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The present study was conducted in intertidal rocky shores at Wellamadama and Kamburugamuwa of Matara district from June to November 2018. A line transect method was employed perpendicular to the shore and randomly placed quadrats were used to identify and quantify the species. Collectively 34 species of intertidal macroinvertebrate fauna were identified. Shanon-Weiner index, Menhinick's index, and Pielou's index for Wellamadama were 1.8271, 0.5612, and 0.7620 respectively, while those in Kamburugamuwa were 1.9281, 0.4307, and 0.7517. Higher species diversity was recorded at the rocky shores of Kamburugamuwa, while higher species richness and evenness at Wellamadama rocky shores. The Jaccard similarity index indicates a low similarity (<50%) between two study rocky shores. Clypidina notata, Cellana rota, and Patelloida striata were the dominant species in the low tide zone. Highly abundant species in mid tidal zone at Wellamadama was Nodilittorina quadricincta, while that of in mid-tide zone at Kamburugamuwa was Chiton sp. Periwinkle snails were dominating the high tide zone of both study rocky shores of which Nodilittorina trochoides dominated at Wellamadama and Littoraria undulata dominated at Kamburugamuwa. The study indicates that community assemblages in intertidal rocky shores vary spatially and comprehensive studies are essential to investigate the controlling factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Topmost trees increased forest structure, diversity and biomass. • Foremost species declined forest structure, diversity and biomass. • Forest structure promoted biomass directly and indirectly via forest diversity. • High climatic water and low soil fertility environment characterized the studied forests. Tropical forests play a main role in the global carbon cycle due to their higher exchange capacity of carbon dioxide with the atmosphere than any other forest type on the Earth. In this study, we aimed to explore the relative importance of foremost species and topmost trees in shaping forest structure, diversity and biomass in natural tropical forests. We hypothesized that topmost trees promote but foremost species decline tropical forest structure, diversity and biomass in a changing environment (i.e. the 'tree overtopping hypothesis'). We formulated three questions to address the proposed hypothesis: (1) Are forest structure, diversity and biomass affected by both foremost species and topmost trees, and what is the magnitude and direction of each relative effect? (2) Are foremost species and topmost trees influenced similarly by multiple environmental factors? (3) How do foremost species and topmost trees mediate the feedbacks of forest structure, diversity and biomass to environmental factors? Using 189 plots data from Sri Lanka, we quantified 16 environmental (9 climate and 7 soil) factors, two indices of the topmost trees (i.e. top 1% large-diameter, and tall-stature) and their combination, four indices of foremost species (i.e. top 1% species' importance value index or each of its three components including either relative basal area, relative frequency or relative density), rarefied species richness, and stand density. We used structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypothesis. Strong positive effects of topmost trees whereas negative to negligible positive effects of foremost species shaped tropical forest structure, diversity and biomass through opposing mechanisms, i.e., the promoting part of big trees and suppressing part of dominant species, respectively. Moreover, forest structure promoted biomass directly and indirectly via forest diversity. Environmental factors (i.e. high climatic water and low soil fertility) increased forest structure, diversity and biomass indirectly via topmost trees but decreased via foremost species. The main novelty or contribution of this study determines that the adverse effects of few foremost (i.e. dominant or abundant) species shaped forest structure, diversity and biomass in tropical forests when simultaneously considered the positive effects of topmost trees. Hence, encouraging topmost trees while managing foremost species might necessarily increase complementarity resource-use within a forest community, leading to positive forest diversity – structure – biomass relationships. We argue that both topmost trees and foremost species might have important influences on forest carbon stock in the context of global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]