Tropical ecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Nearly 30% of forest loss in tropical regions between 2001 and 2020 occurred within 1 km from roads, with a road impact index in these areas about 2.5 times higher than those beyond, according to a high-resolution road impact index developed from remote sensing data.

High-elevation tropical regions could lose their hydroclimatic stability this century due to rising temperatures and declining precipitation, putting biodiversity and water resources at risk, according to numerical climate simulations

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.

Reversed precipitation responses to Amazon deforestation show that deforestation leads to precipitation increases in the wet season and decreases in the dry season.

The classic genetics × environment × management framework, used for assessing crop yield, can be extended to include four enabling factors for yield intensification (knowledge, availability of critical goods and services, experience, and capability). The resulting framework, ‘GEM4’, enables managers and advisors to identify farm-level constraints to yield intensification. The framework may be a useful tool for research and development initiatives at local or global levels supporting crop yield intensification.

A field experiment in Uganda shows how potassium and phosphorus keep leaves functioning during times of water scarcity, highlighting the need to consider ecosystem-scale processes in studying the response of forests to nutrient limitation.

A large-scale coordinated experiment shows low seagrass resilience to tropicalization-induced herbivory beyond the tropics.

A network of more than 100 researchers tracked trees for up to 30 years in forest plots across South America, enabling estimation of the impacts of record temperatures and drought on carbon dynamics. The carbon sink in these forests ceased during the 2015–2016 El Niño, with drier forests losing the most carbon.

An analysis of millions of wildlife photographs has revealed that survival and colonization probabilities of mammals in protected areas are associated with people and what they do both inside and outside these areas.

Many coral reefs suffer from the effects of overfishing, which threatens biodiversity and erodes human livelihoods. A study now reveals where fished reefs boost their total productivity, providing a means of resilience.