Sustainable palm fruit harvesting as a pathway to conserve Amazon peatland forests

Funding: We thank the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant number 5349; ‘MonANPeru: Monitoring Protected Areas in Peru to Increase Forest Resilience to Climate Change’ to T.R.B. and O.L.P.) for funding a Masters by Research scholarship to C.G.H.P. at the University of Leeds and subsequent time for manuscript preparation, fieldwork by C.G.H.P. for this study in 2019 and establishment and re-measurement of forest plots in the palm swamps of Loreto during 2017–2019. Data collection was also funded by the BOSQUES research group of IIAP (led by D.d.C.T.), the projects ‘Protecting biodiversity and livelihoods in the wetlands of Peruvian Amazonia’ (agreement no. 220-2018-FONDECYT, to J.d.A.-P., E.N.H.C. and K.H.R.), which was funded through the Newton-Paulet Fund by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (UK) and CONCYTEC (Peru) and delivered by the British Council, and ‘ARBOLES: A trait-based understanding of LATAM forest biodiversity and resilience’ (agreement no. 001-2019-FONDECYT; to E.N.H.C.), which was supported by CONCYTEC, the Newton Fund, the Embajada Británica Lima and NERC. Data analysis and writing was also supported by the project ‘Novel approaches to understand the state of biodiversity and support livelihoods: the distribution and degradation levels of Mauritia flexuosa stands in Amazonia’ (grant agreement 41469429; to T.R.B. and D.d.C.T.), which was funded through the Newton-Paulet Fund by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (UK) and CONCYTEC (Peru) and delivered by the British Council. E.N.H.C. also acknowledges support from a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship (NE/V018760/1).Sustainable management of intact tropical peatlands is crucial for climate change mitigation, for biodiversity conservation and to support the livelihoods of local communities. Here, we explore whether sustainable fruit harvesting from Mauritia flexuosa palms could support these linked goals by increasing fruit production and incomes across the 2.8 million hectares of the most carbon-dense ecosystem in Amazonia: the lowland peatlands of northeastern Peru. M. flexuosa is dioecious, and fruits are typically harvested by felling female palms; the proportion of female palms therefore provides a good indicator of the health of a stand. Across 93 widely distributed sites, we found that the proportion of female palms increases with travel time to the urban market, and overall, fruit harvesting has halved the current potential production and income from this resource. However, significantly more female palms are found where fruit are harvested by climbing. We estimate that region-wide uptake of climbing could eventually increase potential fruit production by 51% and increase its gross value to US$62 ± 28.2 million yr–1. These findings demonstrate the high cost of unsustainable resource extraction in Neotropical forests and outline a practical path to conserve and sustainably exploit one of the most carbon-rich landscapes on the planet.Peer reviewe

Long-term interventions by conservation and development projects support successful recovery of tropical peatlands in Amazonia

Funding: This work was supported by the NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowships (grant no. NE/V018760/1 and NE/V018760/2); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant #5439, MonANPeru network); Concytec/British Council/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (Grant ref. 220-2018); Concytec/NERC/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (Grant ref. 001-2019); and Wildlife Conservation Society. The research permit that included access to the protected area was granted by SERNANP (RJ-RNPS No. 028-2022-SERNANP-JEF).1. Rural communities in Amazonia rely on harvesting Mauritia flexuosa fruit, a dominant peatland palm, for their subsistence and income. However, these palms are felled to harvest the fruits, which has led to reduced resource availability due to the pressure exerted by the increasing fruit demand. As a result, climbing has been proposed as a means to harvest the fruits sustainably. However, the long-term ecological and socio-economic impacts of climbing, rather than felling, palms remain unknown. 2. We evaluate whether M. flexuosa populations and fruit production in managed peatland palm swamps have recovered within two rural communities in Peru where climbing to harvest palm fruits was adopted between 1999 and 2002. Since then, these communities have been supported by conservation and development projects. 3. We conducted interviews with community members to assess perceptions of change since the introduction of climbing and carried out forest inventories to estimate changes in two socio-economic indicators (volume of harvested M. flexuosa fruits and income) and three ecological indicators (pole stem density of M. flexuosa, seedling and sapling density, and the sex ratio of adult palms). 4. Our results reveal that the adoption of climbing has improved the health of the forest stands and incomes in both rural communities. Recovery of M. flexuosa populations was supported by local perceptions of increases in stand productivity, improved values of most indicators within managed stands compared to reference data from unmanaged stands in the region, and continuous recovery of degraded stands over time following the adoption of climbing by both communities. 5. Synthesis and applications. We demonstrate how long-term conservation and development initiatives can lead to successful outcomes for rural communities and peatland ecosystems. However, urgent adoption of sustainable harvesting techniques, such as the palm climbing in our study, is needed across Amazonia to safeguard the ecological integrity of peatlands, below carbon storage, and livelihoods. This transition will require long-term collaboration among different stakeholders, affordable management plans, and fair prices for sustainable management for peatland resources.Peer reviewe

