Joint press release by the University of Bayreuth, the University of Regensburg, and the Smithsonian Institution Press release no. 025/2024, 28.02.2024
Overcrowding increases tree mortality, perhaps explaining higher biodiversity in tropical forests
Social distancing is not only helpful to prevent the spread of human diseases but may also promote coexistence of different tree species and explain why there are more tree species in tropical forests. This was found by a team of 52 scientists from around the world, led by Lisa Hülsmann, Professor of Ecosystem Analysis and Simulation at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and Florian Hartig, Professor of Theoretical Ecology at the University of Regensburg, Germany, who analyzed patterns of tree mortality across a global network of large-scale forest plots coordinated by the ForestGEO program at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Their results, just published in Nature, show that trees experience higher mortality when surrounded by neighbors of the same species, probably caused by specialized pathogens or herbivores. The effect is present in forests all over the world, but it is more pronounced among rare tropical tree species, perhaps contributing to the astounding biological diversity of tropical forests compared to forests in temperate areas.
Lisa Hülsmann
ForestGEO
Forest GEO
Lisa Hülsmann
Lisa Hülsmann