New research reveals a previously unknown relationship between the biodiversity of mammals and the forests they live in. Tropical rainforests are home to half of the world’s species, but with species going extinct at a rapid pace worldwide, it’s difficult for conservationists to keep close tabs on the overall health of ecosystems, even in places where wildlife is protected. Researchers find that observational data from camera traps can help. “In general, rainforest ecosystems are extremely diverse, and our study shows that mammal communities in rainforests can be predictably different, and these differences may be controlled, in part, by differences in plant productivity in forests,” says Daniel Gorczynski, a graduate student in biosciences at Rice University and corresponding author of a study in the