Effects of El Niño drought on seedling dynamics in a seasonally dry tropical forest in Northern Thailand.

As El Niño is predicted to become stronger and more frequent in the future, it is crucial to understand how El Niño-induced droughts will affect tropical forests. Although many studies have focused on tropical rainforests, there is a paucity of studies on seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs), particularly in Asia, and few studies have focused on seedling dynamics, which are expected to be strongly affected by drought. Seedlings in SDTFs are generally more drought-tolerant than those in the rainforests, and the effects of El Niño-induced droughts may differ between SDTF and tropical rainforests.

Co-benefits of protecting mangroves for biodiversity conservation and carbon storage.

The conservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity has numerous co-benefits, both for local societies and for humankind worldwide. While the co-benefit of climate change mitigation through so called blue carbon storage in coastal ecosystems has raised increasing interest in mangroves, the relevance of multifaceted biodiversity as a driver of carbon storage remains unclear. Sediment salinity, taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and functional distinctiveness together explain 69%, 69%, 27% and 61% of the variation in above- and belowground plant biomass carbon, sediment organic carbon and total ecosystem carbon storage, respectively, in the Sundarbans Reserved Forest.

Composition and Diversity of Soil Fungi in Dipterocarpaceae-Dominated Seasonal Tropical Forests in Thailand.

Although fungi play essential roles in nutrient cycles and plant growth in forest ecosystems, limited information is currently available on the community compositions of soil fungi in tropical forests. Few studies have examined fungal community structures in seasonal tropical forests, in which forest fires potentially have a large impact on above- and belowground community processes. Based on high-throughput sequencing technologies, we herein examined the diversity and community structures of soil fungi in dry seasonal tropical forests in Sakaerat, northeast Thailand.

Vertical Structure of Phyllosphere Fungal Communities in a Tropical Forest in Thailand Uncovered by High-Throughput Sequencing.

Phyllosphere fungi harbor a tremendous species diversity and play important ecological roles. However, little is known about their distribution patterns within forest ecosystems. We examined how species diversity and community composition of phyllosphere fungi change along a vertical structure in a tropical forest in Thailand.

CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change.

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change.

Size-related flowering and fecundity in the tropical canopy tree species, Shorea acuminata (Dipterocarpaceae) during two consecutive general flowerings.

We monitored the reproductive status of all trees with diameters at breast height (dbh) >30 cm in a 40-ha plot at Pasoh, west Malaysia, and investigated the individual fecundity of 15 Shorea acuminata Dyer (Dipterocarpaceae) trees using seed-trapping methods during two consecutive general flowering periods in 2001 (GF2001) and 2002 (GF2002). The proportion of flowering trees was higher, and not dependent on size, in GF2002 (84.2%), than in GF2001 (54.