Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change

Edited by Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips

First synthesis of the potential sensitivity of tropical forests to global climate change
Authors for every chapter have been carefully chosen from the world's leading scientists in the field, giving readers access to the very latest thinking and findings in this important area, and every chapter has been rigorously peer-reviewed
Figures and photographs, in colour and black-and-white, assist the reader in comprehending key global patterns and trends in tropical forest climate and ecology
Chapters are pitched to convey the latest scientific findings to as wide an audience as possible, bringing important and cutting-edge science to students as well as to practising scientists
A broad range of topics is covered, from paleoecology to plant physiology and from field ecology to atmospheric science, giving the reader a broad perspective on tropical forests in the past, present and future

Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change

Edited by Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips

Description

Tropical forests represent the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and play a key role in hydrology, carbon storage and exchange. Many of the human-induced pressures these regions are facing, e.g. fragmentation and deforestation, have been widely reported and well documented. However, there have been surprisingly few efforts to synthesize cutting-edge science in the area of tropical forest interaction with atmospheric change. At a time when our global atmosphere is undergoing a period of rapid change, both in terms of climate and in the cycling of essential elements such as carbon and nitrogen, a thorough and up-to-date analysis is now timely. This research level text, suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers in plant ecology, tropical forestry, climate change science, and conservation biology, explores the vigorous contemporary debate as to how rapidly tropical forests may be affected by atmospheric change, and what this may mean for their future.

Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change

Edited by Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips

Foreword
Contemporary atmospheric change in the tropics
1. Spatial patterns and recent trends in the climate of tropical rainforest regions, Yadvinder Malhi and James Wright
2. Impacts of future CO2 increase, climate change and deforestation on tropical forests, Wolfgang Cramer, Alberte Bondeau, Sibyll Schaphoff, Wolfgang Lucht, Ben Smith and Stephen Sitch
3. Forest-climate interactions in fragmented tropical landscapes, William F. Laurance
Atmospheric change and ecosystem processes
4. Are concerted, widespread, directional changes occurring in the structure and dynamics of South American tropical forests?, S. L. Lewis, O. L. Phillips, T. R. Baker, J. Lloyd, Y. Malhi, S. Almeida, N. Higuchi, W. F. Laurance, D. A. Neill, J. N. M. Silva, J. Terborgh, A. Torres Lezama, R. Vásquez Martínez, S. Brown, J. Chave, C. Kuebler, P. Núñez Vargas and B. Vinceti
5. Tropical forests and atmospheric change: a summary of ecophysiological and biogeochemical responses, Jeffrey Q. Chambers and Whendee L. Silver
6. Through enhanced tree dynamics, CO2 enrichment may cause tropical forests to lose carbon, Christian Körner
7. The response by tropical forest ecosystems to drought, Patrick Meir and John Grace
Observations of contemporary change in tropical forests
8. Ecological responses to El Niño-induced surface fires in central Brazilian Amazonia: management implications for flammable tropical forests, Jos Barlow and Carlos A. Peres
9. Pervasive alteration of tree communities in undisturbed Amazonian forests: effects of global change?, William F. Laurance, Alexandre A. Oliveira, Susan G. Laurance, Richard Condit, Henrique E. M. Nascimento, Ana Andrade, Christopher W. Dick, Ana C. Sanchez-Thorin, Thomas E. Lovejoy, José E. L. S. Ribeiro
10. Amazon tree turnover in the late twentieth century, O. Phillips, T. Baker, L. Arroyo, N. Higuchi, T. Killeen, W.F. Laurance, S.L. Lewis, J. Lloyd, Y. Malhi, A. Monteagudo, D. Neill, P. Núñez Vargas, N. Silva, J. Terborgh, R. Vásquez Martínez, M. Alexiades, S. Almeida, S. Brown, J. Chave, J.A. Comiskey, C.I. Czimczik, A. Di Fiore, T. Erwin, C. Kuebler, S.G. Laurance, H.E.M. Nascimento, J. Olivier, W. Palacios, S. Patiño, N. Pitman, C.A. Quesada, M. Saldias, A. Torres Lezama and B. Vinceti
11. Increasing biomass in Amazonian forest plots, Timothy R. Baker, Oliver L. Phillips, Yadvinder Malhi, Samuel Almeida, Luzmila Arroyo, Anthony Di Fiore, Terry Erwin, Niro Higuchi, Timothy J. Killeen, Susan G. Laurance, William F. Laurance, Simon L. Lewis, Abel Monteagudo, David A. Neill, Percy Núnez Vargas, Nigel C.A. Pitman, J. Natalino M. Silva, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez
12. Predicting the impacts of global environmental changes on tropical forests, Simon L. Lewis, Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver L. Phillips
13. Error propagation and scaling for tropical forest biomass estimates, Jerome Chave, Guillem Chust, Richard Condit, Salomon Aguilar, Andres Hernandez, Suzanne Lao, Rolando Perez
The past and future of tropical forests
14. The longevity and resilience of the Amazon Rainforest, Mark Maslin
15. Responses of Amazonian ecosystems to climatic and atmospheric CO2 changes since the Last Glacial Maximum, Francis E. Mayle and Mark B. Bush
16. Modelling the past and future fate of the Amazonian Forest, Sharon A. Cowling, Richard A. Betts, Peter M. Cox, Virginia J. Ettwein, Chris D. Jones, Mark A. Maslin and Steven A. Spall
17. Climate change and speciation in Neotropical seasonally dry forest plants, R. Toby Pennington, Matt Lavin, Darién E. Prado, Colin A. Pendry, Susan K. Pell
Synthesis Oliver Phillips and Yadvinder Malhi

Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change

Edited by Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips

Author Information

Yadvinder Malhi is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK, and Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of the Atmosphere and Biosphere, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK. Oliver Phillips is Reader in Tropical Ecology in the Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK, and Visiting Researcher at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, USA. He was awarded the British Ecological Society's 'Founder Prize' in 2004 for outstanding early career ecological research.

Contributors:

M. Alexiades
S. Almeida
Ana Andrade
L. Arroyo
T. Baker
Jos Barlow
Alberte Bondeau
S. Brown
Jeffrey Q. Chambers
J. Chave
J. A. Comiskey
Richard Condit
Wolfgang Cramer
C.I. Czimczik
Christopher W. Dick
A. Di Fiore
T. Erwin
John Grace
N. Higuchi
T. Killeen
Christian Körner
C. Kuebler
Susan G. Laurance
William F. Laurance
S. L. Lewis
A. Torres Lezama
J. Lloyd
Thomas E. Lovejoy
Wolfgang Lucht
Yadvinder Malhi
Patrick Meir
A. Monteagudo
Henrique E. M. Nascimento
D. A. Neill
P. Núñez Vargas
Alexandre A. Oliveira
Carlos A. Peres
Oliver Phillips
José E. L. S. Ribeiro
Ana C. Sanchez-Thorin
Sibyll Schaphoff
J. N. M. Silva
Whendee L. Silver
Stephen Sitch
Ben Smith
J. Terborgh
James Wright
R. Vásquez Martínez
B. Vinceti

Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change

Edited by Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips

Reviews and Awards

"Highly important contribution and is thoroughly recommended."--Quarterly Review of Biology

"Yadvinder Malhi and Oliver Phillips have been at the forefront of global change research in the Tropics for decades and are eminently qualified to produce an overview of the current state of research. They have produced a timely summary that will hopefully inspire the next phase of research into tropical forest response to atmospheric change."-- Bulletin of the American Meterological Society