Publications related to Tropical vegetation

Regional uniqueness of tree species composition and response to forest loss and climate change

Devis Tuia, Nina Marion Aurélia Van Tiel, Loïc Pellissier

The conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems require detailed knowledge of the native plant compositions. Here, we map global forest tree composition and assess the impacts of historical forest cover loss and climate change on trees. The global oc ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Soil warming alters tree water use and canopy stomatal conductance in a mixed subtropical forest

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

As air temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increase continuously, forests are losing more water through evapotranspiration, with large consequences for local and global hydrological cycles. In regions with high vegetation cover, soil warming can b ...

Elsevier2024

Invasive palms have more efficient and prolonged CO2 assimilation compared to native sub-Mediterranean vegetation

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen, Thibaut Michel Georges Juillard, Janisse Deluigi, Marco Conedera

In sub-Mediterranean ecosystems, shade-tolerant broadleaf evergreens, especially the invasive Trachycarpus fortunei, are spreading uncontrollably in the forest understorey, impeding the regeneration of the native deciduous woody vegetation. Most invasive s ...

Elsevier2024

Eco-morphodynamic carbon pumping by the largest rivers in the Neotropics

Paolo Perona

The eco-morphodynamic activity of large tropical rivers in South and Central America is analyzed to quantify the carbon flux from riparian vegetation to inland waters. We carried out a multi-temporal analysis of satellite data for all the largest rivers in ...

Nature Research2023

Sunshine and a pinch of tropical soils: A natural, low-cost photo-Fenton variation for safer water, assisted by H2O2 or percabonate

César Pulgarin, Michaël Bensimon, Stefanos Giannakis, Thomas Guillaume, Jérémie Decker

Clean water is essential for human survival, but access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in resource -limited regions. Herein, we explored a low-cost but effective solution for water potabilization using natural iron sources from soils along with ...

ELSEVIER2023

Population structure and signals of local adaptation in Eugenia uniflora (Myrtaceae), a widely distributed species in the Atlantic Forest

Elia Vajana

Evolutionary diversity in species can arise in many ways, including local adaptation. Despite the global importance of tropical forest ecosystems, few studies have explored patterns of local adaptation in tropical tree species. We investigated population g ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2022

Colloidal transport and deposition through dense vegetation

David Andrew Barry, Li Chen, Congrong Yu

The effectiveness of submerged synthetic aquatic vegetation on removal of colloids from flowing water was investigated to explore retention of particulate nonpoint source pollutants in aquatic systems. In colloid transport experiments, the deposition rate ...

Elsevier2022

Riparian wetland properties counter the effect of land-use change on soil carbon stocks after rainforest conversion to plantations

Thomas Guillaume

Progressive conversion of tropical rainforests to agricultural monocultures in South East Asia increasingly affects landscape types such as riparian areas. The impacts of conversions on soil organic matter (SOM) vary with changing landforms. However, this ...

2021

Barcoding analysis and taxonomic revision of Goliathus Lamarck, 1802 (Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae)

Michele De Palma

We conducted barcoding analysis of valid taxa in the genus Goliathus Lamarck, 1802 and clarified their relationships. Specimens of Goliathus goliatus (Drury, 1770) sampled in tropical rainforests from Cameroon to Kenya display degrees of genetic and phenot ...

2020

The response of stomatal conductance to seasonal drought in tropical forests

Charlotte Grossiord, Jin Wu

Stomata regulate CO2 uptake for photosynthesis and water loss through transpiration. The approaches used to represent stomatal conductance (g s) in models vary. In particular, current understanding of drivers of the variation in a key parameter in those mo ...

2020

Human-friendly solutions for last-centimeter drone delivery

Przemyslaw Mariusz Kornatowski

The popularity of delivery drones is constantly increasing due to their ability to deliver packages more rapidly and economically than current transportation methods. Consequently, drones have been employed by logistics companies for delivering payloads to ...

EPFL2020

Improved Representation of Clouds in the Atmospheric Component LMDZ6A of the IPSL-CM6A Earth System Model

Etienne Gabriel Henri Vignon

The cloud parameterizations of the LMDZ6A climate model (the atmospheric component of the IPSL-CM6 Earth system model) are entirely described, and the global cloud distribution and cloud radiative effects are evaluated against the CALIPSO-CloudSat and CERE ...

2020

Rainfall as a driver of epidemic cholera: Comparative model assessments of the effect of intra-seasonal precipitation events

Andrea Rinaldo, Damiano Pasetto, Francisco Javier Perez Saez, Joseph Chadi Benoit Lemaitre, Carla Sciarra

The correlation between cholera epidemics and climatic drivers, in particular seasonal tropical rainfall, has been studied in a variety of contexts owing to its documented relevance. Several mechanistic models of cholera transmission have included rainfall ...

2019

Responses of permanent grasslands to drought during the plant growing season: combining agronomic, functional and ecophysiological approaches

Amarante Vitra

Extreme summer drought events are predicted to increase in intensity and frequency within the current century. The resulting water scarcity could dramatically impact human activities related to agriculture, due to the strong relationship between precipitat ...

EPFL2019

Variation in Detrital Resource Stoichiometry Signals Differential Carbon to Nutrient Limitation for Stream Consumers Across Biomes

Janine Rüegg

Stoichiometric ratios of resources and consumers have been used to predict nutrient limitation across diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In forested headwater streams, coarse and fine benthic organic matter (CBOM, FBOM) are primary basal resources ...

SPRINGER2018

Improving slash-and-burn agriculture in Central Menabe, Madagascar

Justine Marie Gay des Combes

Slash-and-burn agriculture is considered as an important driver of deforestation in the tropics. In Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, this type of agriculture particularly threatens the tropical forest cover. On the south-western coast of the island, in ...

EPFL2017

Slash-and-burn agriculture and tropical cyclone activity in Madagascar: Implication for soil fertility dynamics and corn performance

Alexandre Buttler, Bjorn Jozef Maria Robroek, Robert Thomas Edmund Mills, Justine Marie Gay des Combes, Thomas Guillaume

On the western coast of Madagascar, the dry tropical forest of Kirindy may disappear in the next 50 years because of its rapid conversion into agricultural land by slash-and-burn cultivation. The slash-and-burn fields are cultivated during 3 years in avera ...

Elsevier Science Bv2017

Integrating models across temporal and spatial scales to simulate landscape patterns and dynamics in mountain pasture-woodlands

Alexander Ludwig Johannes Peringer

Context Pasture-woodlands are semi-natural landscapes that result from the combined influences of climate, management, and intrinsic vegetation dynamics. These landscapes are sensitive to future changes in land use and climate, but our ability to predict t ...

Springer2017

Linking historical land use to present vegetation and soil characteristics under slash-and-burn cultivation in Madagascar

Alexandre Buttler, Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Robert Thomas Edmund Mills, Andry Randriamikatra Randrianarison

Aim: In this paper, we link historical land use of cultivated parcels formerly slashed and burnt, with current secondary vegetation and soil characteristics, in the region of evergreen rain forest in Madagascar. Aim is to understand the legacy effect of fo ...

Wiley-Blackwell2016

Detection of Convergent Genome-Wide Signals of Adaptation to Tropical Forests in Humans

Matthieu Foll

Tropical forests are believed to be very harsh environments for human life. It is unclear whether human beings would have ever subsisted in those environments without external resources. It is therefore possible that humans have developed recent biological ...

Public Library of Science2015