Understanding different dominance patterns in western Amazonian forests

Dominance of neotropical tree communities by a few species is widely documented, but dominant trees show a variety of distributional patterns still poorly understood. Here, we used 503 forest inventory plots (93,719 individuals ≥2.5 cm diameter, 2609 species) to explore the relationships between local abundance, regional frequency and spatial aggregation of dominant species in four main habitat types in western Amazonia. Although the abundance-occupancy relationship is positive for the full dataset, we found that among dominant Amazonian tree species, there is a strong negative relationship between local abundance and regional frequency and/or spatial aggregation across habitat types. Our findings suggest an ecological trade-off whereby dominant species can be locally abundant (local dominants) or regionally widespread (widespread dominants), but rarely both (oligarchs). Given the importance of dominant species as drivers of diversity and ecosystem functioning, unravelling different dominance patterns is a research priority to direct conservation efforts in Amazonian forests.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change

Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-biodiversity tropical forests. Here, we examined how tropical forests of the Americas have shifted community trait composition in recent decades as a response to changes in climate. Based on historical trait-climate relationships, we found that, overall, the studied functional traits show shifts of less than 8% of what would be expected given the observed changes in climate. However, the recruit assemblage shows shifts of 21% relative to climate change expectation. The most diverse forests on Earth are changing in functional trait composition but at a rate that is fundamentally insufficient to track climate change

Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change

Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-biodiversity tropical forests. Here, we examined how tropical forests of the Americas have shifted community trait composition in recent decades as a response to changes in climate. Based on historical trait-climate relationships, we found that, overall, the studied functional traits show shifts of less than 8% of what would be expected given the observed changes in climate. However, the recruit assemblage shows shifts of 21% relative to climate change expectation. The most diverse forests on Earth are changing in functional trait composition but at a rate that is fundamentally insufficient to track climate change

Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change

Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt to climate change is of pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this is still widely unknown. This knowledge gap is particularly acute in high-biodiversity tropical forests. Here, we examined how tropical forests of the Americas have shifted community trait composition in recent decades as a response to changes in climate. Based on historical trait-climate relationships, we found that, overall, the studied functional traits show shifts of less than 8% of what would be expected given the observed changes in climate. However, the recruit assemblage shows shifts of 21% relative to climate change expectation. The most diverse forests on Earth are changing in functional trait composition but at a rate that is fundamentally insufficient to track climate change

Taking the pulse of Earth's tropical forests using networks of highly distributed plots

