Belén Fadrique

In academia, the intersection of the postdoctoral stage, usually highly unstable and decisive to secure a permanent position, and motherhood, is the most prominent culprit of the well-known problem of the decreasing number of female researchers in senior academic positions. The loss of postdoctoral women from the academic path represents an unsustainable loss of talent, leading to unbalanced academic institutions where this phenomenon eventually gets perpetuated. The motherhood challenges for postdoctoral women begin from the moment they plan on getting pregnant and continue well after reincorporation to work after maternity leave. Here, we provide 10 actionable rules for these postdoctoral women approaching motherhood to increase their chances of remaining in the academic career. These rules will help postdoctoral women prepare for the challenge of becoming a mother while working towards their long-term academic goals, and establish a successful relationship with their supervisors and collaborators under the new circumstances. These rules should be complemented by the general effort from colleagues, supervisors, institutions, and academia as a whole, to create a more supportive working environment. It is in the utmost interest of the academic community to improve the retention of postdoctoral mums and promote their progression to more senior positions.

Climate and atmospheric changes are impacting forest function and structure worldwide, but their effects on tropical forest diversity are unclear. Nowhere is the scientific challenge greater than in the Andes and the Amazon, which together include the world’s most diverse forests. Here, using 406 permanent plots spanning four decades of intact lowland and montane forest dynamics, we test for long-term change in species richness and assess the influence of climate and other variables. We show that, at a continental scale, species richness appears stable, but this masks substantial regional variation. Species richness increased in Northern Andean and Western Amazon plots, yet declined in the Central Andes, Guyana Shield and Central-Eastern Amazon. Overall, warmer, drier and more seasonal forests lost species, while those at higher elevations, in less fragmented areas and with faster rates of tree turnover experienced increases. Region-specific drivers, particularly precipitation seasonality and demographic factors, modulated these trends. The results highlight the diverse ways in which Amazon–Andes forests are changing and underscore the critical need to preserve large-scale ecosystem integrity to maintain local tree diversity. By doing so, Northern Andean forests in particular could serve as an important refuge for species increasingly displaced by climate change.

Context . Exploring how Indigenous People interact with plants through their functional traits allows us to understand the ecological bases of plant selection. Functional traits can help explain why certain plants are consistently chosen for specific purposes across diverse cultural contexts. However, these relationships are complex and remain insufficiently explored. Here, we ask (1) which functional traits are most important in shaping different uses? and (2) do similarities in trait–use associations across Indigenous communities reflect patterns of knowledge convergence? Methods . We conducted fieldwork across nine different Indigenous communities spanning a 1800 km distance in western Amazonia. In total, we sampled 115 0.1‐ha plots, recording the abundance of 1856 woody plant species. For these species, we collected data on 13 different functional traits, primarily measured in the field, with additional values sourced from TRY and other databases, and conducted in situ ethnobotanical interviews with 25 Indigenous male participants, focusing on 14 distinct use categories. We analysed (1) trait–use relationships using generalized linear models and (2) the similarity in trait selection for each use across communities using generalized linear mixed models. Results . Plants used for medicine or food were associated with multiple traits, including reproductive traits, exudates and life form. In contrast, culturally specific uses such as rituals, cosmetics or recreational were linked to more specific traits, particularly wood density and lianas. Across communities, we observed widespread convergence in trait–use associations, suggesting shared patterns of plant use despite cultural differences. However, 24% of the trait–use combinations showed divergence, indicating local adaptation or cultural specificity. Synthesis and applications . Plant selection by Indigenous communities is not random; rather, it is guided by functional traits that consistently support human well‐being. We named this pattern ‘functional selection convergence’, highlighting how ecological function and traditional knowledge interact across distinct cultural contexts. This convergence shows the importance of functional ecology explaining traditional plant selection. Our findings are a call for a trait‐based ethnobotanical approach to document and better preserve the ecosystem services essential to Indigenous livelihoods. Nevertheless, we emphasize the need for future research to involve broader and more diverse ethnobotanical participation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average¹ and plant communities are responding through shifts in species abundance, composition and distribution^2–4. However, the direction and magnitude of local changes in plant diversity in the Arctic have not been quantified. Using a compilation of 42,234 records of 490 vascular plant species from 2,174 plots across the Arctic, here we quantified temporal changes in species richness and composition through repeat surveys between 1981 and 2022. We also identified the geographical, climatic and biotic drivers behind these changes. We found greater species richness at lower latitudes and warmer sites, but no indication that, on average, species richness had changed directionally over time. However, species turnover was widespread, with 59% of plots gaining and/or losing species. Proportions of species gains and losses were greater where temperatures had increased the most. Shrub expansion, particularly of erect shrubs, was associated with greater species losses and decreasing species richness. Despite changes in plant composition, Arctic plant communities did not become more similar to each other, suggesting no biotic homogenization so far. Overall, Arctic plant communities changed in richness and composition in different directions, with temperature and plant–plant interactions emerging as the main drivers of change. Our findings demonstrate how climate and biotic drivers can act in concert to alter plant composition, which could precede future biodiversity changes that are likely to affect ecosystem function, wildlife habitats and the livelihoods of Arctic peoples^5,6.

