Resource availability and disturbance shape maximum tree height across the Amazon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Electronic versions

DOI

  • Eric B Gorgens
    Departamento de Engenharia Florestal
  • Matheus H Nunes
    University of Helsinki
  • Tobias Jackson
    Cambridge University
  • David Coomes
    Cambridge University
  • Michael Keller
    United States Forest Service
  • Cristiano R Reis
    Universidade de São Paulo
  • Ruben Valbuena
  • Jacqueline Rosette
    Swansea University
  • Danilo R A de Almeida
    Universidade de São Paulo
  • Bruno Gimenez
    Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
  • Roberta Cantinho
    Universidade de Brasília
  • Alline Z Motta
    Departamento de Engenharia Florestal
  • Mauro Assis
    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
  • Francisca R de Souza Pereira
    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
  • Gustavo Spanner
    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
  • Niro Higuchi
    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
  • Jean Pierre Ometto
    Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais

Tall trees are key drivers of ecosystem processes in tropical forest, but the controls on the distribution of the very tallest trees remain poorly understood. The recent discovery of grove of giant trees over 80 meters tall in the Amazon forest requires a reevaluation of current thinking. We used high-resolution airborne laser surveys to measure canopy height across 282,750 ha of old-growth and second-growth forests randomly sampling the entire Brazilian Amazon. We investigated how resources and disturbances shape the maximum height distribution across the Brazilian Amazon through the relations between the occurrence of giant trees and environmental factors. 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. The location of giant trees should be carefully considered by policymakers when identifying important hot spots for the conservation of biodiversity in the Amazon.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)177-189
Number of pages13
JournalGlobal Change Biology
Volume27
Issue number1
Early online date28 Oct 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2021
View graph of relations