Citation
Phillips, Oliver L. and Van der Heijden, Geertje and Lewis, Simon L. and Lopez Gonzalez, G. and Aragao, Luiz and Lloyd, J. and Malhi, Y. and Monteagudo, A. and Almeida, S. and Alvarez Davila, Esteban and Amaral, Ieda and Andelman, S. and Andrade, Ana and Arroyo, L. and Aymard, Gerardo and Baker, T.R. de and Blanc, Lilian and Bonal, Damien and Alves de Oliveira, Atila Cristina and Chao, K.J. and Dávila Cardozo, Nallaret and Da Costa, Lola and Feldpausch, Ted R. and Fisher, Joshua B. and Fyllas, Nikolaos M. and Aparecida Freita, Maria and Galbraith, David and Gloor, Emanuel and Higuchi, Niro and Honorio, E. and Jimenez Rojas, Eliana Maria and Keeling, Helen and Killen, T. and Lovett, Jon C. and Meir, Patrick and Mendoza, Casimiro and Morel, Alexandra and Nuñez Vargas, P. and Patiño, S. and Peh, Kelvin and Peña Cruz, A. and Prieto, A. and Quesada, C.A. and Ramírez, Fredy and Ramirez Angulo, H. and Rudas, A. and Salamao, R. and Schwarz, M. and Silva, Javier and Silveira, Marcos and Ferry Slik, J.W. and Sonke, Bonaventura and Sota Thomas, Anne and Stropp, Juliana and Taplin, James R.D. and Vasquez, R. and Vilanova, Emilio
(2010).
Drought-mortality relationships for tropical forests.
"New Phytologist", v. 187
(n. 3);
pp. 631-646.
ISSN 0028-646X.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03359.x.
Abstract
•The rich ecology of tropical forests is intimately tied to their moisture status. Multi-site syntheses can provide a macro-scale view of these linkages and their susceptibility to changing climates. Here, we report pan-tropical and regional-scale analyses of tree vulnerability to drought.
•We assembled available data on tropical forest tree stem mortality before, during, and after recent drought events, from 119 monitoring plots in 10 countries concentrated in Amazonia and Borneo.
•In most sites, larger trees are disproportionately at risk. At least within Amazonia, low wood density trees are also at greater risk of drought-associated mortality, independent of size. For comparable drought intensities, trees in Borneo are more vulnerable than trees in the Amazon. There is some evidence for lagged impacts of drought, with mortality rates remaining elevated 2 yr after the meteorological event is over.
•These findings indicate that repeated droughts would shift the functional composition of tropical forests toward smaller, denser-wooded trees. At very high drought intensities, the linear relationship between tree mortality and moisture stress apparently breaks down, suggesting the existence of moisture stress thresholds beyond which some tropical forests would suffer catastrophic tree mortality.
