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Tropical cyclones are increasing in intensity and size and, thus, are poised to increase in importance as disturbance agents. Our understanding of cyclone ecology is biased towards the North Atlantic Basin, because cyclone effects do differ across oceanic basins. Cyclones have both short and long-term effects across the levels of biological organization, but we lack a scale‐perspective of cyclone ecology. Effects on individual trees, such as defoliation or branch stripping and uprooting, are mechanistically linked to effects at the community and ecosystem levels, including forest productivity and stand regeneration time. Forest dwarfing via the gradual removal of taller trees by cyclones over many generations illustrates that cyclones shape forest structure through the accumulation of short-term effects over longer timescales. Our understanding of cyclone ecology is biased toward the Atlantic Basin, but cyclone effects on forests differ among oceanic basins because of differences in storm frequency and strength. Projected increases in cyclone frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution will threaten the tall old trees of the world, especially those in old-growth forests, which historically have few cyclones, such as those in the southeastern USA and southern Japan. Cyclone effects on ecosystem processes, such as primary productivity and nutrient cycling, are mediated through the range of direct disturbance effects on individuals and species, such as defoliation and tree mortality. Forest dwarfing, because of the gradual removal of tall trees by individual cyclones, illustrates the accumulative short-term effects of individual cyclones on shaping long-term forest structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]