich, Ruwan Punchi-Manage, Christine B. Schmitt, Simone Aparecida Vieira, D. Mohandass, Thaise Emilio, Gemma Rutten, Fabian Brambach, Steven W. Brewer, Timothy R. Baker, Carolina V. Castilho, Timothy J. Killeen, Terry Sunderland, Lourens Poorter, Martin van de Bult, Feyera Senbeta, Eileen Larney, Bente B. Klitgård, Phourin Chhang, Hans ter Steege, Runguo Zang, Simon Willcock, Wendeson Castro, María Uriarte, Jean Philippe Puyravaud, Andrew R. Marshall, R. Toby Pennington, Jens-Christian Svenning, Jonathan Timberlake, Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado, Douglas Sheil, Susan K. Wiser, Lila Nath Sharma, Raman Sukumar, Jeanneth Villalobos Cayo, Andy Hector, Luis E.O.C. Aragao, Wanlop Chutipong, David Harris, Carlos A. Quesada, Thomas W. Gillespie, Alejandro Araujo Murakami, Edmund V. J. Tanner, Carlos E. Cerón Martínez, William J. Baker, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Nicolas Labrière, Paulo S. Morandi, Armando Torres-Lezama, David A. Neill, Edward L. Webb, Andreas Ensslin, David Campbell, Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Robert M. Kooyman, Aurora Levesley, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, James A. Comiskey, Ben Hur Marimon-Junior, Hebbalalu S. Suresh, Ophelia Wang, Leandro Valle Ferreira, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Marc K. Steininger, P. Rama Chandra Prasad, Systems Ecology, Robert Muscarella, Uppsala University / Aarhus University, Thomas L. P. Couvreur, University of Montpellier, Luzmila Arroyo, Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, CENA-USP, Jos Barlow, Lancaster University, Jean-François Bastin, ETH Zürich, Natacha Nssi Bengone, National Agency of National Parks of Gabon, Erika Berenguer, Lancaster University / University of Oxford, Nicholas Berry, The Landscapes and Livelihoods Group, Lilian Blanc, CIRAD / University of Montpellier, Katrin Böhning-Gaese, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre / Goethe University, Damien Bonal, Université de Lorraine, Frans Bongers, Wageningen University & Research, Matt Bradford, CSIRO Land and Water, Percival Cho, Forest Department, Connie Clark, Duke University, Murray Collins, University of Edinburgh, James A. Comiskey, National Park Service / Smithsonian Institution, Flávia R. C. Costa, INPA, Géraldine Derroire, CIRAD, Anthony Di Fiore, University of Texas at Austin, Tran Van Do, Vietnamese Academy of Forest Sciences, Jean-Louis Doucet, Liège University, Aurélie Dourdain, CIRAD, Andreas Ensslin, University of Bern, Terry Erwin, Smithsonian Institution, Corneille E. N. Ewango, University of Kisangani, JOICE NUNES FERREIRA, CPATU, David J. Harris, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Rhett D. Harrison, World Agroforestry, East and Southern Africa Region, Andrew Hector, University of Oxford, Wannes Hubau, University of Leeds / Royal Museum for Central Africa, Mohammad Shah Hussain, University of Delhi, Faridah-Hanum Ibrahim, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus, Nobuo Imai, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Carlos A. Joly, UNICAMP, Shijo Joseph, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Anitha K, Rainforest Traditions, Kuswata Kartawinata, The Field Museum of Natural History / Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Justin Kassi, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Timothy J. Killeen, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, Kanehiro Kitayama, Kyoto University, Bente Bang Klitgård, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Michael J. Lawes, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Aurora Levesley, University of Leeds, Janvier Lisingo, Kisangani University, Thomas Lovejoy, George Mason University, Jon C. Lovett, University of Leeds / Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Xinghui Lu, Liaocheng University, Anne Mette Lykke, Aarhus University, William E. Magnusson, INPA, Casimiro Mendoza Bautista, Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Vianet Mihindou, Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux / Ministère de la Forêt et de l’Environnement, Jérôme Millet, French Agency for Biodiversity, William Milliken, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, D. Mohandass, Novel Research Academy, David A. Neill, Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Luiz Menini Neto, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Rueben Nilus, Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Mario Percy Núñez Vargas, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Eddy Nurtja, Universitas Bangka Belitung, R. Nazaré O. de Araújo, INPA, Onrizal Onrizal, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Walter A. Palacios, Herbario Nacional del Ecuador, Universidad Técnica del Norte, Sonia Palacios-Ramos, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Marc Parren, Wageningen University & Research, Ekananda Paudel, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Paulo S. Morandi, Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, R. Toby Pennington, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh / University of Exeter, Georgia Pickavance, University of Leeds, John J. Pipoly III, Broward County Parks and Recreation Division, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Field Museum, Erny Poedjirahajoe, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Lourens Poorter, Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, John R. Poulsen, Duke University, P. Rama Chandra Prasad, International Institute of Information Technology, Adriana Prieto, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Jean-Philippe Puyravaud, Sigur Nature Trust, Lan Qie, University of Lincoln, Carlos A. Quesada, INPA, Hirma Ramírez-Angulo, INDEFOR, Universidad de Los Andes, Ervan Rutishauser, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gemma Rutten, University of Bern, Ruwan Punchi-Manage, University of Peradeniya, Rafael P. Salomão, MPEG / UFRA, Hoang Van Sam, Vietnam National University of Forestry, Swapan Kumar Sarker, Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Manichanh Satdichanh, hinese Academy of Sciences / World Agroforestry Centre, Juliana Schietti, INPA, Jianwei Tang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Edmund Tanner, University of Cambridge, Hans ter Steege, Naturalis Biodiversity Center / Systems Ecology, Jeanneth Villalobos Cayo, Universidad Mayor Real and Pontifical de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, Ophelia Wang, Northern Arizona University, Campbell O. Webb, University of Alaska, Edward L. Webb, National University of Singapore, Lee White, Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux / Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale / University of Stirling, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, University of Minnesota, Serge Wich, Liverpool John Moores University / University of Amsterdam, Simon Willcock, Bangor University, Wanlop Chutipong, King Mongut's Institute of Technology Thonburi, Douglas Sheil, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Rodrigo Sierra, GeoIS, Andreas Hemp, University of Bayreuth, Bruno Herault, CIRAD / Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Carlos Gabriel Hidalgo Pizango, IIAP, Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado, IIAP, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Aarhus University / Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus University, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Ghana Forestry Commission, Shin-Ichiro Aiba, Hokkaido University Sapporo, Everton C. de Almeida, UFOPA, Samuel S. de Almeida, MPEG, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, UFMT, Esteban Álvarez-Dávila, Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, Luciana F. Alves, University of California, Carlos Mariano Alvez-Valles, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Fabrício Alvim Carvalho, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Fernando Alzate Guarin, Universidad de Antioquia, Ana Andrade, INPA, Luis E. O. C. Aragão, INPE / University of Exeter, Alejandro Araujo Murakami, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, Peter S. Ashton, Harvard University, Gerardo A. Aymard Corredor, Compensation International Progress / UNELLEZ-Guanare, Timothy R. Baker, University of Leeds, Fabian Brambach, University of Goettingen, Francis Q. Brearley, Manchester Metropolitan University, Steven W. Brewer, Wild Earth Allies, Jose L. C. Camargo, INPA, David G. Campbell, Grinnell College, CAROLINA VOLKMER DE CASTILHO, CPAF-RR, Wendeson Castro, SOS Amazônia, Damien Catchpole, University of Tasmania, Carlos E. Cerón Martínez, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Shengbin Chen, Chengdu University of Technology, Phourin Chhang, Forestry Administration, Massiel Nataly Corrales Medina, Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa, Heike Culmsee, German Federal Foundation for the Environment, Heriberto David-Higuita, Universidad de Antioquia, Priya Davidar, Sigur Nature Trust, Jhon del Aguila-Pasquel, IIAP, Robert M. Ewers, Imperial College London, Sophie Fauset, University of Plymouth, Ted R. Feldpausch, University of Exeter, Leandro Valle Ferreira, MPEG, Markus Fischer, University of Bern, Janet Franklin, University of California, Gabriella M. Fredriksson, Pro Natura Foundation, Thomas W. Gillespie, University of California, Martin Gilpin, University of Leeds, Christelle Gonmadje, University of Yaoundé / National Herbarium, Arachchige Upali Nimal Gunatilleke, University of Peradeniya, Khalid Rehman Hakeem, King Abdulaziz University, Jefferson S. Hall, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Keith C. Hamer, University of Leeds, Lila Nath Sharma, ForestAction Nepal, Robert Kooyman, Macquarie University / Royal Botanic Gardens, Nicolas Labrière, CNRS, Eileen Larney, TEAM / Zoological Society of London, Yves Laumonier, CIRAD, Susan G. Laurance, James Cook University, William F. Laurance, James Cook University, Ni Putu Diana Mahayani, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yadvinder Malhi, University of Oxford, Asyraf Mansor, Universiti Sains Malaysia / Universiti Sains Malaysia, Jose Luis Marcelo Peña, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina / ESALQ-USP, Ben H. Marimon-Junior, UNEMAT, Andrew R. Marshall, University of the Sunshine Coast / University of York / Flamingo Land, Karina Melgaco, University of Leeds, Abel Lorenzo Monteagudo Mendoza, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Badru Mugerwa, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Hidetoshi Nagamasu, Kyoto University, Laszlo Nagy, UNICAMP, Naret Seuaturien, WWF Thailand, Marcelo T. Nascimento, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, University of Fianarantsoa, Jan Meindert Reitsma, Bureau Waardenburg BV, Edilson J. Requena-Rojas, Universidad Continental, Zorayda Restrepo Correa, Ecosystems Services and Climate Change (SECC) Group, COL-TREE Corporatio, Carlos Reynel Rodriguez, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Anand Roopsind, Boise State University, Francesco Rovero, University of Florence / Museo delle Scienze, Andes Rozak, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Agustín Rudas Lleras, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Christine B. Schmitt, University of Bonn / University of Freiburg, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, UNEMAT, Feyera Senbeta, Addis Ababa University, Javier E. Silva-Espejo, Universidad de La Serena, Marcos Silveira, UFAC, Bonaventure Sonké, University of Yaoundé, Robert Steinmetz, WWF Thailand, Tariq Stévart, Missouri Botanical Garden, Raman Sukumar, Indian Institute of Science, Aisha Sultana, University of Delhi, Terry C. H. Sunderland, University of British Columbia / CIFOR, Hebbalalu Satyanarayana Suresh, Indian Institute of Science, John W. Terborgh, University of Florida / James Cook University, Ida Theilade, University of Copenhagen, Jonathan Timberlake, Warren Lane, Armando Torres-Lezama, Universidad de Los Andes, Peter Umunay, Yale University, María Uriarte, Columbia University, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Martin van de Bult, Doi Tung Development Project, Social Development Department, Peter van der Hout, Van der Hout Förestry Consulting, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Herbario Selva Central Oxapampa, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, MPEG, Simone A. Vieira, UNICAMP, Emilio Vilanova, University of California, Susan K. Wiser, Manaaki Whenua, Landcare Research, Kenneth R. Young, University of Texas at Austin, Rahmad Zakaria, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Runguo Zang, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Charles E. Zartman, INPA, Irié Casimir Zo-Bi, Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Henrik Balslev, Aarhus University., Donald R. Drake, University of Hawai'i at M?noa, Marc K. Steininger, University of Maryland, Thaise Emilio, UNICAMP / Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Oliver L. Phillips, University of Leeds, Simon L. Lewis, University of Leeds / University College London, Ferry Slik, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Uppsala University, SILVA (SILVA), AgroParisTech-Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), and Rainforest Research Sdn Bhd

