RDNA study of 2.7 million trees in 17 forest plots located from 5 deg. S to 47 deg. N found that tropical forests had higher neighborhood diversity--trees had more different kinds of neighbors--in tropical plots. Three explanations for this phenomenon are proposed.
Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-04-tropical-trees-neighborly-equator.html
Original paper (not open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10349-2
#Science #Ecology #ForestEcology #Trees #Diversity #Competition #Facilitation
Tropical trees are more neighborly than trees further from the equator, study finds
Tropical trees are better neighbors than trees in temperate forests, according to a study published in the journal Nature by researchers from 29 different institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the ForestGEO global network of forest monitoring sites.