Record‐breaking fire seasons in many regions across the globe raise important questions
about plant community responses to shifting fire regimes (ie, changing fire frequency …

Severe droughts have caused widespread tree mortality across many forest biomes with
profound effects on the function of ecosystems and carbon balance. Climate change is …

Secondary forests are increasingly important components of human‐modified landscapes in
the tropics. Successional pathways, however, can vary enormously across and within …

Despite growing recognition of the conservation values of grassy biomes, our understanding
of how to maintain and restore biodiverse tropical grasslands (including savannas and open …

Seed dispersal is key to the persistence and spread of plant populations. Because the
majority of plant species rely on animals to disperse their seeds, global change drivers that …

Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that
represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors …

For millennia, Amazonian peoples have managed forest resources, modifying the natural
environment in subtle and persistent ways. Legacies of past human occupation are striking …

Microbial communities are at the heart of all ecosystems, and yet microbial community
behavior in disturbed environments remains difficult to measure and predict. Understanding …

The topics assessed in this chapter were last assessed by the IPCC in 2007, principally in
WGII AR4 Chapters 3 (Kundzewicz et al., 2007) and 4 (Fischlin et al., 2007), but also in WGII …

Nonstructural carbon (NSC) provides the carbon and energy for plant growth and survival. In
woody plants, fundamental questions about NSC remain unresolved: Is NSC storage an …