Underlying and proximate drivers of biodiversity changes in Mesoamerican biosphere reserves.

Protected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is urgently needed to improve protected areas' effectiveness, especially in the biodiversity-rich tropics.

 (Lauraceae), a new species from Western Mexico.

, a species endemic to western Mexico, is described and illustrated. The ascription of the new species to Licaria is analysed. It is classified in the subgen.

Variation in plant belowground resource allocation across heterogeneous landscapes: implications for post-fire resprouting.

Premise: Resource availability affects biomass allocation in ways that could influence plant responses to disturbance such as fire. This is important because fire also varies across landscapes in ways that are correlated to resource availability. We hypothesized that plants growing in landscape microsites with a shortage of nutrients and water allocate more biomass and resources to belowground structures (and thus promote traits that enhance post-fire resprouting ability) than plants in more mesic sites.

[Population structure and environmental relationships of the tropical tree Nectandra rudis (Lauraceae), a rare species in western Mexico].

Population structure and environmental relationships of the tropical tree Nectandra rudis (Lauraceae), a rare species in western Mexico. The tree N. rudis is a rare species from western Mexico of which community and population features are unknown.