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, DIVERSITY, Biomasa, Biomassa, Arecaceae, AFRICAN, 580 Plants (Botany), 01 natural sciences, BIOMASS, purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#4.01.02 [http], biomasse aérienne des arbres, Abundance (ecology), CARBON STORAGE, Floresta Tropical, Densité, Silvicultura, Biomass, Forêt tropicale humide, ALLOMETRY, above-ground biomass, Global and Planetary Change, Biomass (ecology), GE, Condições abióticas locais, biology, Ecology, Inventaire forestier, abundance patterns, tropical, Facteur du milieu, wood density, PE&RC, Geography, Physical, 0501 Ecological Applications, Geography, Biogeografia, Physical Sciences, [SDE]Environmental Sciences, Biodiversité, C180 Ecology, 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience, Variance génétique, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, pantropical biogeography, Neotropics, F40 - Écologie végétale, Zona tropical, Biogéographie, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, Subtropics, 010603 evolutionary biology, Bois, local abiotic conditions, Bosecologie en Bosbeheer, Ecosystem, Relative species abundance, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Densidade da Madeira, Ekologi, Science & Technology, 0602 Ecology, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, QK, Diameter at breast height, Biology and Life Sciences, facteurs abiotiques, DIVERSIFICATION HISTORY, 15. Life on land, biology.organism_classification, EVOLUTION, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, AMAZONIAN FOREST, Physical Geography, 13. Climate action, Earth and Environmental Sciences, PATTERNS, tropical rainforest, Tropical rainforest
Abstract

Aim Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change. Location Tropical and subtropical moist forests. Time period Current. Major taxa studied Palms (Arecaceae). Methods We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure. Results On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work. Conclusions Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests.

Published
2020

28. Is there tree senescence? The fecundity evidence

Author

Catherine A. Gehring, Tong Qiu, Kai Zhu, Richard K. Kobe, María Uriarte, James A. Lutz, Connie J. Clark, S. Joseph Wright, William Farfan-Rios, Sylvain Delzon, Thomas G. Whitham, Robert A. Andrus, Georges Kunstler, John R. Poulsen, Marie-Claire Aravena, Cathryn H. Greenberg, Andreas P. Wion, Ian S. Pearse, Amy V. Whipple, Miranda D. Redmond, Shubhi Sharma, Michał Bogdziewicz, Thomas A. Nagel, James S. Clark, Christopher L. Kilner, Kazuhiko Hoshizaki, Valentin Journé, Jalene M. LaMontagne, Margaret Swift, C. D. Reid, Jonathan Myers, Thomas T. Veblen, Benoît Courbaud, Walter D. Koenig, Kyle C. Rodman, Inés Ibáñez, Rafael Calama, Chase L. Nuñez, C. Lane Scher, Barbara Seget, Mateusz Ledwoń, Łukasz Piechnik, J. Julio Camarero, Qinfeng Guo, Thomas Boivin, Davide Ascoli, Janneke Hille Ris Lambers, Jennifer J. Swenson, Raúl Bonal, Sergio Calderón, Renata Poulton-Kamakura, Jess K. Zimmerman, Giorgio Vacchiano, Magdalena Żywiec, Miles R. Silman, Gregory S. Gilbert, Thomas Caignard, Harald Schmidt Van Marle, Roberta Berretti, Yves Bergeron, Renzo Motta, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University [Durham], Universidad de Chile, University of Colorado [Boulder], Department of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Torino, University of Quebec in Abitibi-Temiscamingue (UQAT), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (UAM), Ecologie des Forêts Méditerranéennes (URFM), Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid [Madrid] (UCM), Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés (BioGeCo), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Centro de Investigacion Forestal (INIA-CIFOR), Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria = National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia (IPE), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Laboratoire des EcoSystèmes et des Sociétés en Montagne (UR LESSEM), Missouri Botanical Garden, Northern Arizona University [Flagstaff], University of California [Santa Cruz] (UCSC), University of California, US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOREST SERVICE USA, Partenaires IRSTEA, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, US Forest Service, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich] (ETH Zürich), Akita University, University of Michigan [Ann Arbor], University of Michigan System, Michigan State University [East Lansing], Michigan State University System, University of California [Berkeley], DePaul University [Chicago], Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Department of Wildland Resources, Utah State University (USU), Washington University in Saint Louis (WUSTL), University of Ljubljana, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Fort Collins Science Center (FORT), US Geological Survey [Fort Collins], United States Geological Survey [Reston] (USGS)-United States Geological Survey [Reston] (USGS), W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University [Fort Collins] (CSU), University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wake Forest University, Columbia University [New York], Department and Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, (DiSAA), University of Milan, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, University of Puerto Rico (UPR), National Science Foundation (NSF) : 1754443, Belmont Forum : 1854976, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Advanced Information Systems Technology) : 16-0052 AIST18-0063, National Science Foundation (NSF) : DEB-1440409, W. Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Foundation for Polish Science : 2019/33/B/NZ8/0134, National Science Foundation (NSF) : DEB 0963447 11222325 LTREB 1754647, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)United States Forest Service, and ANR-18-MPGA-0004,FORBIC,Prévision du changement de la biodiversité(2018)

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Senescence, Crown architecture, Biology, Forests, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Models, Biological, Trees, tree senescence, Tree life history, Models, Regeneration, Tree senescence, Architectural change, Allometric scaling, tree fecundity, Multidisciplinary, Ecology, crown architecture, Crown (botany), Regression analysis, 15. Life on land, Biological Sciences, Fecundity, Biological, Rate of increase, Fertility, Tree fecundity, Tree (set theory), Allometry, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, allometric scaling, 010606 plant biology & botany, tree life history
Abstract

International audience; Despite its importance for forest regeneration, food webs, and human economies, changes in tree fecundity with tree size and age remain largely unknown. The allometric increase with tree diameter assumed in ecological models would substantially overestimate seed contributions from large trees if fecundity eventually declines with size. Current estimates are dominated by overrepresentation of small trees in regression models. We combined global fecundity data, including a substantial representation of large trees. We compared size–fecundity relationships against traditional allometric scaling with diameter and two models based on crown architecture. All allometric models fail to describe the declining rate of increase in fecundity with diameter found for 80% of 597 species in our analysis. The strong evidence of declining fecundity, beyond what can be explained by crown architectural change, is consistent with physiological decline. A downward revision of projected fecundity of large trees can improve the next generation of forest dynamic models.

