Susceptibility of tropical trees to drought: Context across scales

Tropical forests across the globe are facing intensifying droughts, yet their responses are far from uniform. We argue that this variability should be understood in the context of interacting legacies across scales. At the continental scale, evolutionary history and past climatic filters have left distinct imprints on forest composition. At landscape scale, edaphic and hydrological heterogeneity constrain species distributions and functional strategies. These legacies converge in the functional trait space available to tree communities, shaping their resilience or vulnerability to novel drought regimes. By placing drought in this biogeographic, edaphic, and trait-based context, we highlight the importance of integrating historical and environmental filters into predictive models of tropical forest futures.