Why do trees die? This is the million-dollar question, especially after several studies have indicated increased tree mortality due to rising temperatures and increasingly severe droughts worldwide. Tropical forests provide ecosystem services crucial for climate balance and the conservation of global biodiversity, making it essential to understand the factors related to tree mortality in these environments. This project aims to determine which characteristics of tropical species best indicate vulnerability to global changes. We will investigate chemical defense traits against pathogens and structural factors related to water use in the most abundant trees of the Tapajós tropical forest in the Amazon, to assess whether integrating these traits can help improve predictions of which trees are more vulnerable to mortality in tropical ecosystems due to water stress and pathogen activity.