ORCID
- Sophie Fauset: 0000-0003-4246-1828
Abstract
Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-biodiversity tropical forests. Here, we examined how tropical forests of the Americas have shifted community trait composition in recent decades as a response to changes in climate. Based on historical trait-climate relationships, we found that, overall, the studied functional traits show shifts of less than 8% of what would be expected given the observed changes in climate. However, the recruit assemblage shows shifts of 21% relative to climate change expectation. The most diverse forests on Earth are changing in functional trait composition but at a rate that is fundamentally insufficient to track climate change.
Publication Date
2025-03-07
Publication Title
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Volume
387
Issue
6738
ISSN
0036-8075
First Page
5414
Last Page
5414
Recommended Citation
Aguirre-Gutiérrez, J., Fauset, S., Díaz, S., Rifai, S., Corral-Rivas, J., Nava-Miranda, M., González-M, R., Hurtado-M, A., Revilla, N., Vilanova, E., Almeida, E., de Oliveira, E., Alvarez-Davila, E., Alves, L., de Andrade, A., Lola da Costa, A., Vieira, S., Aragão, L., Arets, E., Aymard C, G., Baccaro, F., Bakker, Y., Baker, T., Bánki, O., Baraloto, C., de Camargo, P., Berenguer, E., Blanc, L., Bonal, D., & Bongers, F. (2025) 'Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change', Science (New York, N.Y.), 387(6738), pp. 5414-5414. Available at: 10.1126/science.adl5414
