The Science
Tall trees are key drivers of ecosystem processes in tropical forests, but what controls the distribution of the very tallest trees remains poorly understood. The recent discovery of giant trees over 80 meters tall in the Amazon forest requires a reevaluation of current thinking.
The Impact
We found that changes in wind and light availability drive giant tree distribution as much as precipitation and temperature, together shaping the forest structure of the Brazilian Amazon. The location of giant trees should be carefully considered by policymakers when identifying important hot spots for the conservation of biodiversity.
Summary
In this study, we employed the largest airborne lidar data collection in the Amazon to contribute to the understanding of (a) how resources and disturbances shape the maximum height distribution across the Brazilian Amazon, and (b) what drives the occurrence of giant trees (taller than 70 m). We conducted an extensive analysis relating environmental variables to the maximum height recorded in the lidar transects (Figure 1). Common drivers of height development are fundamentally different from those influencing the occurrence of giant trees. We found that changes in wind and light availability drive giant tree distribution as much as precipitation and temperature, together shaping the forest structure of the Brazilian Amazon. Ultimately, the association between environmental conditions and mechanisms of natural selection are key to understanding the complexity of this process in a changing climate.
Contacts (BER PM): Daniel Stover, SC-23.1, Daniel.Stover@science.doe.gov (301-903-0289)
PI Contact: Eric Bastos Gorgens, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri – UFVJM – Brazil, eric.gorgens@ufvjm.edu.br
Funding
Funding was provided by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior Brasil (CAPES; Finance Code 001); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Processes 403297/2016‐8 and 301661/2019‐7); Amazon Fund (grant 14.2.0929.1); National Academy of Sciences and US Agency for International Development (grant AID‐OAA‐A‐11–00012); Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM); and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). D. Almeida was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (#2018/21338‐3 and #2019/14697‐0). B. Gimenez, G. Spanner, and N. Higuchi were supported by INCT‐Madeiras da Amazônia and Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments‐Tropics (NGEE‐Tropics), as part of DOE’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program – Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231. T. Jackson and D. Coomes were supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council grant NE/S010750/1. M. Nunes was supported by the Academy of Finland (decision number 319905). J. Rosette was supported by the Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF\R\191014).
Publications
Gorgens, E. B., Nunes, M. H., Jackson, T., Coomes, D., Keller, M., Reis, C. R., Valbuena, R., Rosette, J., Almeida, D. R. A., Gimenez, B., Cantinho, R., Motta, A. Z., Assis, M., Pereira, F. R. S., Spanner, G., Higuchi, N., Ometto, J. P. (2021). Resource availability and disturbance shape maximum tree height across the Amazon. Global Change Biology, 27(1), 177-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15423