Glob. Change Biol. http://doi.org/gfhwgq (2018)

Climate change-driven impacts on ecosystems are now very widely reported. Surprisingly, lowland tropical forests remain relatively poorly studied in this regard, despite their global significance for biodiversity.

Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, working at the University of Leeds, and co-authors investigate whether the vegetation and functional trait compositions of intact lowland Amazonian forests have changed in response to climate drivers over a 30-year period. Three traits (maximum tree size, biogeographic water-deficit affiliation and wood density) were measured from 106 inventory plots.

They find a shift within tree communities to large-statured species — thought to be driven by increases in atmospheric CO2. A gradual shift towards more dry-affiliated genera was also detected but because long lived tropical trees respond slowly, these changes are yet to impact whole-community composition. Despite this lagged climate response, patterns consistent with climate drivers were evident. In particular, newly recruited trees tended to be dry-affiliated genera, whereas tree deaths in plots that had experienced most drying tended to affect wet-affiliated genera.