Riparian vegetation is the main source of leaves and the main energy source for low order streams. Therefore, changes in its composition affect the structure and processes in streams. We studied the contribution of the riparian vegetation by analysing the annual input of litter in deforested and forested areas of a tropical stream. The lateral, vertical (aerial) and horizontal (drift) litter in...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

Warming and drought pose a serious threat to tropical forest. Yet the extent of this threat is uncertain, given the lack of methods to evaluate the forest tree cover changes under future climate predicted by complex dynamic vegetation models. Here we develop an empirical approach based on the observed climate space of tropical trees to estimate the maximum potential tropical tree cover (MPTC) i...

Aim Dispersal assembly and niche assembly are two competing theories proposed to explain the maintenance of species diversity in tropical forests. Dispersal theory emphasizes the role of chance colonization events and distancelimited seed dispersal in explaining species abundance and distribution, whereas niche theory emphasizes differences among species in requirements for potentially limiting...

Secondary forests are more extensive than old-growth forests in many tropical regions, yet the genetic composition of colonizing populations is poorly understood. We analyzed the parentage of a founder population of 130 individuals of the canopy palm Iriartea deltoidea in a 24-year-old second-growth forest in lowland Costa Rica. Among 66 trees in adjacent old-growth forest, only two individuals...

The expansion of industrial agriculture is a primary driver of tropical forest loss (Kartodihardjo and Supriono, 2000; Abdullah and Nakagoshi, 2008; Sodhi et al., 2010). Tropical forests harbor high levels of terrestrial biodiversity and are the principal habitat for apes in Africa and Asia (Junker et al., 2012). Numerous agro-industrial crops are found in ape ranges, including oil palm, peanut...

Recent research shows that nutrient fluxes are often pulsed In tropical forests, and that pulsed versus gradual inputs have different effects on the fates of nutrients in the ecosystem. Synchrony of nutrient mineralization with plant uptake can lower competition between microbes and plants for limiting nutrients while maintaining tight nutrient cycling, whereas asynchrony can lead to losses of ...