Tropical forests are the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. While better understanding of these forests is critical for our collective future, until quite recently efforts to measure and monitor them have been largely disconnected. Networking is essential to discover the answers to questions that transcend borders and the horizons of funding agencies. Here we show how a global community is responding to the challenges of tropical ecosystem research with diverse teams measuring forests tree-by-tree in thousands of long-term plots. We review the major scientific discoveries of this work and show how this process is changing tropical forest science. Our core approach involves linking long-term grassroots initiatives with standardized protocols and data management to generate robust scaled-up results. By connecting tropical researchers and elevating their status, our Social Research Network model recognises the key role of the data originator in scientific discovery. Conceived in 1999 with RAINFOR (South America), our permanent plot networks have been adapted to Africa (AfriTRON) and Southeast Asia (T-FORCES) and widely emulated worldwide. Now these multiple initiatives are integrated via ForestPlots.net cyber-infrastructure, linking colleagues from 54 countries across 24 plot networks. Collectively these are transforming understanding of tropical forests and their biospheric role. Together we have discovered how, where and why forest carbon and biodiversity are responding to climate change, and how they feedback on it. This long-term pan-tropical collaboration has revealed a large long-term carbon sink and its trends, as well as making clear which drivers are most important, which forest processes are affected, where they are changing, what the lags are, and the likely future responses of tropical forests as the climate continues to change. By leveraging a remarkably old technology, plot networks are sparking a very modern revolution in tropical forest science. In the future, humanity can benefit greatly by nurturing the grassroots communities now collectively capable of generating unique, long-term understanding of Earth's most precious forests. Resumen Los bosques tropicales son los ecosistemas más diversos y productivos del mundo y entender su funcionamiento es crítico para nuestro futuro colectivo. Sin embargo, hasta hace muy poco, los esfuerzos para medirlos y monitorearlos han estado muy desconectados. El trabajo en redes es esencial para descubrir las respuestas a preguntas que trascienden las fronteras y los plazos de las agencias de financiamiento. Aquí mostramos cómo una comunidad global está respondiendo a los desafíos de la investigación en ecosistemas tropicales a través de diversos equipos realizando mediciones árbol por árbol en miles de parcelas permanentes de largo plazo. Revisamos los descubrimientos más importantes de este trabajo y discutimos cómo este proceso está cambiando la ciencia relacionada a los bosques tropicales. El enfoque central de nuestro esfuerzo implica la conexión de iniciativas locales de largo plazo con protocolos estandarizados y manejo de datos para producir resultados que se puedan trasladar a múltiples escalas. Conectando investigadores tropicales, elevando su posición y estatus, nuestro modelo de Red Social de Investigación reconoce el rol fundamental que tienen, para el descubrimiento científico, quienes generan o producen los datos. Concebida en 1999 con RAINFOR (Suramérica), nuestras redes de parcelas permanentes han sido adaptadas en África (AfriTRON) y el sureste asiático (T-FORCES) y ampliamente replicadas en el mundo. Actualmente todas estas iniciativas están integradas a través de la ciber-infraestructura de ForestPlots.net, conectando colegas de 54 países en 24 redes diferentes de parcelas. Colectivamente, estas redes están transformando nuestro conocimiento sobre los bosques tropicales y el rol de éstos en la biósfera. Juntos hemos descubierto cómo, dónde y porqué el carbono y la biodiversidad de los bosques tropicales está respondiendo al cambio climático y cómo se retroalimentan. Esta colaboración pan-tropical de largo plazo ha expuesto un gran sumidero de carbono y sus tendencias, mostrando claramente cuáles son los factores más importantes, qué procesos se ven afectados, dónde ocurren los cambios, los tiempos de reacción y las probables respuestas futuras mientras el clima continúa cambiando. Apalancando lo que realmente es una tecnología antigua, las redes de parcelas están generando una verdadera y moderna revolución en la ciencia tropical. En el futuro, la humanidad puede beneficiarse enormemente si se nutren y cultivan comunidades de investigadores de base, actualmente con la capacidad de generar información única y de largo plazo para entender los que probablemente son los bosques más preciados de la tierra. Resumo Florestas tropicais são os ecossistemas mais diversos e produtivos da Terra. Embora uma boa compreensão destas florestas seja crucial para o nosso futuro coletivo, até muito recentemente os esforços de medições e monitoramento foram amplamente desconexos. É essencial formarmos redes para obtermos respostas que transcendem fronteiras e horizontes de agências financiadoras. Neste estudo nós mostramos como uma comunidade global está respondendo aos desafios da pesquisa de ecossistemas tropicais, com equipes diversas medindo florestas, árvore por árvore, em milhares de parcelas monitoradas à longo prazo. Nós revisamos as maiores descobertas científicas deste trabalho, e mostramos também como este processo está mudando a ciência de florestas tropicais. Nossa abordagem principal envolve unir iniciativas de base a protocolos padronizados e gerenciamento de dados a fim de gerar resultados robustos em escalas ampliadas. Ao conectar pesquisadores tropicais e elevar seus status, nosso modelo de Rede de Pesquisa Social reconhece o papel-chave do produtor dos dados na descoberta científica. Concebida em 1999 com o RAINFOR (América do Sul), nossa rede de parcelas permanentes foi adaptada para África (AfriTRON) e Sudeste asiático (T-FORCES), e tem sido extensamente reproduzida em todo o mundo. Agora estas múltiplas iniciativas estão integradas através de uma infraestrutura cibernética do ForestPlots.net, conectando