Our work presents a novel set of analyses to understand the geographic distribution of the disease vector ticks Dermacentor marginatus and D. reticulatus and summarize model uncertainties for interpreting results and identifying appropriate public health actions. We estimate the current potential distribution of important disease vectors, D. marginatus and D. reticulatus, and more importantly the future potential distribution of the species in response to global climate change in coming decades.

Understanding the carbon cycle is critical for designing effective policies to mitigate climate change. Herein, I synthesized the state of knowledge of the carbon cycle in tropical upland ecosystems. From the 135 documents found in databases, estimations of carbon stocks comprised three-fourths of the total studies, while the remaining fraction focused on carbon fluxes. It is necessary to obtain information on the main carbon fluxes and integrate it into climate change mitigation plans.

Tropical forests are faced with a loss of forest cover with effects on ecosystem processes. We quantified decomposition within forest fragments and sites affected by increasing levels of agricultural land-use intensity. Mass loss increased with the area of forest fragments and decreased with land-use intensification. Fragmentation has negative effects on litter decomposition. However, the magnitude of this negative effect was not as large as expected.