Published
2021

29. African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior

Author

Michael P. Fay, Peter Morkel, Thomas M. Houslay, Joseph Okouyi, Connie J. Clark, Christopher Beirne, Lee J. T. White, John R. Poulsen, Houslay, Thomas [0000-0001-5592-9034], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, African forest elephant, Male, Behavioural ecology, Science, Movement, Elephants, Endangered species, Animal migration, Forests, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Critically endangered, Behavioral syndrome, 631/158/2039, Animals, Gabon, Multidisciplinary, biology, Ecology, Behavior, Animal, Movement (music), Conservation biology, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Endangered Species, article, Animal behaviour, biology.organism_classification, Tropical ecology, 631/158/2450, 631/158/856, Geography, 631/601/18, Scale (social sciences), Medicine, 631/158/672, Female, 631/158
Abstract

Funder: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000202, The critically endangered African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a vital role in maintaining the structure and composition of Afrotropical forests, but basic information is lacking regarding the drivers of elephant movement and behavior at landscape scales. We use GPS location data from 96 individuals throughout Gabon to determine how five movement behaviors vary at different scales, how they are influenced by anthropogenic and environmental covariates, and to assess evidence for behavioral syndromes—elephants which share suites of similar movement traits. Elephants show some evidence of behavioral syndromes along an ‘idler’ to ‘explorer’ axis—individuals that move more have larger home ranges and engage in more ‘exploratory’ movements. However, within these groups, forest elephants express remarkable inter-individual variation in movement behaviours. This variation highlights that no two elephants are the same and creates challenges for practitioners aiming to design conservation initiatives.

Published
2021
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30. Participatory monitoring reveals village-centered gradients of mammalian defaunation in central Africa

Author

Guillaume Menie Menie, Christopher Beirne, Alex Ebang Mbélé, Joseph Okouyi, Graden Froese, John R. Poulsen, and Amelia Meier

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Biomass (ecology), Ecology, Defaunation, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Wildlife, Species diversity, Subsistence agriculture, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Geography, Species richness, Transect, Bushmeat, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation
Abstract

Tropical areas are facing a bushmeat crisis involving the systematic over-exploitation of large-bodied mammals for both subsistence and commercial purposes. We hypothesize that because hunting generally originates from villages, it will create “halos of defaunation” where abundances of large mammals increase with distance away from villages. Whilst such patterns have been well characterized at the landscape scale, examining how defaunation halos vary between different villages has received considerably less attention. Forests immediately surrounding villages are of considerable importance to the people residing within them and the factors hypothesized to influence local defaunation halos (e.g. village size, hunting practices and access to local markets) may affect local livelihoods and the ecological integrity of nearby forests. To address this, we adopted a participatory approach to establish and monitor sixty transects across ten village-distance gradients (1-8 km) in Gabon. Trained paraecologists, recruited from local villages, walked each transect twice monthly to determine the encounter rates of medium and large mammals across the village distance gradient and monitored village-level bushmeat availability. We found that overall rates of mammal observation and estimated species richness were constant across the village-distance gradient, however the total number of individuals encountered and bushmeat biomass were lower close to villages – consistent with local depletion of wildlife. These general trends were underpinned by depleted mammal species diversity with increasing proximity to villages and a marked shift in mammal community composition: small, non-hunted species were encountered most frequently near villages, whereas large, hunted species were encountered most frequently away from villages. We found some evidence for inter-village variation in the strength and depth of defaunation halos, which may be driven in part by the village-level hunting intensity. Several of the key parameters identified in landscape-scale bushmeat studies did not detectably influence village-level defaunation (e.g. road or market distance). Despite the prevalence of bushmeat hunting in the region, the conservation value of forests immediately surrounding villages was demonstrated through the detection of large-bodied species of conservation concern (e.g. chimpanzee and gorilla) at a high proportion of survey locations. The compositional shifts in mammal communities detailed here will ultimately lead to the altered composition and diversity of forests around villages, with potential implications for human livelihoods, health and transmission of zoonotic disease. This research also demonstrates the effectiveness of engaging paraecologists to answer focused ecological questions - the first step in facilitating effective natural resource management by local communities.

Published
2019

31. Estimates and determinants of stocks of deep soil carbon in Gabon, Central Africa

Author

Allan R. Bacon, Vincent P. Medjibe, John R. Poulsen, Daniel Richter, Anna M. Wade, Lee J. T. White, and Paul R. Heine

Subjects
Total organic carbon, Carbon accounting, Soil Science, Tropics, chemistry.chemical_element, 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences, Soil carbon, 010501 environmental sciences, Soil type, 01 natural sciences, Carbon cycle, chemistry, Deforestation, 040103 agronomy & agriculture, 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, Environmental science, Physical geography, Carbon, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Abstract

Despite the importance of tropical forest carbon to the global carbon cycle, research on carbon stocks is incomplete in major areas of the tropical world. Nowhere in the tropics is this more the case than in Africa, and especially Central Africa, where carbon stocks are known to be high but a scarcity of data limits understanding of carbon stocks and drivers. In this study, we present the first nation-wide measurements and determinants of soil carbon in Gabon, a nation in Central Africa. We estimated soil carbon to a 2-m depth using a systematic, random design of 59 plots located across Gabon. Soil carbon to a 2-m depth averaged 163 Mg ha−1 with a CV of 61%. These soil carbon stocks accounted for approximately half of the total carbon accumulated in aboveground biomass and soil pools. Nearly a third of soil carbon was stored in the second meter of soil, averaging 58 Mg ha−1 with a CV of 94%. Lithology, soil type, and terrain attributes were found to be significant predictors of cumulative SOC stocks to a 2-m depth. Current protocols of the IPCC are to sample soil carbon from the surface 30 cm, which in this study would underestimate soil carbon by 60% and underestimate ecosystem carbon by 30%. A nonlinear model using a power function predicted cumulative soil carbon stocks in the second meter with an average error of prediction of 3.2 Mg ha−1 (CV = 915%) of measured values. The magnitude and turnover of deep soil carbon in tropical forests needs to be estimated as more countries prioritize carbon accounting and monitoring in response to accelerating land-use change.

Published
2019

32. Resistance of African tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly

Author

Hans Verbeeck, Jacques Mukinzi, Hermann Taedoumg, Connie J. Clark, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Peter M. Umunay, John R. Poulsen, John T. Woods, Pascal Boeckx, Armandu K. Daniels, Vianet Mihindu, David Harris, Yannick Enock Bocko, Serge K. Begne, Thalès de Haulleville, Greta C. Dargie, C. Amani, Terry Sunderland, Miguel E. Leal, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Elizabeth Kearsley, Terry Brncic, Suspense Averti Ifo, Martin J. P. Sullivan, Jean-Louis Doucet, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Yadvinder Malhi, Jefferson S. Hall, Vincent P. Medjibe, Olivier J. Hardy, Ted R. Feldpausch, Jean-Remy Makana, Darlington Tuagben, Jan Reitsma, Natacha Nssi Begone, Bonaventure Sonké, Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Sam Moore, Jan Bogaert, Joey Talbot, Lise Zemagho, Marie-Noël Djuikouo Kamdem, Eric Chezeaux, Declan L. M. Cooper, Christelle Gonmadje, Oliver L. Phillips, Georgia Pickavance, Faustin Mbayu Lukasu, Amy C. Bennett, Hannsjoerg Woell, John Tshibamba Mukendi, Lee J. T. White, Lindsay F. Banin, Hans Beeckman, Fidèle Evouna Ondo, Simon L. Lewis, Wannes Hubau, Jason Vleminckx, Aurora Levesley, Corneille E. N. Ewango, and Ernest G. Foli

Subjects
Agriculture and Food Sciences, Hot Temperature, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Environmental change, DIVERSITY, drought, 01 natural sciences, Trees, BIOMASS, Soil respiration, CARBON STORAGE, El Nino-Southern Oscillation, 0303 health sciences, Biomass (ecology), Multidisciplinary, Ecology, PRODUCTIVITY, Biological Sciences, Droughts, GROWTH, TREES, CO2, Seasons, ENSO, Biologie, SOIL RESPIRATION, El Nino, Rainforest, Climate Change, MODELS, Climate change, Ecology and Environment, Carbon Cycle, Carbon cycle, 03 medical and health sciences, parasitic diseases, carbon cycle, Humans, El Niño, Precipitation, 030304 developmental biology, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, Tropical Climate, temperature, Tropics, 15. Life on land, 13. Climate action, cavelab, Environmental science, Tropical rainforest
Abstract

The responses of tropical forests to environmental change are critical uncertainties in predicting the future impacts of climate change. The positive phase of the 2015–2016 El Niño Southern Oscillation resulted in unprecedented heat and low precipitation in the tropics with substantial impacts on the global carbon cycle. The role of African tropical forests is uncertain as their responses to short-term drought and temperature anomalies have yet to be determined using on-the-ground measurements. African tropical forests may be particularly sensitive because they exist in relatively dry conditions compared with Amazonian or Asian forests, or they may be more resistant because of an abundance of drought-adapted species. Here, we report responses of structurally intact old-growth lowland tropical forests inventoried within the African Tropical Rainforest Observatory Network (AfriTRON). We use 100 long-term inventory plots from six countries each measured at least twice prior to and once following the 2015–2016 El Niño event. These plots experienced the highest temperatures and driest conditions on record. The record temperature did not significantly reduce carbon gains from tree growth or significantly increase carbon losses from tree mortality, but the record drought did significantly decrease net carbon uptake. Overall, the long-term biomass increase of these forests was reduced due to the El Niño event, but these plots remained a live biomass carbon sink (0.51 ± 0.40 Mg C ha −1 y −1 ) despite extreme environmental conditions. Our analyses, while limited to African tropical forests, suggest they may be more resistant to climatic extremes than Amazonian and Asian forests., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Published
2021

33. Title: The NASA AfriSAR Campaign: Airborne SAR and Lidar Measurements of Tropical Forest Structure and Biomass in Support of Future Space Missions

Author

Hao Tang, Yunling Lou, David Kenfack, J. Armston, Kathryn Jane Jeffery, Marco Lavalle, Christy Hansen, Lee White, Scott Hensley, Pulchérie Bissiengou, Brian Hawkins, Ghislain Moussavou, Kathleen Hibbard, Naiara Pinto, S. Marselis, C. E. Silva, Temilola Fatoyinbo, Laura Duncanson, Michael Denbina, Alfonso Alonso, Michelle Hofton, Nicolas Barbier, Steven Hancock, Sassan Saatchi, Simon L. Lewis, Nicolas Labrière, Bryan Blair, Marc Simard, Hervé Memiaghe, John R. Poulsen, and Ralph Dubayah

Subjects
Biomass (ecology), Lidar, Meteorology, National park, Environmental science, Tropical forest, Space exploration
Abstract

In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcom...

