Patterns of fruit production in tropical forests are shifting with negative outnumbering positive trends

Type of content
Other
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Journal Title
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Language
Date
2024
Authors
Hacket-Pain A
Adienge A
Bogdziewicz M
Bush E
Chapman, Hazel
Memiaghe H
Ofosu-Bamfo B
Satake A
Journe V
Abstract

The impacts of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance are increasingly evident in the structure and demographics of tropical forests, yet the response of tree reproduction remains poorly understood. As fruit and seed production is the first step in forest recruitment, this gap is critical to understanding tropical forest resilience. Tropical fruits are important in diets of numerous frugivores and are essential resources for local human communities, thus changes in fruit quantity and composition could have cascading effects on ecosystems and the people who depend on them. In this study, we demonstrate that forest fruit production is shifting across tropical sites, with negative species-level trends occurring four times more frequently than positive ones across a network of 17 sites. At two sites in west Africa, community-level fruit production has declined by 25% and 52% in recent decades, and fruit production is also declining in Panama. Nevertheless, trends in fruit production are diverse across sites. While major spatial and temporal gaps in data coverage remain, by leveraging the expanding network of long-term monitoring, collaborative research has the potential to identify current trends in tropical fruit production and their drivers. This will enable robust predictions of future trends and advance our understanding of tropical forest vulnerability to environmental change

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Citation
Hacket-Pain A, Adienge A, Bogdziewicz M, Bush E, Chapman H, Memiaghe H, Ofosu-Bamfo B, Satake A, Journe V (2024). Patterns of fruit production in tropical forests are shifting with negative outnumbering positive trends.
Keywords
Reproduction, Seed production, Climate change, Forest demography, Plant reproduction, Long-term data, Fruit availability, Phenology
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
30 - Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences::3007 - Forestry sciences::300703 - Forest ecosystems
30 - Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences::3007 - Forestry sciences::300702 - Forest biodiversity
30 - Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences::3007 - Forestry sciences::300704 - Forest health and pathology
41 - Environmental sciences::4104 - Environmental management::410402 - Environmental assessment and monitoring
41 - Environmental sciences::4101 - Climate change impacts and adaptation::410102 - Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation
41 - Environmental sciences::4101 - Climate change impacts and adaptation::410103 - Human impacts of climate change and human adaptation
41 - Environmental sciences::4104 - Environmental management::410406 - Natural resource management
41 - Environmental sciences::4104 - Environmental management::410407 - Wildlife and habitat management
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