Long-term droughts may drive drier tropical forests towards increased functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic homogeneity.

ABSTRACT: Tropical ecosystems adapted to high water availability may be highly impacted by climatic changes that increase soil and atmospheric moisture deficits. Many tropical regions are experiencing significant changes in climatic conditions, which may induce strong shifts in taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of forest communities. However, it remains unclear if and to what extent tropical forests are shifting in these facets of diversity along climatic gradients in response to climate change. Here, we show that changes in climate affected all three facets of diversity in West Africa in recent decades. Taxonomic and functional diversity increased in wetter forests but tended to decrease in forests with drier climate. Phylogenetic diversity showed a large decrease along a wet-dry cli

SUBMITTER: Aguirre-Gutierrez J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7335099 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature