By doing so, we could better understand the extent to which buttress roots serve as indicators of tropical rainforest biomes or possibly other biomes as well.

This suggests that these roots are strictly confined to certain regions. It would be fascinating to compare the predicted distribution of buttress roots with previously delineated tropical rainforest biomes.

Thanks, Nick! Great questions! Based on my current research, trees that develop large buttresses require very specific environmental conditions. For example, both temperature and rainfall must be relatively high.