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ABSTRACT Leaves are critical to plant photosynthesis and the loss of leaf area can have negative consequences for an individual's performance and fitness. Variation in plant defenses plays a large role in protecting their leaves from attack by insect herbivores. However, trade‐offs in allocation among growth, reproduction, and defense may limit the availability of resources for any one aspect of a plant's life‐history strategy, which would lead to greater herbivory in those plants that allocate more resources to growth or reproduction than to defense. Patterns of sex‐biased herbivory in dioecious plants are well documented yet are known to vary in the direction (female or male) of their bias. A greater concentration of conspecifics may also increase herbivore attack through negative density dependence. In order to test the hypothesis that sex‐biased herbivory varies as a function of conspecific density, we measured standing herbivory on 2350 leaves on 302 trees of the dioecious understory treeIryanthera hostmannii(Myristicaceae) situated in a large forest dynamics plot in a lowland tropical rain forest in Ecuador. We found no difference in standing herbivory between the 169 male and 133 female trees, nor for focal trees surrounded by higher densities of conspecifics. The slow‐growing, shade‐tolerant growth patterns ofI. hostmanniimay contribute to suppressed differential expression of secondary sex characters in leaf defenses, leading to similar levels of herbivory between males and females. Considering the factors that most strongly affect herbivory in dioecious species is important in understanding the evolution of sex‐related traits more broadly. 

ABSTRACT Examining the cues and drivers influencing seed production is crucial to better understand forest resilience to climate change. We explored the effects of five climatic variables on seed production over 22 years in an everwet Amazonian forest, by separating direct effects of these variables from indirect effects mediated through flower production. We observed a decline in seed production over the study period, which was primarily explained by direct effects of rising nighttime temperatures and declining average vapour pressure deficits. Higher daytime temperatures were positively related to seed output, mainly through a flower‐mediated effect, while rainfall effects on seed production were more nuanced, showing either positive or negative relationships depending on the seasonal timing of rains. If these trends continue, they are likely to lead to significant changes in forest dynamics, potentially impacting both forest structure and species composition.