The future of tropical forests depends on their ability to resist and recover from multiple disturbances. Here, we evaluated how edge effects, experimental fires, extreme droughts, and blowdowns reshaped forest structure, composition, and functional traits over two decades in the Amazon–Cerrado transition. Initially, forests resisted low-intensity fires, but subsequent high-intensity fires during severe droughts sharply increased susceptibility to further disturbances. Along forest edges bordering agriculture, these compound disturbances drove losses of tree species richness, declines in Amazonian forest-specialist
species, and shifts toward generalists with broad distributions, indicating increased compositional homogenization (i.e., reduced taxonomic diversity and dominance of generalist species).
GIS without GPS: new opportunities in technology and survey research to link people and place
This paper presents innovative ways to relate survey data to GIS maps, thereby making the connection of people and place more accessible for the research community. Based on data from rural areas in the Brazilian Amazon, we describe a successful effort to sample...
