Emilio Vilanova

Variation in Tree Growth Increases With Global Warming In recent decades, considerable research has focused on the long-term trend of tree growth rates under global warming, yet little attention has been paid to trends in high-frequency tree growth varia...

Climate warming is generally making trees grow faster, but the greater effect is that tree growth is becoming more unpredictable, creating a threat to the stability of forests. New paper by Li & He (2026). 🧪🌏🌐🌲🌳

The Yanomami, an Indigenous group from the Amazon, is confronting surges in #malaria amid increasing illegal gold mining in their territory. Read 'Investigating the Yanomami malaria outbreak: gold mining and malaria': doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... #BiologyLetters

Overlooked deforestation from global mining activities in the 21st century - Nature Communications The study provides a comprehensive inventory of global mining footprints, finding that mining causes higher deforestation than previously estimated, with half linked to unrecorded activities, and high...

"Our results reveal that mining-induced deforestation is two to three times higher than previous estimates, accounting for 19,765 km2 of deforestation. Notably, over half (50.29%) of this deforestation is linked to unrecorded mining activities" www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌴🔥 🍁

Forty years of tracking trees reveals changes in Amazon and Andean Forest diversity New research reveals significant recent shifts in tree diversity among the tropical forests of the Andes and Amazon, driven by global change.

environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/news...

Our new paper uses the Power of Plots to reveal how tropical forests are changing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Warmer climate threatens the occurrence of giant trees in the Amazon basin Giant trees in the Amazon serve as critical carbon sinks and underpin diverse forest ecosystems. Yet, these emergent giants are increasingly vulnerabl…

A new study warns that climate change could wipe out large areas where the Amazon’s biggest trees can survive. If emissions stay high, up to 45% of their habitat could be lost by 2080.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tree diversity is changing in the Amazon and Andes.

Belen Fadrique leads our analysis in @natecoevo.nature.com w/ 400 plots + 40 years of RAINFOR records.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hot, drier, more fragmented forests are losing species. Many in the Andes + western Amazon are gaining them.

Tropical Montane Cloud Forests Have High Resilience to Five Years of Severe Soil Drought

🔗 buff.ly/rwpl5Xu

Oil helped build Venezuela’s science. Can oil now revive it? Decades ago, Venezuelan researchers helped the oil industry thrive. Now they hope to be part of its reconstruction

Oil helped build Venezuela’s science. Can oil now revive it? | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

I’m proud to be a co-author on this study, greatly led by Belen, which uses four decades of plot data across the Andes and Amazon to reveal how tree species richness is shifting in response to global change. Sustaining and expanding long-term collaborations like this is of extreme importance!

Predicting the fate of tropical forests under intensifying heat Intense droughts have caused water stress and elevated mortality for trees in the Amazon, foreshadowing the future of tropical forests as the climate changes.

Intense droughts have caused water stress and elevated mortality for trees in the Amazon, foreshadowing the future of tropical forests as the climate changes

go.nature.com/4qpTWRv

Fig. 1 Tree species coverage in the Global Wood Density Database (GWDD) v.2.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

(🧵 1/7) Beyond species means – the intraspecific contribution to global wood density variation
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I’m #hiring - Our company is looking for a Remote Sensing Data Engineer! If you're interested innovative remote sensing analytics and developing systems to scale-up reforestation projects, we’d love to hear from you. Our j.d. and links to apply are here: lnkd.in/gvzb_3ck
Reach out to learn more
🧪🌳🌐🍁

The red dot is a baby North Atlantic right whale trying to migrate up the east coast of the United states.

The blue streaks are fast moving shipping vessels entering and leaving New York City harbor.

One collision and the whale is dead.

We need *mandatory* speed limits for these vessels! 🧪🦑🌍

Forest loss intensifies meteorological drought in more than half of Earth’s climate zones Forest loss increases the risk of meteorological drought more in boreal zones than in the tropics.

Good morning everyone. Today in “one day, one paper “, forest loss intensifies meteorological drought across over half of global climate zones, with boreal regions most affected as reduced precipitation and altered surface energy amplify water deficits and extend drought impacts 🌎🍁

Pervasive increase in tree mortality across the Australian continent Nature Plants - Eight decades of forest plot monitoring show a pervasive increase in tree mortality across Australia’s forest biomes driven by climate change, jeopardizing their role as...

New research from our group: A pervasive increase in tree mortality across the Australian continent - driven by rising temperatures
rdcu.be/eXSa7

Ecological insights from three decades of forest biodiversity experiments - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Experiments manipulating tree species diversity and measuring effects on ecosystem function have been important tools for assessing how biodiverse forests can accumulate biomass, store carbon and help...

