Amazônia em chamas: onde está o fogo

Severe droughts may alter the reproductive phenology of tropical tree species, but our understanding of these effects has been hampered by confounded variation in drought, light and other factors during natural drought events. We used a large-scale experimental reduction of throughfall in an easterncentral Amazon forest to study the phenological response to drought of an abundant subcanopy tree, Coussarea racemosa. We hypothesized that drought would alter the production and the timing of reproduction, as well as the number of viable fruits.

Brazil has become an agricultural powerhouse, producing roughly 30 % of the world’s soy and 15 % of its beef by 2013 – yet historically much of that growth has come at the expense of its native ecosystems. Since 1985, pastures and croplands have replaced nearly 65...