Canopy functional trait variation across Earth's tropical forests
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F62156489%3A43410%2F25%3A43926875" target="_blank" >RIV/62156489:43410/25:43926875 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08663-2" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08663-2</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08663-2" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41586-025-08663-2</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Canopy functional trait variation across Earth's tropical forests
Original language description
Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere's most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy(1,2). However, in most Earth System Models, the diverse and heterogeneous tropical forest biome is represented as a largely uniform ecosystem with either a singular or a small number of fixed canopy ecophysiological properties(3). This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically(4). Here, by combining field-collected data from more than 1,800 vegetation plots and tree traits with satellite remote-sensing, terrain, climate and soil data, we predict variation across 13 morphological, structural and chemical functional traits of trees, and use this to compute and map the functional diversity of tropical forests. Our findings reveal that the tropical Americas, Africa and Asia tend to occupy different portions of the total functional trait space available across tropical forests. Tropical American forests are predicted to have 40% greater functional richness than tropical African and Asian forests. Meanwhile, African forests have the highest functional divergence-32% and 7% higher than that of tropical American and Asian forests, respectively. An uncertainty analysis highlights priority regions for further data collection, which would refine and improve these maps. Our predictions represent a ground-based and remotely enabled global analysis of how and why the functional traits of tropical forest canopies vary across space.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
40102 - Forestry
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/LTT19018" target="_blank" >LTT19018: Participation of the Czech Republic in the GEM network</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Nature
ISSN
0028-0836
e-ISSN
1476-4687
Volume of the periodical
641
Issue of the periodical within the volume
5 March
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
8
Pages from-to
129-136
UT code for WoS article
001442741000001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-105004072043