Accounting for the rapid evolution of belowground plant traits alters forecasts of coastal wetland structure and function.

The Amazon rainforest is a biodiversity hotspot under threat from ongoing land conversion and climate change. Two Analytical Reviews in this issue synthesize data on forest loss and degradation in the Amazon basin, providing a clearer picture of its current status and future prospects. Albert et al. reviewed the drivers of change in the Amazon and show that anthropogenic changes are occurring much faster than naturally occurring environmental changes of the past. Although deforestation has been widely documented in the Amazon, degradation is also having major impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage. Lapola et al. synthesized the drivers and outcomes of Amazon forest degradation from timber extraction and habitat fragmentation, fires, and drought.

In nature, environmental fluctuation is common, and some years are good and some are bad for species trying to survive and reproduce. Some animals take bets on what the upcoming environment might be like, and different strategies can affect overall fitness. Petrullo et al. studied different strategies in a population of red squirrels that has been monitored for decades. They found that mother squirrels that bet on a good environment, and produced more offspring, had higher overall fitness than mothers who bet that the environment would be poor. This was the case even when the optimistic mothers were wrong.