colegas de 54 países de 24 redes de parcelas. Estas iniciativas estão transformando coletivamente o entendimento das florestas tropicais e seus papéis na biosfera. Juntos nós descobrimos como, onde e por que o carbono e a biodiversidade da floresta estão respondendo às mudanças climáticas, e seus efeitos de retroalimentação. Esta duradoura colaboração pantropical revelou um grande sumidouro de carbono persistente e suas tendências, assim como tem evidenciado quais direcionadores são mais importantes, quais processos florestais são mais afetados, onde eles estão mudando, seus atrasos no tempo de resposta, e as prováveis respostas das florestas tropicais conforme o clima continua a mudar. Dessa forma, aproveitando uma notável tecnologia antiga, redes de parcelas acendem faíscas de uma moderna revolução na ciência das florestas tropicais. No futuro a humanidade pode se beneficiar incentivando estas comunidades basais que agora são coletivamente capazes de gerar conhecimentos únicos e duradouros sobre as florestas mais preciosas da Terra. Résume Les forêts tropicales sont les écosystèmes les plus diversifiés et les plus productifs de la planète. Si une meilleure compréhension de ces forêts est essentielle pour notre avenir collectif, jusqu'à tout récemment, les efforts déployés pour les mesurer et les surveiller ont été largement déconnectés. La mise en réseau est essentielle pour découvrir les réponses à des questions qui dépassent les frontières et les horizons des organismes de financement. Nous montrons ici comment une communauté mondiale relève les défis de la recherche sur les écosystèmes tropicaux avec diverses équipes qui mesurent les forêts arbre après arbre dans de milliers de parcelles permanentes. Nous passons en revue les principales découvertes scientifiques de ces travaux et montrons comment ce processus modifie la science des forêts tropicales. Notre approche principale consiste à relier les initiatives de base à long terme à des protocoles standardisés et une gestion de données afin de générer des résultats solides à grande échelle. En reliant les chercheurs tropicaux et en élevant leur statut, notre modèle de réseau de recherche sociale reconnaît le rôle clé de l'auteur des données dans la découverte scientifique. Conçus en 1999 avec RAINFOR (Amérique du Sud), nos réseaux de parcelles permanentes ont été adaptés à l'Afrique (AfriTRON) et à l'Asie du Sud-Est (T-FORCES) et largement imités dans le monde entier. Ces multiples initiatives sont désormais intégrées via l'infrastructure ForestPlots.net, qui relie des collègues de 54 pays à travers 24 réseaux de parcelles. Ensemble, elles transforment la compréhension des forêts tropicales et de leur rôle biosphérique. Ensemble, nous avons découvert comment, où et pourquoi le carbone forestier et la biodiversité réagissent au changement climatique, et comment ils y réagissent. Cette collaboration pan-tropicale à long terme a révélé un important puits de carbone à long terme et ses tendances, tout en mettant en évidence les facteurs les plus importants, les processus forestiers qui sont affectés, les endroits où ils changent, les décalages et les réactions futures probables des forêts tropicales à mesure que le climat continue de changer. En tirant parti d'une technologie remarquablement ancienne, les réseaux de parcelles déclenchent une révolution très moderne dans la science des forêts tropicales. À l'avenir, l'humanité pourra grandement bénéficier du soutien des communautés de base qui sont maintenant collectivement capables de générer une compréhension unique et à long terme des forêts les plus précieuses de la Terre. Abstrak Hutan tropika adalah di antara ekosistem yang paling produktif dan mempunyai kepelbagaian biodiversiti yang tinggi di seluruh dunia. Walaupun pemahaman mengenai hutan tropika amat penting untuk masa depan kita, usaha-usaha untuk mengkaji dan mengawas hutah-hutan tersebut baru sekarang menjadi lebih diperhubungkan. Perangkaian adalah sangat penting untuk mencari jawapan kepada soalan-soalan yang menjangkaui sempadan dan batasan agensi pendanaan. Di sini kami menunjukkan bagaimana sebuah komuniti global bertindak balas terhadap cabaran penyelidikan ekosistem tropika melalui penglibatan pelbagai kumpulan yang mengukur hutan secara pokok demi pokok dalam beribu-ribu plot jangka panjang. Kami meninjau semula penemuan saintifik utama daripada kerja ini dan menunjukkan bagaimana proses ini sedang mengubah bidang sains hutan tropika. Teras pendekatan kami memberi tumpuan terhadap penghubungan inisiatif akar umbi jangka panjang dengan protokol standar serta pengurusan data untuk mendapatkan hasil skala besar yang kukuh. Dengan menghubungkan penyelidik-penyelidik tropika dan meningkatkan status mereka, model Rangkaian Penyelidikan Sosial kami mengiktiraf kepentingan peranan pengasas data dalam penemuan saintifik. Bermula dengan pengasasan RAINFOR (Amerika Selatan) pada tahun 1999, rangkaian-rangkaian plot kekal kami kemudian disesuaikan untuk Afrika (AfriTRON) dan Asia Tenggara (T-FORCES) dan selanjutnya telah banyak dicontohi di seluruh dunia. Kini, inisiatif-inisiatif tersebut disepadukan melalui infrastruktur siber ForestPlots.net yang menghubungkan rakan sekerja dari 54 negara di 24 buah rangkaian plot. Secara kolektif, rangkaian ini sedang mengubah pemahaman tentang hutan tropika dan peranannya dalam biosfera. Kami telah bekerjasama untuk menemukan bagaimana, di mana dan mengapa karbon serta biodiversiti hutan bertindak balas terhadap perubahan iklim dan juga bagaimana mereka saling bermaklum balas. Kolaborasi pan-tropika jangka panjang ini telah mendedahkan sebuah sinki karbon jangka panjang serta arah alirannya dan juga menjelaskan pemandu-pemandu perubahan yang terpenting, di mana dan bagaimana proses hutan terjejas, masa susul yang ada dan kemungkinan tindakbalas hutan tropika pada perubahan iklim secara berterusan di masa depan. Dengan memanfaatkan pendekatan lama, rangkaian plot sedang menyalakan revolusi yang amat moden dalam sains hutan tropika. Pada masa akan datang, manusia sejagat akan banyak mendapat manfaat jika memupuk komuniti-komuniti akar umbi yang kini berkemampuan secara kolektif menghasilkan pemahaman unik dan jangka panjang mengenai hutan-hutan yang paling berharga di dunia

