PCA (PC1 and PC2) depicting the environmental space found across the tropics (yellow and green colours show higher map pixel counts representing area covered) on the basis of mean maximum air temperature (T max), soil moisture (SM), solar radiation (SR), slope, MCWD, soil cation-exchange capacity (CEC), soil pH, sand amount and clay amount. The grey, violet and orange points show the location of the sampling plots in environmental space found across the tropics. PC1 accounts for 27% of explained variance, PC2 for 24%. PC1 is loaded mainly by water deficit index (MCWD) (-0.47), SR (0.50) and soil pH (0.59); PC2 by the soil sand (0.57), clay (-0.53) and CEC (-0.44);
