About the Authors

Adam H. Freedman

afreedma@ucla.edu

Affiliations Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Wolfgang Buermann

Affiliations Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Edward T. A. Mitchard

Affiliation School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Ruth S. DeFries

Affiliation Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America

Thomas B. Smith

Affiliations Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AHF WB TBS. Analyzed the data: AHF WB ETAM RSD TBS. Wrote the paper: AHF TBS.