Ecological insights from three decades of forest biodiversity experiments @natrevbiodiv.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Aerial view of Amazon rainforest tree canopy. CREDIT: Philippe Ciais

Land-use change is the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon, but the risk of abrupt forest decline, along with its potentially devastating consequences, increases as the planet warms, with a strong nonlinear trend beyond 2.3° C of warming. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/6Prr50XKAN1

Real-time deforestation alerts get an AI boost to identify the causes Forest logging decreases during rainy seasons. Deforestation caused by mining might not be as seasonal as previously thought. One of the largest drivers of deforestation in Latin America is…

Global Forest Watch has launched a new AI-powered alert system that identifies what’s driving deforestation — from agriculture and mining to wildfires.

The data currently cover the Amazon, Congo Basin and Indonesia, with plans to expand to other forests and ecosystems.

Please contribute! We neex broad input, different forest types, and an array of natural disturbances to see how disturbance regimes are changing.

The responsible use of global remote-sensing datasets - Nature Ecology & Evolution In this age of abundant remote-sensing data, global datasets are increasingly relied upon to analyse the planet at unprecedented scale and resolution. We offer three considerations on uncertainties an...

Comment article: Matthew Fagan, Naomi Schwartz and Ruth DeFries offer three considerations on uncertainties and potential misapplications of global datasets to ensure responsible use of remote-sensing datasets in ecology and environmental science.

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

Amazon forest faces severe decline under the dual pressures of anthropogenic climate change and land-use change | PNAS The Amazon is a key climate system component, hotspot of biodiversity and many other ecosystem functions. However, progressive rainforest degradati...

Amazon forest faces severe decline under the dual pressures of anthropogenic climate change and land-use change | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Calling on all forest disturbance experts: Please consider contributing to our study on global forest disturbance change, and help resolve the nuances of changing forest disturbance regimes. More details and survey here: www.lss.ls.tum.de/edfm/disturb...

Figure 4 from Shovon et al. (2025). Influence of diversity on transpiration as described by Hedges' g effect size as a function of species richness and water limitations at the (a–c) community level and (b–d) species level. Upper panels assess the influence of drought stress by comparing drought versus no drought conditions, defined through self-reported information. Lower panels assess the influence of regional aridity by comparing humid climates (aridity index >0.65) and dry climates (aridity index ≤0.65). Circles represent observed effect sizes; lines represent posterior mean trends, and shaded areas represent the 95% credible intervals.

More diverse forests have greater productivity, but do they use more water? A new meta-analysis by Shovon et al. in @journalofecology.bsky.social suggests not. 🌐🌏🧪 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Spatially detailed tree-ring analysis exposes widespread forest growth decline throughout Canada

Girardin et al.
🔗 https://ow.ly/UhXN50Xz1Fe #OpenAccess

Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast - Nature Sustainability Large swathes of standing dead trees or ‘ghost forests’ can form owing to rising sea levels in coastal areas, but the extent to which this occurs is unclear. This study maps ghost forests at the indiv...

"Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast" -- wow what a comprehensive analysis by Yeung, @xiyang.bsky.social et al. 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The most precious commodity you have is your attention. You don’t have to waste it on poor-faith debates or arguments with strangers if you don’t think they’ll be productive. You can prioritize the things that matter to you and make your life richer.

Extreme Heatwave Causes Immediate, Widespread Mortality of Forest Canopy Foliage, Highlighting Modes of Forest Sensitivity to Extreme Heat

🔗 buff.ly/CfdgwRy

QUESTION: @evilanova.bsky.social and I were discussing resources for finding root:shoot ratios (belowground biomass, root biomass, etc) for global forests / ecoregions

And really doesn't feel like there has been much progress in this

Any suggestions for where to look!??
🧪🌎🌳🍁

‘Drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping’: the lawless rush for rare earth minerals in Venezuela Guerrilla groups have seized control of mining areas, exploiting Indigenous people and fuelling environmental ruin on the border with Colombia

‘Drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping’: the lawless rush for rare earth minerals in Venezuela www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

As CO2 Levels Rise, Old Amazon Trees Are Getting Bigger - Eos New data show resilience among the rainforest’s giants, though scientists warn that nutrient limits and rising heat could end the trend.

Carbon emissions are helping make older trees in the Amazon bigger. But “it doesn’t mean carbon dioxide is good for the forest," says Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert @camplantsci.bsky.social. "What we’re seeing is resilience, not relief.”

eos.org/articles/as-...