Vulnerabilities of Tropical Forests to Climate Change: The Significance of Resident Epiphytes

1998 ◽  
pp. 379-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Benzing
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forests

Shaping forest safety nets with markets: Adaptation to climate change under changing roles of tropical forests in Congo Basin

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 498-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnson Nkem ◽  
Fobissie B. Kalame ◽  
Monica Idinoba ◽  
Olufunso A. Somorin ◽  
Ousseynou Ndoye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Safety Nets ◽  
Changing Roles

scholarly journals Climate change, allergy and asthma, and the role of tropical forests

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gennaro D’Amato ◽  
Carolina Vitale ◽  
Nelson Rosario ◽  
Herberto Josè Chong Neto ◽  
Deborah Carla Chong-Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Allergy And Asthma

scholarly journals Effects of lianas and Hurricane Wilma on tree damage in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (05) ◽  
pp. 559-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgardo I. Garrido-Pérez ◽  
Juan Manuel Dupuy ◽  
Rafael Durán-García ◽  
Mario Ucan-May ◽  
Stefan A. Schnitzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Secondary Succession ◽  
Forest Age ◽  
Hurricane Wilma ◽  
Tree Damage ◽  
Treefall Gaps ◽  
Feedback Cycle ◽  
Multiple Trees

Climate change may increase the intensity of hurricanes (Emanuel 1987, 2003), and thus the size of disturbance in tropical forests. As a consequence, disturbance-specialist plants, such as lianas, may increase in abundance there (Phillips & Gentry 1994). Putz (1984) hypothesized that lianas create larger treefall gaps by connecting trees together and pulling down multiple trees during storms. This positive-feedback cycle may increase the prevalence of lianas in disturbed tropical forests (Schnitzer & Bongers 2002, Schnitzer & Carson 2001). Alternatively, Putz (1984) proposed that lianas tie and stabilize canopies together, resulting in less disturbance. Forest age may determine the role of lianas during disturbance because liana abundance and composition vary through secondary succession (De Waltet al. 2000, Schnitzeret al. 2000). To test the two hypotheses of Putz (1984), we evaluated the effect of liana cutting between forests of different successional ages on tree damage by hurricane Wilma.

scholarly journals Thermophilization of adult and juvenile tree communities in the northern tropical Andes

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (34) ◽  
pp. 10744-10749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Duque ◽  
Pablo R. Stevenson ◽  
Kenneth J. Feeley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Tropical Andes ◽  
Tree Species Composition ◽  
Episodic Event ◽  
Adult Trees ◽  
Tree Communities ◽  
Show Evidence

Climate change is expected to cause shifts in the composition of tropical montane forests towards increased relative abundances of species whose ranges were previously centered at lower, hotter elevations. To investigate this process of “thermophilization,” we analyzed patterns of compositional change over the last decade using recensus data from a network of 16 adult and juvenile tree plots in the tropical forests of northern Andes Mountains and adjacent lowlands in northwestern Colombia. Analyses show evidence that tree species composition is strongly linked to temperature and that composition is changing directionally through time, potentially in response to climate change and increasing temperatures. Mean rates of thermophilization [thermal migration rate (TMR), °C⋅y−1] across all censuses were 0.011 °C⋅y−1 (95% confidence interval = 0.002–0.022 °C⋅y−1) for adult trees and 0.027 °C⋅y−1 (95% confidence interval = 0.009–0.050 °C⋅y−1) for juvenile trees. The fact that thermophilization is occurring in both the adult and juvenile trees and at rates consistent with concurrent warming supports the hypothesis that the observed compositional changes are part of a long-term process, such as global warming, and are not a response to any single episodic event. The observed changes in composition were driven primarily by patterns of tree mortality, indicating that the changes in composition are mostly via range retractions, rather than range shifts or expansions. These results all indicate that tropical forests are being strongly affected by climate change and suggest that many species will be at elevated risk for extinction as warming continues.

scholarly journals Seasonal and successional dynamics of size-dependent plant demographic rates in a tropical dry forest

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9636
Author(s):  
Irving Saenz-Pedroza ◽  
Richard Feldman ◽  
Casandra Reyes-García ◽  
Jorge A. Meave ◽  
Luz Maria Calvo-Irabien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Species Density ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Successional Stage ◽  
Size Dependent ◽  
Demographic Rates ◽  
Successional Stages

Tropical forests are globally important for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation but are being converted to other land uses. Conversion of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) is particularly high while their protection is low. Secondary succession allows forests to recover their structure, diversity and composition after conversion and subsequent abandonment and is influenced by demographic rates of the constituent species. However, how these rates vary between seasons for different plant sizes at different successional stages in SDTF is not known. The effect of seasonal drought may be more severe early in succession, when temperature and radiation are high, while competition and density-dependent processes may be more important at later stages, when vegetation is tall and dense. Besides, the effects of seasonality and successional stage may vary with plant size. Large plants can better compete with small plants for limiting resources and may also have a greater capacity to withstand stress. We asked how size-dependent density, species density, recruitment and mortality varied between seasons and successional stages in a SDTF. We monitored a chronosequence in Yucatan, Mexico, over six years in three 0.1 ha plots in each of three successional stages: early (3–5 years-old), intermediate (18–20 years-old) and advanced (>50 years-old). Recruitment, mortality and species gain and loss rates were calculated from wet and dry season censuses separately for large (diameter > 5 cm) and small (1–5 cm in diameter) plants. We used linear mixed-effects models to assess the effects of successional stage, seasonality and their changes through time on demographic rates and on plant and species density. Seasonality affected demographic rates and density of large plants, which exhibited high wet-season recruitment and species gain rates at the early stage and high wet-season mortality at the intermediate stage, resulting in an increase in plant and species density early in succession followed by a subsequent stabilization. Small plant density decreased steadily after only 5 years of land abandonment, whereas species density increased with successional stage. A decline in species dominance may be responsible for these contrasting patterns. Seasonality, successional stage and their changes through time had a stronger influence on large plants, likely because of large among-plot variation of small plants. Notwithstanding the short duration of our study, our results suggest that climate-change driven decreases in rainy season precipitation may have an influence on successional dynamics in our study forest as strong as, or even stronger than, prolonged or severe droughts during the dry season.

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