- August 13, 2026
- By Rachael Grahame ’17
A new study led by geographical scientists at the University of Maryland found that changes in climate had differing effects on intact, lowland tropical forests, depending on the unique composition of each.
The study, which focused on the Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asia throughout 2020, was published Wednesday in Nature. It helps paint a clearer picture of how warmer temperatures and drier conditions impact tropical forests, the parts of the planet with the most potential to slow global warming.
Tropical forests are not all the same—their composition, structure and evolutionary history vary tremendously across space, said lead author Matheus Nunes, an assistant research professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences (GEOG). In some Amazonian forests, for example, trees can grow above 80 meters in height, while other forests in the Amazon look more like savannas on sandy soils.
“Our results show that the effects of climate really depend on the local environmental factors like soil and topography, and that tropical forests can have very different and contrasting responses to increases in temperature and droughts,” he said.
The study found that temperature increases most significantly harmed forests in the Congo Basin, causing a decrease of 27.6 metric tons per hectare of aboveground biomass—living plant matter. On the flip side, forests in the Amazon and Southeast Asia saw aboveground biomass decreases of 11 and 0.1 metric tons of biomass per hectare, respectively.
The researchers also found that longer dry seasons and droughts had the strongest negative effect in the forests of Southeast Asia and in the relatively arid parts of the Amazon. However, stronger droughts didn’t hurt the very wet regions of the Amazon and the Congo Basin; they even responded positively to drier conditions.
The researchers also looked at how the forests were impacted by storms with lightning and strong winds, and found that the forests that suffered most were taller than 60 meters. Forests with giant trees, like those in Sumatra, could suffer the most from potential increases in storms.
These findings were based on data from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), an International Space Station-based instrument that measures forests in 3D using a laser measurement method called Light Detection and Ranging, aka lidar.
“By revealing the complex environmental controls on tropical forest carbon storage, this study provides a stronger scientific foundation for predicting how these ecosystems may respond to climate change,” said study co-author and GEOG Distinguished University Professor Ralph Dubayah, GEDI’s principal investigator.