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    Canopy functional trait variation across Earth’s tropical forests

    Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9190-3229, Rifai, Sami W ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3400-8601, Deng, Xiongjie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7451-9732, ter Steege, Hans ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8738-2659, Thomson, Eleanor, Corral-Rivas, Jose Javier, Guimaraes, Aretha Franklin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0375-1945, Muller, Sandra ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6316-2897, Klipel, Joice ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3936-9692, Fauset, Sophie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4246-1828, Resende, Angelica F, Wallin, Göran ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5359-1102, Joly, Carlos A ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7945-2805, Abernethy, Katharine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0393-9342, Adu-Bredu, Stephen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7487-7911, Alexandre Silva, Celice, de Oliveira, Edmar Almeida ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6446-3376, Almeida, Danilo RA, Alvarez-Davila, Esteban, Asner, Gregory P ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7893-6421, Baker, Timothy R ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3251-1679, Benchimol, Maíra ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1238-1619, Bentley, Lisa Patrick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6180-8842, Berenguer, Erika ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8157-8792, Blanc, Lilian ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3605-4230, Bonal, Damien ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9602-8603, Bordin, Kauane ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3871-6293, Borges de Lima, Robson ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5915-4045, Both, Sabine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4437-5106, Cabezas Duarte, Jaime ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6669-5085, Cardoso, Domingos, de Lima, Haroldo C, Cavalheiro, Larissa, Cernusak, Lucas A ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7575-5526, dos Santos Prestes, Nayane Cristina C, da Silva Zanzini, Antonio Carlos, da Silva, Ricardo José, dos Santos Alves da Silva, Robson ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4393-559X, de Andrade Iguatemy, Mariana ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3820-9339, De Sousa Oliveira, Tony César ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6209-3829, Dechant, Benjamin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5171-2364, Derroire, Géraldine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7239-2881, Dexter, Kyle G ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9232-5221, Rodrigues, Domingos J ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8360-2036, Espírito-Santo, Mário ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8274-3075, Silva, Letícia Fernandes ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2680-6398, Domingues, Tomas Ferreira ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2857-9838, Ferreira, Joice, Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5732-1716, Girardin, Cécile AJ, Hérault, Bruno ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6950-7286, Jeffery, Kathryn J ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2632-0008, Kalpuzha Ashtamoorthy, Sreejith ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6268-3973, Kavidapadinjattathil Sivadasan, Arunkumar ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8261-6094, Klitgaard, Bente ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8509-0556, Laurance, William F ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4430-9408, Dan, Maurício Lima ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1483-081X, Magnusson, William E ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1988-3950, Campos-Filho, Eduardo Malta ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9496-3400, Manoel dos Santos, Rubens, Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6414-8966, Silveira, Marcos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0485-7872, Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6359-6281, Martin, Roberta E ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3509-8530, Vieira, Daniel Luis Mascia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2709-5308, Metzker, Thiago ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3205-2887, Milliken, William ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3926-6661, Moonlight, Peter, Moraes de Seixas, Marina Maria, Morandi, Paulo S ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8151-7738, Muscarella, Robert, Nava-Miranda, María Guadalupe ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5983-2053, Nyirambangutse, Brigitte ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4395-7641, Silva, Jhonathan Oliveira ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9893-7501, Oliveras Menor, Imma, Francisco Pena Rodrigues, Pablo José ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8054-3643, Pereira de Oliveira, Cinthia, Pereira Zanzini, Lucas, Peres, Carlos A ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-8765, Punjayil, Vignesh, Quesada, Carlos A, Réjou-Méchain, Maxime, Riutta, Terhi, Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2704-8288, Rosa, Clarissa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7462-1991, Salinas, Norma, Bergamin, Rodrigo Scarton, Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes, Shenkin, Alexander ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2358-9367, Silva Rodrigues, Priscyla Maria, Figueiredo, Axa Emanuelle Simões ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7276-905X, Garcia, Queila Souza ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7137-788X, Spósito, Tereza, Storck-Tonon, Danielle ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4402-0607, Sullivan, Martin JP ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-0483, Svátek, Martin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-4627, Vieira Santiago, Wagner Tadeu ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8470-0677, Arn Teh, Yit, Theruvil Parambil Sivan, Prasad ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1943-6683, Nascimento, Marcelo Trindade ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4492-3344, Veenendaal, Elmar ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8230-2501, Zo-Bi, Irie Casimir ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0982-8579, Dago, Marie Ruth ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2982-9229, Traoré, Soulemane, Patacca, Marco ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1414-9370, Badouard, Vincyane ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7054-4010, de Padua Chaves e Carvalho, Samuel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5590-9049, White, Lee JT ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4595-5981, Zhang-Zheng, Huanyuan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4801-8771, Zibera, Etienne, Zwerts, Joeri Alexander ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-6389, Burslem, David FRP ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6033-0990, Silman, Miles, Chave, Jérôme ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7766-1347, Enquist, Brian J, Barlow, Jos ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4992-2594, Phillips, Oliver L ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8993-6168, Coomes, David A and Malhi, Yadvinder ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3503-4783 (2025) Canopy functional trait variation across Earth’s tropical forests. Nature. ISSN 0028-0836

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    Abstract

    Tropical forest canopies are the biosphere’s most concentrated atmospheric interface for carbon, water and energy1,2. However, in most Earth System Models, the diverse and heterogeneous tropical forest biome is represented as a largely uniform ecosystem with either a singular or a small number of fixed canopy ecophysiological properties3. This situation arises, in part, from a lack of understanding about how and why the functional properties of tropical forest canopies vary geographically4. Here, by combining field-collected data from more than 1,800 vegetation plots and tree traits with satellite remote-sensing, terrain, climate and soil data, we predict variation across 13 morphological, structural and chemical functional traits of trees, and use this to compute and map the functional diversity of tropical forests. Our findings reveal that the tropical Americas, Africa and Asia tend to occupy different portions of the total functional trait space available across tropical forests. Tropical American forests are predicted to have 40% greater functional richness than tropical African and Asian forests. Meanwhile, African forests have the highest functional divergence—32% and 7% higher than that of tropical American and Asian forests, respectively. An uncertainty analysis highlights priority regions for further data collection, which would refine and improve these maps. Our predictions represent a ground-based and remotely enabled global analysis of how and why the functional traits of tropical forest canopies vary across space.

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