Published
2021

34. Roles of seed and establishment limitation in determining patterns of afrotropical tree recruitment.

Author

Connie J Clark, John R Poulsen, and Doug J Levey

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Quantifying the relative importance of the multiple processes that limit recruitment may hold the key to understanding tropical tree diversity. Here we couple theoretical models with a large-scale, multi-species seed-sowing experiment to assess the degree to which seed and establishment limitation shape patterns of tropical tree seedling recruitment in a central African forest. Of five randomly selected species (Pancovia laurentii, Staudtia kamerunensis, Manilkara mabokeensis, Myrianthus arboreas, and Entandophragma utile), seedling establishment and survival were low (means of 16% and 6% at 3 and 24 months, respectively), and seedling density increased with seed augmentation. Seedling recruitment was best explained by species identity and the interaction of site-by-species, suggesting recruitment probabilities vary among species and sites, and supporting the role of niche-based mechanisms. Although seed augmentation enhanced initial seedling density, environmental filtering and post-establishment mortality strongly limited seedling recruitment. The relative importance of seed and establishment limitation changed with seed and seedling density and through time. The arrival of seeds most strongly affected local recruitment when seeds were nearly absent from a site (∼ 1 seed m(2)), but was also important when seeds arrived in extremely high densities, overwhelming niche-based mortality factors. The strength of seed limitation and density-independent mortality decreased significantly over time, while density-dependent mortality showed the opposite trend. The varying strengths of seed and establishment limitation as a function of juvenile density and time emphasize the need to evaluate their roles through later stages of a tree's life cycle.

Published
2013
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35. Evaluating the potential of full-waveform lidar for mapping pan-tropical tree species richness

Author

Reuben Nilus, Doreen S. Boyd, John R. Poulsen, Steven Hancock, S. Marselis, Nicolas Labrière, Katharine Abernethy, David A. Coomes, Alfonso Alonso, Hao Tang, Oliver L. Phillips, Ross A. Hill, Ralph Dubayah, James R. Kellner, Jean-François Bastin, Hervé Memiaghe, Michael O'Brien, Timothy R. Baker, Chris Hopkinson, Hans Verbeeck, Robin L. Chazdon, Abel Monteagudo, David F. R. P. Burslem, Jan Bogaert, Pascal Boeckx, Simon L. Lewis, Elizabeth Kearsley, Laura Duncanson, David Kenfack, D. Minor, David B. Clark, and John Armston

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Canopy, Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Niche, Biodiversity, Tropics, 15. Life on land, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Proxy (climate), Taxon, Lidar, Geography, Physical geography, Species richness, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Abstract

© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: Mapping tree species richness across the tropics is of great interest for effective conservation and biodiversity management. In this study, we evaluated the potential of full-waveform lidar data for mapping tree species richness across the tropics by relating measurements of vertical canopy structure, as a proxy for the occupation of vertical niche space, to tree species richness. Location: Tropics. Time period: Present. Major taxa studied: Trees. Methods: First, we evaluated the characteristics of vertical canopy structure across 15 study sites using (simulated) large-footprint full-waveform lidar data (22 m diameter) and related these findings to in-situ tree species information. Then, we developed structure–richness models at the local (within 25–50 ha plots), regional (biogeographical regions) and pan-tropical scale at three spatial resolutions (1.0, 0.25 and 0.0625 ha) using Poisson regression. Results: The results showed a weak structure–richness relationship at the local scale. At the regional scale (within a biogeographical region) a stronger relationship between canopy structure and tree species richness across different tropical forest types was found, for example across Central Africa and in South America [R2 ranging from.44–.56, root mean squared difference as a percentage of the mean (RMSD%) ranging between 23–61%]. Modelling the relationship pan-tropically, across four continents, 39% of the variation in tree species richness could be explained with canopy structure alone (R2 =.39 and RMSD% = 43%, 0.25-ha resolution). Main conclusions: Our results may serve as a basis for the future development of a set of structure–richness models to map high resolution tree species richness using vertical canopy structure information from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI). The value of this effort would be enhanced by access to a larger set of field reference data for all tropical regions. Future research could also support the use of GEDI data in frameworks using environmental and spectral information for modelling tree species richness across the tropics.

Published
2020

36. LED flashlight technology facilitates wild meat extraction across the tropics

Author

João Valsecchi, Anamélia de Souza Jesus, Hani R. El Bizri, Anna DiPaola, Lísley Pereira Lemos, Michael P. Gilmore, Mathias W. Tobler, John R. Poulsen, Diana Meza, Pedro Mayor, John E. Fa, Mark Bowler, Matthew J. Anderson, Delia Moreno-Gutierrez, Amelia Meier, Christopher Beirne, and Guillaume Menie Menie

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Ecology, Flashlight, Wildlife, Subsistence agriculture, Tropics, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Short life, Fishery, Geography, South american, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Abstract

Hunting for wild meat in the tropics provides subsistence and income for millions 29 of people. Methods have remained relatively unchanged since the introduction of 30 shotguns and battery-powered incandescent flashlights, but due to the short life of batteries in such flashlights, nocturnal hunting has been limited. However, brighter, 32 more efficient light-emitting diode (LED) flashlights, have recently been adopted by 33 hunters. Brighter spotlights increase the freezing response of many species, and 34 greater battery life allows hunters to pursue game for longer and more frequently. 35 Hunters interviewed in African and South American forests, disclosed that LEDs 36 increase the frequency and efficiency of nocturnal hunting, and the number of kills 37 made. These changes were reflected in harvest data in Brazil. The drastic change in 38 efficiency brought about by LEDs, well known to hunters around the world, poses a 39 significant threat to wildlife. We consider the implications for communities, governments, 40 wildlife managers and conservationists

Published
2020

37. Advancing an interdisciplinary framework to study seed dispersal ecology

Author

Jeremy S. Johnson, Clare E. Aslan, Judith L. Bronstein, Janneke HilleRisLambers, Ying Zhou, Liba Pejchar, Christopher Strickland, Michael G. Neubert, Sebastian J. Schreiber, Florian Hartig, Noelle G. Beckman, Robin R. Decker, Gesine Pufal, Maria N. Miriti, Oleg Kogan, Evan C. Fricke, Onja H. Razafindratsima, Emilio M. Bruna, James M. Bullock, Damaris Zurell, Katriona Shea, Eugene W. Schupp, Katherine Gurski, Edu Efiom, Rebecca S. Snell, Bette A. Loiselle, Haldre S. Rogers, Robert Stephen Cantrell, John R. Poulsen, Alan Hastings, Manette E Sandor, Jenny Zambrano, Jedediah F. Brodie, and McConkey, Kim

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, demography, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Ecology (disciplines), Seed dispersal, Population, population models, Plant Biology, Context (language use), Plant Science, Biology, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Ecology and Environment, Special Issue: The Role of Seed Dispersal in Plant Populations: Perspectives and Advances in a Changing World, Analytical models, Temporal scales, education, global change, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, long-distance seed dispersal, 2. Zero hunger, education.field_of_study, individual-based models, Operationalization, Ecology, AcademicSubjects/SCI01210, 15. Life on land, seed dispersal, Editor's Choice, Population model, 13. Climate action, Biological dispersal
Abstract

Although dispersal is generally viewed as a crucial determinant for the fitness of any organism, our understanding of its role in the persistence and spread of plant populations remains incomplete. Generalizing and predicting dispersal processes are challenging due to context dependence of seed dispersal, environmental heterogeneity and interdependent processes occurring over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Current population models often use simple phenomenological descriptions of dispersal processes, limiting their ability to examine the role of population persistence and spread, especially under global change. To move seed dispersal ecology forward, we need to evaluate the impact of any single seed dispersal event within the full spatial and temporal context of a plant’s life history and environmental variability that ultimately influences a population’s ability to persist and spread. In this perspective, we provide guidance on integrating empirical and theoretical approaches that account for the context dependency of seed dispersal to improve our ability to generalize and predict the consequences of dispersal, and its anthropogenic alteration, across systems. We synthesize suitable theoretical frameworks for this work and discuss concepts, approaches and available data from diverse subdisciplines to help operationalize concepts, highlight recent breakthroughs across research areas and discuss ongoing challenges and open questions. We address knowledge gaps in the movement ecology of seeds and the integration of dispersal and demography that could benefit from such a synthesis. With an interdisciplinary perspective, we will be able to better understand how global change will impact seed dispersal processes, and potential cascading effects on plant population persistence, spread and biodiversity., Although dispersal is generally viewed as a crucial determinant for the fitness of any organism, our understanding of its role in the persistence and spread of plant populations remains incomplete. In this perspective, we provide guidance on integrating empirical and theoretical approaches that account for the context dependency of seed dispersal to improve our ability to generalize and predict the consequences of dispersal, and its anthropogenic alteration, across systems. With an interdisciplinary perspective, we will be able to better understand how global change will impact seed dispersal processes, and potential cascading effects on plant population persistence, spread and biodiversity.

