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Overview
Ecosystem ecology, tropical forests, global change, remote sensing, plant ecophysiology
I am a broadly trained ecosystem ecologist, driven to understand the fate of forests in the face of global change. Over the last decade, my work has focused on tropical forests particularly in the Brazilian Amazon. The forests of the Amazon basin constitute the world’s largest intact tropical rainforest and are critical to global climate function and biodiversity, as well as providing many other ecosystem services. But the future of these forests, and the carbon and they contain, is highly uncertain. My work aims to resolve key uncertainties associated with the responses of tropical forest structure and function to climate and land-use change. I use a variety of approaches, from remote sensing to field observations, within the context of large, international collaborations.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 13 Climate Action
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SDG 15 Life on Land
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Fire in a Central Amazon forest: Lingering top canopy loss and initial understory regrowth revealed by repeated LiDAR
Pontes-Lopes, A., Stark, S. C., Smith, M., Almeida, D. R. A., Shao, G., Sato, L., Rincón, N., Martins, G. A., Goncalves, N., Ometto, J. P., Graça, P. & Aragao, L. E. O. C., 1 Feb 2026, In: Forest Ecology and Management. 601, 123332.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Forest structure predicts plant and animal species diversity and composition changes in an Amazonian forest
São Pedro, M., Smith, M., Zuquim, G., Tuomisto, H., Stark, S. C., Gabriel do Amaral Pereira, L., Estefano D. Bobrowiec, P., S. Bueno, A., Capaverde Jr., U., Castilho, C., Esteban, E., Lima, A., Magnusson, W. E., Menger, J., Goretti Pinto, M., Rincón, L., da Cunha Tavares, V., Waldez, F. & Schietti, J., 30 Sept 2025, In: Biodiversity and Conservation. 34, p. 3865–3888Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Trait coordination reveals the fast–slow plant economics spectrum along the vertical canopy profile in central Amazonian forests
Ziccardi, L. G., Taylor, T. C., Smith, M. N., Gonçalves, N. B., Kramer, D., Campos, K. S., Prohaska, N., Restrepo‐Coupe, N., Saleska, S. R., Siqueira‐Silva, A. I., Penha, D., Gomez, R., Santos, V. A. H. F. & Stark, S. C., 8 Nov 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Functional Ecology. 39, 12, p. 3596-3610 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Downloads (Pure) -
Amazon forest biogeography predicts resilience and vulnerability to drought
Chen, S., Stark, S. C., Nobre, A. D., Cuartas, L. A., Amore, D. D. J., Restrepo-Coupe, N., Smith, M., Chitra-Tarak, R., Ko, H., Nelson, B. & Saleska, S. R., 19 Jun 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature. 631, p. 111-117Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile216 Downloads (Pure) -
Different model assumptions about plant hydraulics and photosynthetic temperature acclimation yield diverging implications for tropical forest gross primary production under warming
Zarakas, C., Swann, A. L. S., Koven, C., Smith, M. & Taylor, T., 20 Sept 2024, In: Global Change Biology. 30, 9, e17449.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Downloads (Pure)
Projects
- 2 Active
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Toward a unified theory of tropical forest structural and functional responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbance
Smith, M. (PI)
1/07/23 → 30/12/27
Project: Research
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Mapping forest carbon stocks using polarimetric SAR images in complex mountainous forest regions
Smith, M. (PI)
1/04/23 → 30/04/27
Project: Research