The terrestrial carbon sink has been large in recent decades, but its size and location remain uncertain. Using forest inventory data and long-term ecosystem carbon studies, we estimate a total forest sink of 2.4 ± 0.4 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year(-1)) globally for 1990 to 2007. We also estimate a source of 1.3 ± 0.7 Pg C year(-1) from tropical land-use change, consisting of a gross ...

The potential influence of diversity on ecosystem structure and function remains a topic of significant debate, especially for tropical forests where diversity can range widely. We used Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) methodology to establish forest dynamics plots in montane wet forest and lowland dry forest on Hawai'i Island. We compared the species diversity, tree density, basal are...

Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients for plant growth and a major constituent of proteins that regulate photosynthetic and respiratory processes. However, a comprehensive global analysis of nitrogen allocation in leaves for major processes with respect to different plant functional types (PFTs) is currently lacking. This study integrated observations from global databases with photos...

Myanmar's recent transition from military rule towards a more democratic government has largely ended decades of political and economic isolation. Although Myanmar remains heavily forested, increased development in recent years has been accompanied by exceptionally high rates of forest loss. In this study, we document the rapid progression of deforestation in and around the proposed Lenya Natio...

Forest cover is an important input variable for assessing changes to carbon stocks, climate and hydrological systems, biodiversity richness, and other sustainability science disciplines. Despite incremental improvements in our ability to quantify rates of forest clearing, there is still no definitive understanding on global trends. Without timely and accurate forest monitoring methods, policy r...

ABSTRACT During 2001 to 2003, the transmission biology of Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of sudden oak death, was studied in mixedevergreen forest, a common forest type in northern, coastal California. Investigation of the sources of spore production focused on coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and bay laurel (Umbellularia californica), dominant hosts that comprised 39.7 and 46.2% of t...

Less than half of anthropogenic carbon emissions are accumulating in the atmosphere, due to large net fluxes into both the oceans and the land (Le Qu er e et al., 2012). The land sink in particular has increased markedly, doubling in strength since the 1960s, to reach 26 petagrams of carbon in the latest decade. However, the location and drivers of this large terrestrial sink are still relative...

IT IS WIDELY ANTICIPATED THAT HABITAT LOSS will cause a mass extinction of tropical forest species. To evaluate this possibility, Wright & Muller-Landau (2006, henceforth WML) project future net tropical forest loss from United Nations projections of human population growth and present day relationships between human population density and the percentage of original forest cover remaining for 4...

Tropical forests convert more atmospheric carbon into biomass each year than any terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, underscoring the importance of accurate tropical forest structure and biomass maps for the understanding and management of the global carbon cycle. Ecologists have long used field inventory plots as the main tool for understanding forest structure and biomass at landscape-to-regional...

On the other hand, it has often been stated that the tropical rain forests (tall evergreen forests in tropical warm and humid regions) around the world must be protected and conserved for the future generations (1). It has also been stated that it is most important that knowledge about the structure, diversity, and function of these ecosystems has priority in future biological research (2). Unf...