Published
2020
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38. Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth's tropical forests

Author

Bruno Herault, Peter J. Van Der Meer, Jean-François Bastin, Aurora Levesley, Michael D. Swaine, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Martin Dančák, Matt Bradford, Frans Bongers, Stuart J. Davies, Reuben Nilus, Adriano José Nogueira Lima, Lip Khoon Kho, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Joey Talbot, Richard F. Preziosi, Jagoba Malumbres-Olarte, James A. Comiskey, Thalès de Haulleville, José Luís Camargo, Terese B. Hart, Juliana Schietti, Peter S. Ashton, Thomas E. Lovejoy, Ophelia Wang, Kanehiro Kitayama, Francis Q. Brearley, Peter van der Hout, Amy C. Bennett, Janvier Lisingo, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Lily Rodriguez Bayona, Zorayda Restrepo Correa, Jérôme Chave, Connie J. Clark, Christopher Baraloto, Gerardo Aymard, Serge K. Begne, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Abel Monteagudo-Mendoza, Geertje M. F. van der Heijden, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Timothy R. Baker, Rahayu Sukmaria Sukri, Julie Peacock, Hermann Taedoumg, Simon L. Lewis, Yahn Carlos Soto Shareva, Greta C. Dargie, Murielle Simo-Droissart, David Harris, Faizah Metali, Hans ter Steege, Richard Lowe, Géraldine Derroire, Benoit Burban, Camila Silva Valeria, Martin Svátek, Wannes Hubau, Sarah A. Batterman, Vincent A. Vos, Elizabeth Kearsley, Peter M. Umunay, Martin J. P. Sullivan, Flávia R. C. Costa, Hans Verbeeck, Maria Cristina Peñuela Mora, John R. Poulsen, Simon Willcock, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Jean-Louis Doucet, Foster Brown, Yadvinder Malhi, Luisa Fernanda Duque, Ronald Vernimmen, Miguel E. Leal, Alan Hamilton, Martin Gilpin, Colin R. Maycock, Carlos Cerón, Radim Hédl, Oliver L. Phillips, Walter Huaraca Huasco, Jon C. Lovett, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Roderick Zagt, Ted R. Feldpausch, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira, Pascal Boeckx, Roel J. W. Brienen, Marcelo F. Simon, Keith C. Hamer, Alberto Vicentini, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Clément Stahl, Javier Silva Espejo, Ana Andrade, Anand Roopsind, Erika Berenguer, Pieter A. Zuidema, Vianet Mihindou, Murray Collins, Simone Matias Reis, Emilio Vilanova Torre, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Marie Noël Kamdem Djuikouo, Terry Brncic, Percy Núñez Vargas, John Terborgh, Paulo S. Morandi, Bonaventure Sonké, Jan Bogaert, William E. Magnusson, Lilian Blanc, Terry L. Erwin, Ervan Rutishauser, Anthony Di Fiore, Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Edward T. A. Mitchard, Massiel Corrales Medina, Nicholas J. Berry, Juliana Stropp, Maureen Playfair, Luzmila Arroyo, Douglas Sheil, Armando Torres-Lezama, David A. Neill, Sean C. Thomas, Eric Arets, Ernest G. Foli, Lola da Costa, Ricardo Keichi Umetsu, Lan Qie, James Singh, Lise Zemagho, Agustín Rudas, Richard B. Primack, Jan Reitsma, Annette Hladik, Alexander K. Koch, Colin A. Pendry, Walter A. Palacios, Sabina Cerruto Ribeiro, Nicolas Labrière, Fernando Elias, Eric Chezeaux, William Milliken, Manuel Gloor, Romeo Ekoungoulou, Jefferson S. Hall, Henrique E. M. Nascimento, Susan G. Laurance, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, Marcos Silveira, Carolina V. Castilho, Plínio Barbosa de Camargo, Eurídice N. Honorio Coronado, Kamariah Abu Salim, Joeri A. Zwerts, Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiros, Jos Barlow, Georgia Pickavance, Joice Ferreira, Mark van Nieuwstadt, Jorcely Barroso, Andrew R. Marshall, Miguel Alexiades, Lindsay F. Banin, Terry Sunderland, Lourens Poorter, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Varun Swamy, Rafael Herrera, Hans Beeckman, Gerardo Flores Llampazo, Shin-ichiro Aiba, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Michelle Kalamandeen, Adriana Prieto, Ben Hur Marimon, Casimiro Mendoza, Victor Chama Moscoso, Eliana Jimenez-Rojas, Hirma Ramírez-Angulo, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Vincent Droissart, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Hannah L. Mossman, Everton Cristo de Almeida, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Ângelo Gilberto Manzatto, Aurélie Dourdain, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Raquel Thomas, David W. Galbraith, Kenneth R. Young, Nallaret Davila Cardozo, Timothy J. Killeen, Rafael de Paiva Salomão, Bente B. Klitgaard, James Taplin, Damien Bonal, Karina Melgaço, William F. Laurance, Jason Vleminckx, Esteban Alvarez Dávila, Verginia Wortel, Richarlly da Costa Silva, Thaiane Rodrigues de Sousa, Sophie Fauset, Nadir Pallqui Camacho, Wendeson Castro, Toby R. Marthews, Fabricio Beggiato Baccaro, John T. Woods, David Taylor, Patricia Alvarez Loayza, Andrew Ford, Niro Higuchi, Aida Cuni Sanchez, Aline Pontes Lopes, Laszlo Nagy, John Pipoly, Lee J. T. White, Jhon del Aguila Pasquel, European Research Council, European Commission, Royal Society (UK), Leverhulme Trust, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Brasil), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Wildlife Conservation Society, National Geographic Society, Centre for International Forestry Research, Agence Nationale Des Parcs Nationaux (Gabon), University of Leeds, Mensurat Unit, Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Centro de Pesquisa Agroflorestal de Roraima, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), Sch Geog, University of Nottingham, Department of Biology, Higher Teachers Training College (HTTC), Université deYaoundé I, School of Geography [Leeds], University of Edinburgh, School of Geography and the Environment, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford [Oxford], Grad Sch Sci & Engn, Kagoshima University, University of Kent [Canterbury], Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso (UFMT), Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Duke University [Durham], Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), University of Campinas [Campinas] (UNICAMP), National Institute for Space Research [Sao José dos Campos] (INPE), Universidad Autonoma Gabriel René Moreno (UAGRM), Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen] (WUR), Dept Organism & Evolutionary Biol, Harvard University [Cambridge], Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université des Antilles et de la Guyane (UAG)-AgroParisTech-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), Research Unit of Landscape Ecology and Plant Production Systems, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University [Bremen], Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Sch Geosci, Laboratory of Applied Physical Chemistry, Universiteit Gent = Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), Biodiversité et Paysage, Université de Liège - Gembloux, Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières [devient SILVA en 2018] (EEF), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Lorraine (UL), Forest Ecol & Forest Management Grp, CSIRO Land and Water, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Canberra] (CSIRO), Woods Hole Research Center, Partenaires INRAE, Herbario Alfredo Paredes, Universidad Agraria del Ecuador, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco (UNSAAC), Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Rougier Gabon, Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program, Federal University of Para - Universidade Federal do Para [Belem - Brésil], Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana [Loreto, Perou] (UNAP), AgroParisTech, University of Texas at Austin [Austin], Université de Liège, Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Laboratoire des Milieux Désordonnés et Hétérogènes (LMDH), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Czech Academy of Sciences [Prague] (CAS), Commissariat général du Plan (CGP), Premier ministre, Instituto Nacional de Pequisas da Amazônia, Instituto National de Pequisas da Amazonia Brazil, Éco-Anthropologie (EAE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, BP 30 379 Libreville, Gabon, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kyoto University, Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität = Friedrich Schiller University Jena [Jena, Germany], James Cook University (JCU), Laboratoire d'Etude de l'Apprentissage et du Développement [Dijon] (LEAD), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bourgogne (UB), Coordenac Bao de Pesquisas em Ecologia, Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), University of Mary Washington, Chercheur indépendant, Royal Botanic Garden , Kew, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical and Health Science Center, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (IST), Universidad Estatal Amazonica, Forest Research Centre (FRC), Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Natural History Museum [Oslo], University of Oslo (UiO), Bur Waarderburg, Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, CarboForExpert, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi [Belém, Brésil] (MPEG), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR] (CGIAR), University of Yaoundé [Cameroun], JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), European Commission - Joint Research Centre [Ispra] (JRC), Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Plant Systemat & Ecol Lab, Université de Yaoundé I, Department of Neurology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children [London] (GOSH), Naturalis Biodiversity Center [Leiden], Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Instituto de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Forestal, Universidad de los Andes [Bogota] (UNIANDES), University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Van der Hout Forestry Consulting, University Medical Center Groningen [Groningen] (UMCG), Computational & Applied Vegetation Ecology (CAVElab), Department of Integrative Biology [Berkeley] (IB), University of California [Berkeley], University of California-University of California, Sch Earth Sci & Environm Sustainabil, Northern Arizona University [Flagstaff], University of Stirling, Biol Sci, Liverpool John Moore University (ljmu), Biodiversity Department, Center for Agricultural Research in Suriname (CELOS), Sub Ecology and Biodiversity, Sub Animal Ecology, Ecology and Biodiversity, Animal Ecology, and Systems Ecology

