Emilio Vilanova

Analysis: The US government has declared war on the very idea of climate change | CNN Politics Americans are used to whiplash in their climate policy. The US has been in and out and in and out again of the key Paris climate agreement over the past four presidencies.

“In his second administration, President Donald Trump is not just approaching climate science with skepticism. Instead, his administration is moving to destroy the methods by which his or any future administration can respond to climate change.“

This is so cool! (And worrisome of course!)

Seed dispersal disruption limits tropical forest regrowth | PNAS Identifying linkages between biodiversity loss and climate change is required for understanding the scope of these interconnected challenges and de...

"This highlights a critical but overlooked link between biodiversity loss and climate change, revealing how unmitigated animal declines undermine the ability of forest carbon to recover after disturbance and emphasizing the need to incorporate animal biodiversity into climate mitigation strategies"

Human influence on Amazon’s aboveground carbon dynamics intensified over the last decade - Nature Communications New high-resolution datasets for the Amazon forest show a loss of carbon in 2010-2020, with gains by forest growth outweighed by losses by deforestation and degradation. Human losses intensified over ...

Human influence on Amazon’s aboveground carbon dynamics intensified over the last decade.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

100 years of average April-May-June temperature anomalies over land areas through 2025...

Data from NOAAGlobalTemp v6.0.0: www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/lan...

Wood density variation from Andean to Amazon forests. Congratulations to William Farfan‐Rios for leading this compelling analysis in @journalofecology.bsky.social besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Declining winter snowpack offsets carbon storage enhancement from growing season warming in northern temperate forest ecosystems | PNAS Northeastern US temperate forests are currently net carbon (C) sinks and play an important role offsetting anthropogenic C emissions, but projected...

Declining winter snowpack offsets carbon storage enhancement from growing season warming in northern temperate forest ecosystems | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Global evidence for a positive relationship between tree species richness and ecosystem photosynthesis - Nature Plants Forests with higher tree species richness show greater photosynthesis by capturing more sunlight, highlighting the essential role of biodiversity in enhancing carbon uptake and supporting the global carbon sink.

Global evidence for a positive relationship between tree species richness and ecosystem photosynthesis - Nature Plants

Global extent of natural forests in 2020 (according to Neumann et al. in review) based on a probability threshold of 0.52.

A new global map of natural forest at 10-m resolution created by Neumann et al. create using Google DeepMind - preprint still in review but available here: eartharxiv.org/repository/v... 🌐 🌏 🧪

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Venezuela: el asesinato de Joaquín Hernández y la solitaria lucha de los indígenas yekwana contra la minería Venezuela: el asesinato de Joaquín Hernández y la solitaria lucha de los indígenas yekwana contra la minería

🇻🇪🚨 El cruel asesinato de Joaquín Hernández, uno de los guardianes territoriales del Alto Ventuari, estremeció al estado de Amazonas. Mineros ilegales serían los responsables del crimen. El pueblo yekwana sigue en pie de lucha contra la minería. tinyurl.com/2uwssyy6

Protect young secondary forests for optimum carbon removal - Nature Climate Change The authors generate ~1-km2 growth curves for aboveground live carbon in regrowing forests, globally. They show that maximum carbon removal rates can vary by 200-fold spatially and with age, with the ...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Nice study on secondary forests at a global scale providing data on grid-level (~1-km2) growth curves for aboveground live carbon in the world's naturally regrowing forests

The seasonality of the Amazon water cycle is intensifying.
-> Bruno Cintra and colleagues use decades of oxygen isotopes in tree rings to show how the dry season has got drier, and the wet season wetter.

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Tropical forests are heating up. Can they cope? Scientists are pushing plants beyond their comfort zone to test their resilience to warming

Tropical forests are heating up. Can they cope? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

#pdra #postdoc
Research Fellow in Tropical American Forest Dynamics.
We are looking for a scientist with strong quantitative skills interested in forests and ecological change. You will work with a team of tropical ecologists including RAINFOR PPBio + other networks.
jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Ancient Trees, Dwindling in the Wild, Thrive on Sacred Ground

Ancient Trees, Dwindling in the Wild, Thrive on Sacred Ground www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/s...

Large live biomass carbon losses from droughts in the northern temperate ecosystems during 2016-2022 - Nature Communications Drought, fires, and human activities have reversed the accumulation of live biomass carbon in the Northern Hemisphere, with total biomass shifting from a positive to a negative trend around 2016.

