Organisms live within networks shaped by habitat, climate, resources, and one another. Explore biomes, food webs, biodiversity, nutrient cycles, population relationships, and the ecological processes that connect living communities with their surroundings.
Fire is not an outside force imposed on the boreal forest. Across much of northern North America and Eurasia, it has shaped tree reproduction, soil, habitat, and landscape age for thousands of years. Some dominant conifers are built to replace themselves after burning, and a forest without fire...
From above, Borneo’s lowland rainforest is not a level green surface. Crowns overlap at different heights, and isolated giants rise far beyond their neighbors. Many of the trees responsible belong to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family whose members dominate the canopy and timber volume of extensive...
The Congo Basin is often portrayed as one continuous green canopy. At ground level and in three-dimensional surveys, it resolves into a patchwork: tall mixed forests on well-drained land, seasonally flooded stands, swamp forests over peat, open clearings, secondary growth, and unusual areas...
The abundance above ground can conceal a shortage below it. Across much of the Amazon, immense trees and dense vegetation grow on deeply weathered soils that are acidic and poor in readily available phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and other mineral nutrients. The forest remains productive because...