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Tropical trees, Hot Temperature, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Earth, Planet, Climate, Acclimatization, Tropical forest carbon stocks, Bos- en Landschapsecologie, Growth, Forests, Atmospheric sciences, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, 01 natural sciences, Trees, Tropical climate, SDG 13 - Climate Action, Forest and Landscape Ecology, Biomass, Photosynthesis, Hectare, Productivity, Biomass (ecology), Multidisciplinary, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, PE&RC, Wood, Productivity (ecology), Vegetatie, Bos- en Landschapsecologie, C180 Ecology, Tree, Leaf Respiration, Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks, Climate Change, Climate change and forestry, Climate change, 010603 evolutionary biology, Carbon cycle, Carbon Cycle, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, Life Science, Bosecologie en Bosbeheer, Vegetatie, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, Tropical Climate, Vegetation, Global warming, Tropics, 15. Life on land, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Carbon, CO₂ Fertilization, 13. Climate action, Environmental science, Vegetation, Forest and Landscape Ecology, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, Acclimation
Abstract

The sensitivity of tropical forest carbon to climate is a key uncertainty in predicting global climate change. Although short-term drying and warming are known to affect forests, it is unknown if such effects translate into long-term responses. Here, we analyze 590 permanent plots measured across the tropics to derive the equilibrium climate controls on forest carbon. Maximum temperature is the most important predictor of aboveground biomass (-9.1 megagrams of carbon per hectare per degree Celsius), primarily by reducing woody productivity, and has a greater impact per °C in the hottest forests (>32.2°C). Our results nevertheless reveal greater thermal resilience than observations of short-term variation imply. To realize the long-term climate adaptation potential of tropical forests requires both protecting them and stabilizing Earth's climate., Our plot monitoring networks havebeen supported by multiple grants from a large number of funding bodies: European Research Council; Natural Environment Research Council; European Union’s Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Framework Programme; Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; David and Lucile Packard Foundation; State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP); National Council for Science and Technology Development of Brazil (CNPq); Agence Nationale de la Recherche; Conservation International; Missouri Botanical Garden; Smithsonian Institution; Wildlife Conservation Society; National Geographic Society; Centre for International Forestry; and Gabon’s National Park Agency.

Published
2020

40. Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal are diverse and pervasive

Author

Evan C. Fricke, John R. Poulsen, Onja H. Razafindratsima, Clare E. Aslan, Rebecca S. Snell, Rafał Zwolak, Manette E Sandor, Brittany R. Cavazos, Noelle G. Beckman, Eugene W. Schupp, Landon R. Jones, Edu O. Effiom, Katriona Shea, Flavia A. Montaño-Centellas, and McConkey, Kim

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Range (biology), Seed dispersal, Crop size, seed dispersal traits, Plant Biology, Context (language use), Plant Science, Biology, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Intraspecific competition, intraindividual variation, Special Issue: The Role of Seed Dispersal in Plant Populations: Perspectives and Advances in a Changing World, interindividual variation, 2. Zero hunger, seed dispersal effectiveness, Ecology, 15. Life on land, fruit size, Editor's Choice, Variation (linguistics), Habitat, Trait, Biological dispersal, 010606 plant biology & botany
Abstract

There is growing realization that intraspecific variation in seed dispersal can have important ecological and evolutionary consequences. However, we do not have a good understanding of the drivers or causes of intraspecific variation in dispersal, how strong an effect these drivers have, and how widespread they are across dispersal modes. As a first step to developing a better understanding, we present a broad, but not exhaustive, review of what is known about the drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal, and what remains uncertain. We start by decomposing ‘drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal’ into intrinsic drivers (i.e. variation in traits of individual plants) and extrinsic drivers (i.e. variation in ecological context). For intrinsic traits, we further decompose intraspecific variation into variation among individuals and variation of trait values within individuals. We then review our understanding of the major intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal, with an emphasis on variation among individuals. Crop size is the best-supported and best-understood intrinsic driver of variation across dispersal modes; overall, more seeds are dispersed as more seeds are produced, even in cases where per seed dispersal rates decline. Fruit/seed size is the second most widely studied intrinsic driver, and is also relevant to a broad range of seed dispersal modes. Remaining intrinsic drivers are poorly understood, and range from effects that are probably widespread, such as plant height, to drivers that are most likely sporadic, such as fruit or seed colour polymorphism. Primary extrinsic drivers of variation in seed dispersal include local environmental conditions and habitat structure. Finally, we present a selection of outstanding questions as a starting point to advance our understanding of individual variation in seed dispersal., Intraspecific variation in the quantity and quality of seed dispersal has important ecological and evolutionary consequences, yet it is generally ignored in favour of simply using population mean values. In a broad but not exhaustive review we show that drivers of intraspecific variation in seed dispersal are diverse and pervasive. These include both intrinsic (i.e. variation in traits of individual plants) and extrinsic (i.e. variation in ecological context) drivers. Further, these drivers appear to interact frequently in complex ways. Current theory does not include or account for these complex and interacting drivers.

Published
2019

41. Ecological consequences of forest elephant declines for Afrotropical forests

Author

Amelia Meier, Sally E. Koerner, Jennifer Callejas, Emily Mills, Emily J. Blanchard, Mark Sowers, Cooper Rosin, Chase L. Nuñez, Sarah Moore, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Conservation of Natural Resources, Herbivore, education.field_of_study, Ecology, Agroforestry, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Seed dispersal, Elephants, Logging, Population, Forests, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Geography, Habitat, Megafauna, Animals, Biological dispersal, Trampling, education, Ecosystem, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation
Abstract

Poaching is rapidly extirpating African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) from most of their historical range, leaving vast areas of elephant-free tropical forest. Elephants are ecological engineers that create and maintain forest habitat; thus, their loss will have large consequences for the composition and structure of Afrotropical forests. Through a comprehensive literature review, we evaluated the roles of forest elephants in seed dispersal, nutrient recycling, and herbivory and physical damage to predict the cascading ecological effects of their population declines. Loss of seed dispersal by elephants will favor tree species dispersed abiotically and by smaller dispersal agents, and tree species composition will depend on the downstream effects of changes in elephant nutrient cycling and browsing. Loss of trampling and herbivory of seedlings and saplings will result in high tree density with release from browsing pressures. Diminished seed dispersal by elephants and high stem density are likely to reduce the recruitment of large trees and thus increase homogeneity of forest structure and decrease carbon stocks. The loss of ecological services by forest elephants likely means Central African forests will be more like Neotropical forests, from which megafauna were extirpated thousands of years ago. Without intervention, as much as 96% of Central African forests will have modified species composition and structure as elephants are compressed into remaining protected areas. Stopping elephant poaching is an urgent first step to mitigating these effects, but long-term conservation will require land-use planning that incorporates elephant habitat into forested landscapes that are being rapidly transformed by industrial agriculture and logging.

Published
2018

42. Phylogenetic classification of the world's tropical forests

Author

Priya Davidar, Andreas Hemp, Francis Q. Brearley, Marcio Seiji Suganuma, Sandra Brown, Robin L. Chazdon, Rahmad Zakaria, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, Robert M. Kooyman, Nina Farwig, H. S. Suresh, Márcio de Morisson Valeriano, Christine B. Schmitt, Gemma Rutten, Tereza C. Spósito, Ed V.J. Tanner, Shijo Joseph, Kipiro Damas, Janet Franklin, Samir Gonçalves Rolim, Orlando Rangel, H. S. Dattaraja, Francisco Mora, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Richard Field, Khairil Mahmud, Patrick A. Jansen, Raman Sukumar, Nobuo Imai, Xinghui Lu, Susan G. Laurance, Guillermo Ibarra-Manríquez, Hoang Van Sam, Rahayu Sukmaria Sukri, Gerardo Aymard, Emanuel H. Martin, Daniel M. Griffith, Campbell O. Webb, Katrin Boehning-Gaese, William F. Laurance, Timothy J. Killeen, Marcelo Tabarelli, Jeremy A. Lindsell, Ulf Pommer, Queila Souza Garcia, Natalia Targhetta, Christelle Gonmadje, C. Yves Adou Yao, Fabian Brambach, Shengbin Chen, Saara J. DeWalt, Robert Steinmetz, Rama Chandra Prasad, Miguel A. Munguía-Rosas, Phourin Chhang, Donald R. Drake, Salomón Aguilar, Giselda Durigan, Jennifer S. Powers, Jon C. Lovett, Jean Philippe Puyravaud, Susan K. Wiser, Michael Kessler, Pia Parolin, Runguo Zang, Hazimah Din, DIogo S.B. Rocha, Carlos Alfredo Joly, Kalle Ruokolainen, Ole R. Vetaas, Zhofre Aguirre Mendoza, Jorge A. Ahumada, Jurgi Cristóbal-Azkarate, Jan Reitsma, Hans Verbeeck, Polyanna da Conceição Bispo, Eizi Suzuki, David Harris, Florian Wittmann, Shauna-Lee Chai, Supriyadi, Felipe P. L. Melo, Darley C.L. Matos, Victor A. J. Adekunle, Michael J. Lawes, Faizah Metali, Eddy Nurtjahya, Thiago Metzker, John N. Williams, Vincent P. Medjibe, Lan Qi, Rhett D. Harrison, Johan van Valkenburg, John Vandermeer, Susan G. Letcher, Sandra L. Yap, Andy Hector, Kenneth J. Feeley, Terry Sunderland, Lourens Poorter, Ni Putu Diana Mahayani, Francesco Rovero, Alexandre F. Souza, Markus Fischer, Tsutomu Enoki, Eduardo Schmidt Eler, Ekananda Paudel, Pascal Boeckx, Marc P. E. Parren, Patricia Balvanera, Tariq Stévart, M. Shah Hussain, José Roberto Rodrigues Pinto, Frans Bongers, Plinio Sist, George B. Chuyong, Mohd Nizam Mohd Said, Jonathan Timberlake, J. W. Ferry Slik, Adandé Belarmain Fandohan, Jean-François Bastin, Nikolay Aguirre, Asyraf Mansor, José Lozada, Yves Laumonier, Mark Schulze, Ida Theilade, D. Mohandass, John R. Poulsen, Peter J. Bellingham, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Onrizal, Rolando Perez, Andes Hamuraby Rozak, Thomas W. Gillespie, Olle Forshed, Duncan Thomas, Philippe Saner, Andreas Ensslin, Douglas Sheil, Edward L. Webb, Anne Mette Lykke, Kuswata Kartawinata, Ervan Rutishauser, Eddie Lenza De Oliveira, Swapan Kumar Sarker, Elizabeth Kearsley, Wilson Roberto Spironello, Íñigo Granzow-de la Cerda, Karl A. O. Eichhorn, Rodrigo Muñoz, Shin-ichiro Aiba, Xiaobo Yang, Andrew R. Marshall, I. Faridah Hanum, Jean François Gillet, Corneille E. N. Ewango, K. Anitha, Eduardo A. Pérez-García, Jürgen Homeier, Satish Chandra Garkoti, Khalid Rehman Hakeem, Tran Van Do, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, Aisha Sultana, Luciana F. Alves, Meredith L. Bastian, Eduardo van den Berg, João Roberto dos Santos, Rakan A. Zahawi, Selene Báez, Felipe Zamborlini Saiter, Daniel L. Kelly, Jochen Schoengart, Bráulio A. Santos, Serge A. Wich, Jean Paul Metzger, Alvaro Duque, Andres Avella, Heike Culmsee, Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade, Jorge A. Meave, Brad Boyle, James Grogan, Jianwei Tang, and Evolutionary and Population Biology (IBED, FNWI)

