Pantropical tree growth resilience to drought
- 1Wageningen University, Forest Ecology and Forest Management, Amsterdam, Netherlands (pieter.zuidema@wur.nl)
- 2School of Natural Resources and the Environment & Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, USA (babst@arizona.edu)
- 3Instituto de Biologia, University of Campinas, Brazil (peterg@unicamp.br)
- 4Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA (mizanur.rahman@pnnl.gov)
- 5Belgian Climate Centre, Bruxelles, Belgium & Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona, USA (trouet@arizona.edu)
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
An increasing incidence and intensity of droughts under anthropogenic climate change jeopardizes the potential of tropical forests and woodlands to capture carbon in woody biomass and act as CO2 sink. A pantropical quantification of drought impacts on tree stem growth is needed to evaluate this risk.
We assessed drought impacts in a pantropical network of 477 tree-ring chronologies (>10,000 trees from >150 species and 35 plant families) and found modest stem growth declines (median: 2-4%) during drought years. Growth declines were larger for dry-season than wet-season droughts, specifically for Gymnosperms, and at hotter and more arid sites. Lagged growth reductions during post-drought years were rare. Over half of the growth reduction during drought years was mitigated during wet extreme years.
Thus, drought impacts on tropical forest carbon sequestration through stem growth have been small and short-lived. Yet, risks of increasing drought-induced carbon loss is expected to aggravate under climate change, in particular through elevated mortality associated with droughts.
A. Joshua Leffler, Abrham ABIYU, Achim Bräuning, Alejandro Venegas-González, Amanda Köche Marcon, Anthony Guerra, Aster Gebrekirstos, Brendan M Buckley, Brian J Enquist, Bruna Hornink, Bruno B L Cintra, Christian Wehenkel, Claudia C. Astudillo-Sánchez, Cláudia Fontana, Claudio R. Anholetto Junior, Claudio Sergio Lisi, Cristina Nabais, Daigard Ricardo Ortega Rodriguez, Daniela Granato-Souza, Darwin Pucha-Cofrep, Diego A. David Flórez, Doris B. Crispin-DelaCruz, Eddy Moors, Edilson J. Requena-Rojas, Eduardo Adenesky Filho, Eladio Heriberto Cornejo-Oviedo, Erika Zavaleta, Ernesto Alonso Rubio-Camacho, Esther Fichtler, Eva T. Layme – Huaman, Francisco de Almeida Lobo, Francisco de Carvalho Nogueira Júnior, Franklin Galvão, Franziska Slotta, Gabriel Assis-Pereira, Gabriela Morais Olmedo, Gauthier Ligot, Gerardo Esquivel Arriaga, Ginette Ticse-Otarola, Giovanna Battipaglia, Gonzalo Pérez-de-Lis, Grant L. Harley, Hans Beeckman, Iain Robertson, Ingo Heinrich, Ítallo Romany Nunes Menezes, J. Julio Camarero, James H. Speer, Jan Van den Bulcke, Janet Gaby, Inga Guillen, Jean-Louis Doucet, Jochen Schöngart, Jorge A. Giraldo, Jorge Andres Ramirez, Jorge Ignacio del Valle Arango, José Guilherme Roquette, José Luís Lousada, José Roberto Vieira Aragão, José Villanueva-Díaz, Julián Cerano-Paredes, Juliano Morales Oliveira, Justin T. Maxwell, Justine Ngoma, Karin Esemann-Quadros, Kathelyn Paredes Villanueva, Kristof Haneca, Leif Armando Portal-Cahuana, Librado Roberto Centeno Erguera, Lidio Lopez, Lucas Silva, Luciana Karla Valéria dos Santos Sousa, M. Eugenia Ferrero, Maaike De Ridder, Mahmuda Islam, Marcelo Callegari Scipioni, Marcin Koprowski, Maria Isabel López-Hernández, Mariana Alves Pagotto, Mario Tomazello-Filho, Mart Vlam, Matthew Brookhouse, Matthew Therrell, Max Torbenson, Milena Godoy-Veiga, Mulugeta MOKRIA, Nathan de Oliveira Barreto, Nathsuda Pumijumnong, Neil J Loader, Nils Bourland, Oliver Dünisch, Omar Noé Mendoza Villa, Otoniel Cortes Cortes, Paul Sheppard, Paulo Cesar Botosso, Pei-Li Fu, Ramzi Touchan, Raquel Alfaro Sánchez, Raúl Sánchez-Salguero, Ricardo Villalba, Roel Brienen, Rosalinda Cervantes-Martínez, Ruben D. Manzanedo, Shankar Panthi, Tatiele Anete Bergamo Fenilli, Tomaz Longhi-Santos, Tommy Wils, Ute Sass-Klaassen, Wannes Hubau, Wirong Cahnthorn, Ya-Jun Chen, Yumei Jiang, Zewdu Eshetu
How to cite: Zuidema, P., Babst, F., Groenendijk, P., Rahman, M., and Trouet, V. and the Tropical Tree-ring Network: Pantropical tree growth resilience to drought , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-16050, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-16050, 2024.
