Tropical forests in a warming world.

Global models suggest tropical forests could face significant and unprecedented warming within the next two decades (Diffenbaugh & Scherer, 2011). These findings, combined with evidence that tropical forests may be near a high temperature threshold, suggest that these systems may be more vulnerable to climate change than previously believed (Clark et al., 2003; Doughty & Goulden, 2008). Currently, our ability to predict tropical forest responses to rising temperatures is limited, due in large part to a lack of data on tropical forest and tree processes (Saxe et al., 2001). Given the immense amount of carbon (C) cycled through these forests, even a slight change to tropical net C fluxes could have significant consequences for global C cycling and future climate. The organized oral session From Leaf to Biosphere: The Effects of a Warming Climate on Tropical Forests at the 2011 Ecological Society of America meeting in Austin, Texas brought together 10 scientists from a range of fields to synthesize existing data on tropical forest responses to increasing temperature and to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue. These scientists presented research and offered perspectives spanning molecular to global scales (Fig. 1). Here, we synthesize the key conclusions.