Tropical forests play a large role in the global carbon cycle as well as the world’s climate. They contain ~25% of Earth’s terrestrial biomass, are responsible for a third of terrestrial net primary production, and exchange more carbon and energy with the atmosphere than any other biome. Accordingly, climate-induced effects on tropical rain forests could dramatically affect atmospheric CO2 concentrations and feedback to affect climate change. Nevertheless, due to the diversity of the tropical biome and a paucity of manipulative studies, we have a relatively poor understanding of how increasing temperatures will affect tropical rain forest structure and function. Over the last decade, discussions of the primary forces affecting tropical rain forests have been heated, with all sides giving valid evidence for and against contradicting theories. The diversity of trajectories in tropical forests may be as diverse as the forests themselves, and the primary drivers of change may depend on multiple different limiting and interacting factors. While it is very important to understand the effects of multiple drivers simultaneously, we propose that a way forward is to begin to focus on individual drivers first. We aim to bring speakers together to address the issue of how increasing temperature could affect tropical rain forests, and we have assembled a speaker list that will allow us to address this question from the microbial- to the biome-scale. For example, speakers will consider the temperature sensitivity of heterotrophic respiration, tree growth and mortality responses to seemingly subtle temperature changes, and how interactions between climate and nutrient cycles could regulate above- and belowground responses to climate change. In addition, these original research presentations will contribute to a larger, coherent theme, focusing on the question of how we may expect increasing temperature to affect tropical forest organisms, biogeochemical cycles, and overall ecosystem health. We hope to use this collection of speakers to consider and highlight new research directions that both build upon the work presented as well as highlight novel avenues of investigation. Together these talks will provide a comprehensive exploration of how tropical forests are currently responding to temperature increases, will help with predictions of how these forests may respond in the future, and will highlight key factors controlling their response. We hope this session will offer insight into how and why increasing temperatures affect tropical forests, and that it will prove rewarding for scientists, decision makers, and land managers alike.