Aim Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. Most research has focused on the impacts of climatic water availability, whereas remarkably little is known about the influence of water table depth and excess soil water on forest processes. Nevertheless, given that plants take up water from the soil, the impacts of climatic water supply on plants are likely to be modulated by soil water con...

Recent studies indicate that lianas are increasing in size and abundance relative to trees in neotropical forests. As a result, forest dynamics and carbon balance may be altered through liana‐induced suppression of tree growth and increases in tree mortality. Increasing atmospheric CO 2 is hypothesized to be responsible for the increase in neotropical lianas, yet no study has directly compared the relative response of tropical...