Oliver L. Phillips

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented a new synthesis and interpolation of the basal area and aboveground live biomass of old-growth lowland tropical forests across South America, based on data from 227 forest plots, many previously unpublished.

TL;DR: It is shown that non-fragmented Amazon forests are experiencing a concerted increase in the density, basal area and mean size of woody climbing plants (lianas), which implies that the tropical terrestrial carbon sink may shut down sooner than current models suggest.

TL;DR: Forest turnover, as measured by tree mortality and recruitment, has increased since the 1950s, with an apparent pantropical acceleration since 1980, and among 22 mature forest sites with two or more inventory periods, forest turnover increased.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the role of soil fertility in forest structure and dynamics in the Amazon Basin in an east-west gradient coincident with variations in soil fertility and geology and found that soil fertility may play an important role in explaining Basinwide variations in forest biomass, growth and stem turnover rates.

TL;DR: It is indicated that repeated droughts would shift the functional composition of tropical forests toward smaller, denser-wooded trees, suggesting the existence of moisture stress thresholds beyond which some tropical forests would suffer catastrophic tree mortality.