Drought, fires, and human activities have reversed the accumulation of live biomass #carbon in the Northern Hemisphere, with total biomass shifting from a positive to a negative trend around 2016. #livebiomass #ClimateChange #HumanDisturbance
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is figure 3, which provides a synthetic diagram showing a summary of the results, including individual physiology (hydraulics and growth) and forest carbon dynamics.

Drought is a growing issue in tropical rainforests. A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution revisits a long-term rainfall manipulation experiment in the Amazon to show that tree mortality was followed by community-level adjustments to reduced precipitation. go.nature.com/4kbQbfu 🧪

Not only very informative but also a beautiful figure! 😍

Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds Beaks have grown longer and larger, and ranges have expanded to follow the feeders

Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds | "...as feeders proliferated, Anna’s hummingbird beaks got longer and larger, which may reflect an adaptation to slurp up far more nectar than flowers can naturally provide..." www.science.org/content/arti...

The time has come to value tropical fieldworkers as equal partners.

With billions spent on watching forests from space, the skills of foresters and botanists have never been more vital. In our #Nature correspondence we show why - and what needs to change.
#GEO-TREES
rdcu.be/enT5S

Schematic diagram showing the major axes of tree crown architecture

So excited to finally share our new paper charting the global spectrum of tree crown architecture, out today at @natcomms.nature.com ‬🧪🌐

Paper link 🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A brief thread of what we found 🧵

Drivers and benefits of natural regeneration in tropical forests - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Natural regeneration is one way that forests can recover after disturbance or deforestation, in addition to active restoration or reforestation. This Review, focused on tropical forests, discusses wha...

In our May issue: Review led by Robin Chazdon on the processes that can facilitate or impede natural forest regeneration, an important tool in the restoration toolkit. 🧪🌎
Web link: go.nature.com/3Hg5oNE
Readcube: rdcu.be/emQx2

This is figure 3, which provides a synthetic diagram showing a summary of the results, including individual physiology (hydraulics and growth) and forest carbon dynamics.

Drought is a growing issue in tropical rainforests. A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution revisits a long-term rainfall manipulation experiment in the Amazon to show that tree mortality was followed by community-level adjustments to reduced precipitation. go.nature.com/4kbQbfu 🧪

🔥🏔🌲
Interested in fire ecology & forests? Working in the Cascade Mountains?

the Harvey Lab at UW-SEFS is hiring 6 full-time field assistants + 2 full-time field crew leads on projects exploring forest resilience to wildfire, reburns, & management.

Application review begins May 2. Links below...

Nature conservation policies are biased toward forests and neglect grassy ecosystems worldwide Globally, grassy ecosystems (including grasslands, savannas, shrublands, woodlands, and tundra) cover 30 to 40% of the land and provide important benefits such as climate change mitigation and adaptat...

Nature conservation policies are biased toward forests and neglect grassy ecosystems worldwide | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Overview of the construction of deforestation footprints -

The global deforestation footprint of agriculture and forestry
West+
doi.org/10.1038/s430...

reviews state of the art

"Regulation to mandate transparency and data sharing (from public and private sectors) could be a valuable mechanism to further improve data quality and overcome persistent gaps."

Single- vs mixed-species plantations: A systematic review on the effects on biodiversity 🌳🌲https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320725002198

A Multi-Scale Ecological Approach for the Conservation and Restoration of Venezuelan Andean Cloud Forests The Andean eco-region of South America is one of the most prominent biodiversity hotspots in the world, which can be attributed to the multiplicity of heterogeneous environments largely driven by a co...

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... Great to see this chapter led by Prof. Carlos Garcia where we summarize the great and rich research history of Andean cloud forests in Venezuela. We document the ecology of these amazing ecosystems: productivity and carbon, stem dynamics, etc. 🌲🍁 #forestecology

Lianas reduce tree height with negative consequences for carbon storage and growth estimates The use of terrestrial laser scanning in a unique experiment site provides strong experimental evidence that lianas change tree allometry, which has repercussions for estimating the capacity of fores....

Hello people!. Today in "One day, one paper", lianas change tree allometry, which has repercussions for estimating the capacity of forests to store and accumulate carbon 🌎🍁
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...