Improving a tropical cyclone's forecast and mitigating its destructive potential requires knowledge of various environmental factors that influence the cyclone's path and intensity. Herein, using a combination of observations and model simulations, we systematically demonstrate that tropical cyclone intensification is significantly affected by salinity-induced barrier layers, which are "quasi-p...

Tropical amphibian populations have undergone drastic population declines and extinctions in recent decades. Threats to tropical amphibians include habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, infectious diseases, and climate change. Successful conservation of remaining amphibian populations is hindered by a lack of funding, a shortage of political and social will, and an incomplete understanding...

Vascular diseases of the brain are the second reason of the death and the first cause of morbidity and disability worldwide. In tropical areas stroke has some particular features related to the nature of torrid zones. There are some special causes of the stroke, mainly infectious, although some of them are non-infectious. The most important etiologies are malaria, tuberculosis, cysticercosis, s...

The southern and tropical southeastern regions of the Yunnan Province in southwestern China have similar monsoonal climates and lowland tropical rain forest vegetations. The floras of both regions are dominated by tropical floristic elements (78.3% in southern Yunnan and 68.83% in southeastern Yunnan), and both belong to the Indo-Malaysian flora at the northern margin of tropical Asia. However,...

Despite considerable increased pesticide use over the past decades, little research has been done into their fate and effects in surface waters in tropical regions. In the present review, possible differences in response between temperate and tropical freshwaters to pesticide stress are discussed. Three underlying mechanisms for these differences are distinguished: (1) climate related parameter...

Many groups show higher species richness in tropical regions but the underlying causes remain unclear. Despite many competing hypotheses to explain latitudinal diversity gradients, only three processes can directly change species richness across regions: speciation, extinction and dispersal. These processes can be addressed most powerfully using large-scale phylogenetic approaches, but most pre...