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Environmental change, Geography & travel, Tropical forests, 580 Plants (Botany), Species Composition, Forests, 01 natural sciences, Corrections, Floristics, Tropic Climate, biogeographic legacies, Forest structure, Tropical Rain Forest, forest functional similarity, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, Conservation Of Natural Resources, Frest functional similarity, Phylogeny, media_common, ddc:910, tropical forests, Multidisciplinary, GE, Phylogenetic tree, Ecology, Biodiversity, RAIN-FOREST, Plants, Biological Sciences, Classification, REGIONS, PE&RC, forest classification, Geography, Biogeography, Phylogenetic community distance, Priority Journal, Environmental Monitoring, Conservation of Natural Resources, Asia, media_common.quotation_subject, Climate Change, Forest Structure, ta1171, India, Subtropics, 010603 evolutionary biology, Cladistics, ddc:570, Biogeographic legacies, Madagascar, Genetics, Forest functional similarity, Bosecologie en Bosbeheer, Forest, PLANT DIVERSITY, Tropical Climate, Western Hemisphere, QH, QK, Information Processing, foreste, filogenesi, conservazione, Biology and Life Sciences, ANGIOSPERMS, Plant, 15. Life on land, Nonhuman, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Forest classification, Forest Dynamics, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, PATTERNS, UPDATE, cavelab, Environmental Protection, 010606 plant biology & botany, Diversity (politics), Phylogenetic nomenclature, phylogenetic community distance
Abstract

Significance Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, diversity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification that is explicitly based on community evolutionary similarity, resulting in identification of five major tropical forest regions and their relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. African and American forests are grouped, reflecting their former western Gondwanan connection, while Indo-Pacific forests range from eastern Africa and Madagascar to Australia and the Pacific. The connection between northern-hemisphere Asian and American forests is confirmed, while Dry forests are identified as a single tropical biome., Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world’s tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition, and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region-specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present a classification of the world’s tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional neo- versus paleotropical forest division but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar, and India. Additionally, a northern-hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern-hemisphere forests.

Published
2018

43. From town to national park: Understanding the long-term effects of hunting and logging on tree communities in Central Africa

Author

Connie J. Clark, Vincent P. Medjibe, Vincent Maicher, David Harris, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
geography, geography.geographical_feature_category, Ecology, National park, Logging, Forestry, Rainforest, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Old-growth forest, Disturbance (ecology), Seed predation, Species richness, Shade tolerance, Nature and Landscape Conservation
Abstract

Anthropogenic disturbances are changing the structure and composition of tropical forests worldwide. Multiple disturbances often occur simultaneously in forests. Hunting and logging, for example, are within-forest disturbances that impact vast areas of seemingly intact rainforests. Despite recent work on the individual effects of these disturbances, our understanding of how they interact to influence tree communities is still limited. In northern Republic of Congo, we explored the effects of hunting and logging on tree communities. Over an 8-year period, we monitored 12,552 tree stems (≥10 cm diameter-at-breast height) spread over 30 1-ha plots along a gradient of human disturbance to compare the tree diversity between hunted and logged forest, once-logged forest, and protected forest free of both disturbances. Tree density, species richness, and community composition were affected by both hunting and logging. Forest close to human settlements was richer, more heterogenous, and more dynamic in species composition across censuses. In hunted and logged forest, fast-growing secondary species with low shade tolerance replaced old growth species. Comparatively, the once-logged forest had the greatest stem density and intermediate species richness with an increased density of shade-bearing species over time. Both tree species spatial turnover and tree recruitment were greatly affected by proximity to human settlements. A shift towards abiotically dispersed trees and increasing seed predation by rodents near villages can partly explain the differences in tree recruitment across the forest types. The combination of hunting and logging seems to have a greater impact on tree communities than either single disturbance, especially with nearness to villages.

Published
2021

44. The NASA AfriSAR campaign: Airborne SAR and lidar measurements of tropical forest structure and biomass in support of current and future space missions

Author

Pulchérie Bissiengou, Kathleen Hibbard, Marco Lavalle, Steven Hancock, Scott Hensley, Hao Tang, S. Marselis, Michael Denbina, Nicolas Barbier, Carlos A. Silva, J. Armston, Temilola Fatoyinbo, Yunling Lou, Nicolas Labrière, Christy Hansen, Sassan Saatchi, Ralph Dubayah, Marc Simard, Michelle Hofton, Alfonso Alonso, Memiaghe Herve, John R. Poulsen, Laura Duncanson, Naiara Pinto, Simon L. Lewis, Brian Hawkins, David Kenfack, Ghislain Moussavou, Kathryn J. Jeffery, Lee T. J. White, Bryan Blair, NASA, University of Maryland [Baltimore], California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), National University of Singapore (NUS), Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Centre national de la recherche scientifique et technologique (CENAREST), University of Stirling, University College of London [London] (UCL), NASA Headquarters, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), and Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Synthetic aperture radar, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Forest Structure, Polarimetry, LVIS, Soil Science, [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy, 7. Clean energy, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Space exploration, BIOMASS, [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology, environment/Ecosystems, AfriSAR, Tropical Forest, Gabon, NISAR, Computers in Earth Sciences, UAVSAR, GEDI, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, Remote sensing, Lidar, Biomass (ecology), Central Africa, Geology, Vegetation, [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics, 15. Life on land, Current (stream), Airborne Campaigns, 13. Climate action, Software deployment, Environmental science, [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology, PolInSAR, SAR
Abstract

International audience; In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcoming ESA BIOMASS, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Initiative (GEDI) missions. The NASA contribution to the campaign was conducted in 2016 with the NASA LVIS (Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor) Lidar, the NASA L-band UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar). A central motivation for the AfriSAR deployment was the common AGBD estimation requirement for the three future spaceborne missions, the lack of sufficient airborne and ground calibration data covering the full range of ABGD in tropical forest systems, and the intercomparison and fusion of the technologies. During the campaign, over 7000 km2 of waveform Lidar data from LVIS and 30,000 km2 of UAVSAR data were collected over 10 key sites and transects. In addition, field measurements of forest structure and biomass were collected in sixteen 1-hectare sized plots. The campaign produced gridded Lidar canopy structure products, gridded aboveground biomass and associated uncertainties, Lidar based vegetation canopy cover profile products, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR and Tomographic SAR products and field measurements. Our results showcase the types of data products and scientific results expected from the spaceborne Lidar and SAR missions; we also expect that the AfriSAR campaign data will facilitate further analysis and use of waveform lidar and multiple baseline polarimetric SAR datasets for carbon cycle, biodiversity, water resources and more applications by the greater scientific community.