We introduce the FunAndes database, a compilation of functional trait data for the Andean flora spanning six countries. FunAndes contains data on 24 traits across 2,694 taxa, for a total of 105,466 entries. The database features plant-morphological attributes including growth form, and leaf, stem, and wood traits measured at the species or individual level, together with geographic metadata (i.e., coordinates and elevation). FunAndes follows the field names, trait descriptions and units of measurement of the TRY database. It is currently available in open access in the FIGSHARE data repository, and will be part of TRY’s next release. Open access trait data from Andean plants will contribute to ecological research in the region, the most species rich terrestrial biodiversity hotspot.

Widespread changes in temperature and precipitation patterns present plant species with new and combined stresses that affect their performance and distribution. Functional traits are indicators of plant resource use–acquisition strategies and thus they are commonly used to understand the geographic distributions of plant species and species' potential responses to climate change. To date, most studies have targeted a few easy‐to‐measure leaf traits even though other traits, such as climatic tolerances, could provide valuable information directly related with species' current and future distributions. Here, we measured both leaf functional traits and indices of physiological tolerance to heat (T ₅₀ ) and drought (cell membrane stability) in 28 woody bamboo populations from 22 narrow‐ranged species along a > 3000 m elevation gradient in the southern Peruvian Andes. We found that bamboo leaf functional traits remain fairly constant with a combination indicative of an acquisitive strategy (low leaf mass area and high nitrogen per mass) along the elevation gradient, despite drastic changes in environment and fast species turnover. Heat and drought tolerances of bamboos varied widely along the gradient and were negatively correlated to each other. Drought tolerance of bamboo populations was positively related with elevation and with precipitation seasonality while heat tolerance decreased at higher, colder elevations. When analyzed for individuals within each species or for individuals within each elevation, the two metrics of climatic tolerances did not show a consistent relationship, contrasting with the expectation of a potential tradeoff between heat and drought tolerance. We also found that the measured leaf functional traits were not good predictors of climatic tolerances. Our results illustrate the diversity and complexity of the relationships between functional strategies and environmental gradients and highlight the limitations of using basic (i.e. ‘soft') leaf traits to understand plant distributions and climatic tolerances.

The “hierarchy of factors” hypothesis states that decomposition rates are controlled primarily by climatic, followed by biological and soil variables. Tropical montane forests (TMF) are globally important ecosystems, yet there have been limited efforts to provide a biome‐scale characterization of litter decomposition. We designed a common litter decomposition experiment replicated in 23 tropical montane sites across the Americas, Asia, and Africa and combined these results with a previous study of 23 sites in tropical lowland forests (TLF). Specifically, we investigated (1) spatial heterogeneity in decomposition, (2) the relative importance of biological factors that affect leaf and wood decomposition in TMF, and (3) the role of climate in determining leaf litter decomposition rates within and across the TMF and TLF biomes. Litterbags of two mesh sizes containingLaurus nobilisleaves or birchwood popsicle sticks were spatially dispersed and incubated in TMF sites, for 3 and 7 months on the soil surface and at 10–15 cm depth. The within‐site replication demonstrated spatial variability in mass loss. Within TMF, litter type was the predominant biological factor influencing decomposition (leaves > wood), with mesh and burial effects playing a minor role. When comparing across TMF and TLF, climate was the predominant control over decomposition, but the Yasso07 global model (based on mean annual temperature and precipitation) only modestly predicted decomposition rate. Differences in controlling factors between biomes suggest that TMF, with their high rates of carbon storage, must be explicitly considered when developing theory and models to elucidate carbon cycling rates in the tropics.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.