Increasing tree size across Amazonia
Author(s)
Rebecca Banbury Morgan
Roel Brienen
Emanuel Gloor
Simon L. Lewis
Kyle G. Dexter
Everton Almeida
Edmar Almeida de Oliveira
Esteban Álvarez‐Dávila
Atila Alves de Oliveira
Ana Andrade
Simone Aparecida Vieira
Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
Alejandro Araujo‐Murakami
E.J.M.M. Arets
Luzmila Arroyo
Gerardo Aymard-Corredor
Olaf Bánki
Plínio Barbosa de Camargo
Jorcely Barroso
Lilian Blanc
Foster Brown
José Luís Camargo
Wendeson Castro
Víctor Chama Moscoso
Jérôme Chave
Ezequiel Chavez
James A. Comiskey
Antônio C. L. da Costa
Jhon del Águila Pasquel
Géraldine Derroire
Anthony Di Fiore
Sophie Fauset
Ted R. Feldpausch
Gerardo Flores Llampazo
René Guillén Villaroel
Rafael Herrera
Niro Higuchi
Eurídice Honorio Coronado
Isau Huamantupa‐Chuquimaco
Walter Huaraca Huasco
E. Jiménez
Timothy J. Killeen
Susan G. W. Laurance
William F. Laurance
Aurora Levesley
Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez
Yadvinder Malhi
Beatriz Schwantes Marimon
Ben Hur Marimon Junior
Simone Matias Reis
Casimiro Mendoza Bautista
Irina Polo
Abel Monteagudo Mendoza
Paulo Sérgio Morandi
Adriano Nogueira Lima
Percy Núñez Vargas
Nadir Pallqui Camacho
Alexander Parada Gutierrez
Julie Peacock
María Cristina Peñuela-Mora
Georgia Pickavance
John Pipoly
Nigel C. A. Pitman
Adriana Prieto
Carlos Quesada
Freddy Ramírez Arévalo
Maxime Réjou-Méchain
Zorayda Restrepo Correa
Rocio Rojas
Lily O. Rodríguez
Anand Roopsind
Rafael Paiva Salomão
Natalino Silva
Javier Silva Espejo
Marcos Silveira
Juliana Stropp
Joey Talbot
Hans ter Steege
John Terborgh
Raquel Thomas
Luis Valenzuela Gamarra
Peter van der Hout
Rodolfo Vásquez
Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira
Emilio Vilanova
Roderick Zagt
Timothy R. Baker
Oliver L. Phillips
Date Issued
25 de septiembre de 2025
Type
Article
Volume
11
Issue
10
Start Page
2016
End Page
2025
Abstract
Abstract Climate change and increasing availability of resources such as carbon dioxide are modifying forest functioning worldwide, but the effects of these changes on forest structure are unclear. As additional resources become available, for example, through CO 2 fertilization or nitrogen deposition, large trees, with greater access to light, may be expected to gain further advantages. Conversely, smaller light-suppressed trees might benefit more if their light compensation point changes, while bigger trees may be the most negatively impacted by increasing heat and drought. We assessed recent changes in the structure of Earth’s largest tropical forest by analysing 30 years of Amazonian tree records across 188 mature forest plots. We find that, at a stand level, trees have become larger over time, with mean tree basal area increasing by 3.3% per decade (95% CI 2.4; 4.1). Larger trees have increased in both number and size, yet we observed similar rates of relative size gain in large and small trees. This evidence is consistent with a resource-driven boost for larger trees but also a reduction in suppression among smaller trees. These results, especially the persistence and consistency of tree size increases across Amazonian forest plots, communities and regions, indicate that any negative impacts of climate change on forests and large trees here have so far been mitigated by the positive effects of increased resources.
Subjects