Winner–loser plant trait replacements in human-modified tropical forests

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Pinho, Bruno X., Melo, Felipe P. L., ter Braak, Cajo J. F., Bauman, David, Maréchaux, Isabelle, Tabarelli, Marcelo, Benchimol, Maíra, Arroyo-Rodriguez, Victor, Santos, Bráulio A., Hawes, Joseph E., Berenguer, Erika, Ferreira, Joice, Silveira, Juliana M., Peres, Carlos A., Rocha‐Santos, Larissa, Souza, Fernanda C., Gonçalves-Souza, Thiago, Mariano-Neto, Eduardo, Faria, Deborah and Barlow, Jos (2025) Winner–loser plant trait replacements in human-modified tropical forests. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 9 (2). pp. 282-295. ISSN 2397-334X

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Abstract

Anthropogenic landscape modification may lead to the proliferation of a few species and the loss of many. Here we investigate mechanisms and functional consequences of this winner–loser replacement in six human-modified Amazonian and Atlantic Forest regions in Brazil using a causal inference framework. Combining floristic and functional trait data for 1,207 tree species across 271 forest plots, we find that forest loss consistently caused an increased dominance of low-density woods and small seeds dispersed by endozoochory (winner traits) and the loss of distinctive traits, such as extremely dense woods and large seeds dispersed by synzoochory (loser traits). Effects on leaf traits and maximum tree height were rare or inconsistent. The independent causal effects of landscape configuration were rare, but local degradation remained important in multivariate trait-disturbance relationships and exceeded the effects of forest loss in one Amazonian region. Our findings highlight that tropical forest loss and local degradation drive predictable functional changes to remaining tree assemblages and that certain traits are consistently associated with winners and losers across different regional contexts.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Data availability: All data used in the analysis are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25565169 (ref. 86). These data result from the work of several people who applied for grants, sampled the tree plots and kept long-term plots running at great expenses. As such, it would be appreciated if data owners were consulted and invited for any publications using this dataset. Code availability: All code used for analysis is available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25565169 (ref. 86).
Uncontrolled Keywords: ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,ecology ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 01 Apr 2026 15:30
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2026 15:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102702
DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02592-5

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