Widespread carbon-dense peatlands in the Colombian lowlands

Abstract Peatlands are some of the world’s most carbon-dense ecosystems and release substantial quantities of greenhouse gases when degraded. However, conserving peatlands in many tropical areas is challenging due to limited knowledge of their distribution. To address this, we surveyed soils and plant communities in Colombia’s eastern lowlands, where few peatlands have previously been described. We documented peat soils &gt;40 cm thick at 51 of more than 100 surveyed wetlands. We use our data to update a regional peatland classification, which includes a new and possibly widespread peatland type, ‘the white-sand peatland,’ as well as two distinctive open-canopy sub-types. Analysis of peat bulk density and organic matter content from 39 intact peat cores indicates that the average per-area carbon densities of these sites (490–1230 Mg C ha−1, depending on type) is 4–10 times the typical carbon stock of a (non-peatland) Amazonian forest. We used remote sensing to upscale our observations, generating the first data-driven peatland map for the region. The total estimated carbon stock of these peatlands of 1.91 petagrams (Pg C) (2-sigma confidence interval, 0.60–4.22) approaches that of South America’s largest known peatland complex in the northern Peruvian Amazon, indicating that substantial peat carbon stores on the continent have yet to be documented. These observations indicate that tropical peatlands may be far more diverse in form and structure and broadly distributed than is widely understood, which could have important implications for tropical peatland conservation strategies.</jats:p

Widespread carbon-dense peatlands in the Colombian lowlands

Peatlands are some of the world’s most carbon-dense ecosystems and release substantial quantities of greenhouse gases when degraded. However, conserving peatlands in many tropical areas is challenging due to limited knowledge of their distribution. To address this, we surveyed soils and plant communities in Colombia’s eastern lowlands, where few peatlands have previously been described. We documented peat soils >40 cm thick at 51 of more than 100 surveyed wetlands. We use our data to update a regional peatland classification, which includes a new and possibly widespread peatland type, ‘the white-sand peatland,’ as well as two distinctive open-canopy sub-types. Analysis of peat bulk density and organic matter content from 39 intact peat cores indicates that the average per-area carbon densities of these sites (490–1230 Mg C ha−1, depending on type) is 4–10 times the typical carbon stock of a (non-peatland) Amazonian forest. We used remote sensing to upscale our observations, generating the first data-driven peatland map for the region. The total estimated carbon stock of these peatlands of 1.91 petagrams (Pg C) (2-sigma confidence interval, 0.60–4.22) approaches that of South America’s largest known peatland complex in the northern Peruvian Amazon, indicating that substantial peat carbon stores on the continent have yet to be documented. These observations indicate that tropical peatlands may be far more diverse in form and structure and broadly distributed than is widely understood, which could have important implications for tropical peatland conservation strategies.</p