Background and aims Nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulators are a group of plants able to store elevated amounts of this element in their leaves. Some studies indicate that hyperaccumulation may be associated with traits favouring fast resource capture or with traits favouring nutrient and water conservation, but there is no evidence for the role of nickel hyperaccumulation in the leaf economics spectrum. Our study aims to assess the di...

Aim Arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) and ectomycorrhizas (ECM) have different impacts on nutrient cycling, carbon storage, community dynamics and enhancement of photosynthesis by rising CO 2 . Recent global analyses have concluded that patterns of AM/ECM dominance in forests worldwide are shaped by climate, with soil nutrients contributing negligible additional explanatory power. However, their reliance on nutrient data from GIS su...

Active restoration through silvicultural treatments (enrichment planting, cutting climbers and liberation thinning) is considered an important intervention in logged forests. However, its ability to enhance regeneration is key for long‐term recovery of logged forests, which remains poorly understood, particularly for the production and survival of seedlings in subsequent generations. To understand the long‐term impacts of logg...

Aim Mapping tree species richness across the tropics is of great interest for effective conservation and biodiversity management. In this study, we evaluated the potential of full‐waveform lidar data for mapping tree species richness across the tropics by relating measurements of vertical canopy structure, as a proxy for the occupation of vertical niche space, to tree species richness. Location Tropics. Time period Present. Ma...

Conservation planning tends to focus on protecting species’ ranges or landscape connectivity but seldom both—particularly in the case of diverse taxonomic assemblages and multiple planning goals. Therefore, information on potential trade‐offs between maintaining landscape connectivity and achieving other conservation objectives is lacking. We developed an optimization approach to prioritize the maximal protection of species’ r...

Both niche and stochastic dispersal processes structure the extraordinary diversity of tropical plants, but determining their relative contributions has proven challenging. We address this question using airborne imaging spectroscopy to estimate canopy β‐diversity for an extensive region of a Bornean rainforest and challenge these data with models incorporating niches and dispersal. We show that remotely sensed and field‐deriv...

Topography is a key driver of tropical forest structure and composition, as it constrains local nutrient and hydraulic conditions within which trees grow. Yet, we do not fully understand how changes in forest physiognomy driven by topography impact other emergent properties of forests, such as their aboveground carbon density ( ACD ). Working in Borneo – at a site where 70‐m‐tall forests in alluvial valleys rapidly transition...

Aim Large trees (d.b.h. ≥ 70 cm) store large amounts of biomass. Several studies suggest that large trees may be vulnerable to changing climate, potentially leading to declining forest biomass storage. Here we determine the importance of large trees for tropical forest biomass storage and explore which intrinsic (species trait) and extrinsic (environment) variables are associated with the density of large trees and forest biom...

Tree seedlings in tropical rain forests are subject to both damage from natural enemies and intense interspecific competition. This leads to a trade‐off in investment between defense and growth, and it is likely that tree species specialized to particular habitats tailor this balance to correspond with local resource availability. It has also been suggested that differential herbivore impacts among tree species may drive habit...

Aim Tropical forests have been recognized as important global carbon sinks and sources. However, many uncertainties about the spatial distribution of live tree above‐ground biomass (AGB) remain, mostly due to limited availability of AGB field data. Recent studies in the Amazon have already shown the importance of large sample size for accurate AGB gradient analysis. Here we use a large stem density, basal area, community wood...

The recent advent of carbon crediting has led to a rapid rise in biosequestration projects that seek to remove carbon from the atmosphere through afforestation and forest rehabilitation. Such projects also present an important potential opportunity to reverse biodiversity losses resulting from deforestation and forest degradation, but the biodiversity benefits of different forms of biosequestration have not been considered ade...