Published
2021

45. A pantropical assessment of vertebrate physical damage to forest seedlings and the effects of defaunation

Author

Alys Granados, Cooper Rosin, Varun Swamy, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Defaunation, Seed dispersal, Biology, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Plant reproduction, Tropical forest, lcsh:QH540-549.5, Hunting, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant–animal interactions, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Abiotic component, Herbivore, Ecology, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, Logging, Tropics, Plant community, biology.organism_classification, Trampling, Seedling, lcsh:Ecology
Abstract

Many of the forces that shape tropical forest plant communities are facilitated by interactions with animals, which can either promote or inhibit plant reproduction and survival across ontogenetic stages. Hunting-induced defaunation can disrupt these interactions, altering tree recruitment, forest structure, and carbon storage, with strong effects at the seed and seedling stages. Research to date has largely focused on how changes to prominent interactions (especially seed dispersal) affect plant species and communities, while concurrent disruptions to less-studied processes may have opposing effects. With a particularly limited understanding of non-trophic interactions – such as physical damage to seedlings by vertebrate trampling, rooting, and digging – it remains difficult to predict the outcomes of defaunation for tropical forest plant communities. We established 1800 artificial seedlings in 18 intact and disturbed sites across the three main tropical forest regions – the Neotropics (Peru), the Afrotropics (Gabon) and the Indo-Malayan tropics (Malaysian Borneo) – to isolate non-trophic vertebrate physical damage from other causes of seedling mortality (herbivory, pathogens, abiotic desiccation, etc.), and to understand its effects in intact and anthropogenically-disturbed forests. We found that vertebrate physical damage is a consistent force in forests across the tropics, and that hunting significantly alters its strength, with a ∼70% decrease in damage in hunted vs. intact sites that resulted in a ∼3.5-fold (350%) increase in artificial seedling survival. Our results reveal an understudied mechanism that may contribute to changes in seedling survival, stem density, and plant community composition in tropical forests subjected to hunting.

Published
2017

46. The riverine source of CH4 and N2O from the Republic of Congo, western Congo Basin

Author

Bienvenu Jean Dinga, Robert M. Holmes, Gregory J. Fiske, Jonathan Barnes, Robert C. Upstill-Goddard, Matthew Salter, Paul J. Mann, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Hydrology, Wet season, geography, geography.geographical_feature_category, 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Discharge, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, 01 natural sciences, Swamp, Macrophyte, Soil water, Dry season, Tributary, Environmental science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences, Earth-Surface Processes, Main stem
Abstract

We discuss concentrations of dissolved CH4, N2O, O2, NO3− and NH4+, and emission fluxes of CH4 and N2O for river sites in the western Congo Basin, Republic of Congo (ROC). Savannah, swamp forest and tropical forest samples were collected from the Congo main stem and seven of its tributaries during November 2010 (41 samples; wet season) and August 2011 (25 samples; dry season; CH4 and N2O only). Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN: NH4++ NO3−; wet season) was dominated by NO3− (63 ± 19 % of DIN). Total DIN concentrations (1.5–45.3 µmol L−1) were consistent with the near absence of agricultural, domestic and industrial sources for all three land types. Dissolved O2 (wet season) was mostly undersaturated in swamp forest (36 ± 29 %) and tropical forest (77 ± 36 %) rivers but predominantly supersaturated in savannah rivers (100 ± 17 %). The dissolved concentrations of CH4 and N2O were within the range of values reported earlier for sub-Saharan African rivers. Dissolved CH4 was found to be supersaturated (11.2–9553 nmol L−1; 440–354 444 %), whereas N2O ranged from strong undersaturation to supersaturation (3.2–20.6 nmol L−1; 47–205 %). Evidently, rivers of the ROC are persistent local sources of CH4 and can be minor sources or sinks for N2O. During the dry season the mean and range of CH4 and N2O concentrations were quite similar for the three land types. Wet and dry season mean concentrations and ranges were not significant for N2O for any land type or for CH4 in savannah rivers. The latter observation is consistent with seasonal buffering of river discharge by an underlying sandstone aquifer. Significantly higher wet season CH4 concentrations in swamp and forest rivers suggest that CH4 can be derived from floating macrophytes during flooding and/or enhanced methanogenesis in adjacent flooded soils. Swamp rivers also exhibited both low (47 %) and high (205 %) N2O saturation but wet season values were overall significantly lower than in either tropical forest or savannah rivers, which were always supersaturated (103–266 %) and for which the overall means and ranges of N2O were not significantly different. In swamp and forest rivers O2 saturation co-varied inversely with CH4 saturation (log %) and positively with % N2O. A significant positive correlation between N2O and O2 saturation in swamp rivers was coincident with strong N2O and O2 undersaturation, indicating N2O consumption during denitrification in the sediments. In savannah rivers persistent N2O supersaturation and a negative correlation between N2O and O2 suggest N2O production mainly by nitrification. This is consistent with a stronger correlation between N2O and NH4+ than between N2O and NO3−. Our ranges of values for CH4 and N2O emission fluxes (33–48 705 µmol CH4 m−2 d−1; 1–67 µmol N2O m−2 d−1) are within the ranges previously estimated for sub-Saharan African rivers but they include uncertainties deriving from our use of basin-wide values for CH4 and N2O gas transfer velocities. Even so, because we did not account for any contribution from ebullition, which is quite likely for CH4 (at least 20 %), we consider our emission fluxes for CH4 to be conservative.

Published
2017

47. Forest structure determines the abundance and distribution of large lianas in Gabon

Author

John R. Poulsen, Lee J. T. White, Vincent P. Medjibe, Sally E. Koerner, Zewei Miao, and Ludovic Ngok Banak

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, Global and Planetary Change, Biomass (ecology), 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences, Ecology, business.industry, Tropics, Distribution (economics), 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Geography, Liana, Abundance (ecology), Forest structure, business, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Published
2016

48. Hunting-induced defaunation drives increased seed predation and decreased seedling establishment of commercially important tree species in an Afrotropical forest

Author

John R. Poulsen and Cooper Rosin

Subjects
0106 biological sciences, biology, Reproductive success, Ecology, Defaunation, 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology, food and beverages, Forestry, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, biology.organism_classification, 010603 evolutionary biology, 01 natural sciences, Seedling, Seed predation, Exclosure, Biological dispersal, Trophic cascade, Aucoumea klaineana, Nature and Landscape Conservation
Abstract

Human hunting is widespread in tropical forests and can substantially alter the plant-animal interactions that drive tree recruitment. Seed predation is a strong determinant of plant reproductive success, but it remains unclear how defaunation modifies this process. We examined the effects of hunting-induced defaunation on seed predation and seedling establishment, using replicated exclosure treatments at six sites across a defaunation gradient in northeastern Gabon. We monitored 5580 seeds of eight commercially important tree species that varied in seed traits such as size and dispersal mode. Rodents caused the greatest seed mortality for all species, removing ∼60% of accessible seeds. In comparison, invertebrates and fungi together caused just 6% of seed mortality. With protection from rodents, more than twice as many seeds established as seedlings, demonstrating that vertebrate seed predation was a strong filter on recruitment. With increasing defaunation, the proportion of seeds removed by rodents increased significantly, and seedling establishment decreased significantly, for most species. In heavily defaunated sites, with the lowest abundances of large mammals, seed removal by rodents increased by 63% and seedling establishment decreased by 42% compared to sites with intact fauna. Diminished seedling establishment is likely to reduce the regeneration of many tree species – including some with commercial importance – in hunted forests, with detrimental economic consequences. In turn, declines in timber regeneration may increase the likelihood that selectively logged forests are converted to non-forest land uses with little conservation value. Appropriate management could preclude these outcomes, to the benefit of both wildlife and natural timber regeneration.

Published
2016

49. Disturbance Sensitivity Shapes Patterns of Tree Species Distribution in Afrotropical Lowland Rainforests More Than Climate or Soil

Author

Chase L. Nuñez, James S Clark, and John R. Poulsen

Subjects
Abiotic component, Geography, Ecology, Tree inventory, Biodiversity, Climate change, Plant community, Rainforest, Proxy (climate), Ecosystem services
Abstract

Understanding how tropical forests respond to changes in the abiotic environment and human disturbance is critical for preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and maintaining ecosystem services in the coming century. To evaluate the relative roles of the abiotic environment and disturbance on Afrotropical forest community composition we employ tree inventory data, remotely sensed historic climatic data, and soil nutrient data collected from 30 1-ha plots distributed across a large-scale observational experiment in previously logged, hunted, and pristine forests in northern Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). We show that Afrotropical plant communities are more sensitive to human disturbance than to climate, with particular sensitivities to hunting and distance to village (a proxy for other human activities, including tree-cutting, gathering, etc.). This study serves as an important counterpoint to work done in the Neotropics by providing contrasting predictions for Afrotropical forests with substantially different ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic histories.

Published
2019
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50. Afrotropical Tree Communities May Have Distinct Responses to Forecasted Climate Change

Author

Chase L. Nuñez, John R. Poulsen, and James S. Clark

Subjects
Climatic data, Abiotic component, Geography, Disturbance (ecology), Ecology, Biome, Biodiversity, Climate change, Species richness, Ecosystem services
Abstract

More refined knowledge of how tropical forests respond to changes in the abiotic environment and human disturbance is necessary to mitigating climate change, maintain biodiversity, and preserve ecosystem services. To evaluate the unique response of Afrotropical forests to changes in the abiotic environment and disturbance, we employ species inventories, remotely sensed historic climatic data, and future climate predictions collected from 104 1-ha plots in the central African country of Gabon. We forecast a 3 - 8% decrease in Afrotropical forest species richness by the end of the century, in contrast to the 30-50% loss of plant diversity predicted to occur with equivalent warming in the Neotropics. This work reveals that community forecasts are not generalizable across regions, and more representative studies are needed in understudied biomes like the Afrotropics. This study serves as an important counterpoint to work done in the Neotropics by providing contrasting predictions for Afrotropical forests with substantially different ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic histories.

Published
2019

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