Journal ArticleDOI
Hanging by a thread? Forests and drought
TLDR
Recent progress is examined in understanding of how the future looks for forests growing in a hotter and drier atmosphere.Abstract:
Trees are the living foundations on which most terrestrial biodiversity is built. Central to the success of trees are their woody bodies, which connect their elevated photosynthetic canopies with the essential belowground activities of water and nutrient acquisition. The slow construction of these carbon-dense, woody skeletons leads to a slow generation time, leaving trees and forests highly susceptible to rapid changes in climate. Other long-lived, sessile organisms such as corals appear to be poorly equipped to survive rapid changes, which raises questions about the vulnerability of contemporary forests to future climate change. The emerging view that, similar to corals, tree species have rather inflexible damage thresholds, particularly in terms of water stress, is especially concerning. This Review examines recent progress in our understanding of how the future looks for forests growing in a hotter and drier atmosphere.read more
Citations
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Impact of 2019–2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat
Michelle Ward,Ayesha I. T. Tulloch,Ayesha I. T. Tulloch,James Q. Radford,Brooke Williams,April E. Reside,Stewart L. Macdonald,Helen Mayfield,Martine Maron,Hugh P. Possingham,Hugh P. Possingham,Samantha J. Vine,James O'Connor,Emily Massingham,Aaron C. Greenville,John C. Z. Woinarski,Stephen T. Garnett,Mark Lintermans,Ben C. Scheele,Josie Carwardine,Dale G. Nimmo,David B. Lindenmayer,Robert M. Kooyman,Jeremy S. Simmonds,Laura J. Sonter,James E. M. Watson,James E. M. Watson +26 more
TL;DR: An assessment of the habitat of native vertebrate species burnt by the 2019–2020 Australian mega-fires shows that 70 taxa were severely affected, and 21 of these were already listed as threatened with extinction.
Meta-analysis Reveals that Hydraulic Traits Explain Cross-Species Patterns of Drought-Induced Tree Mortality across the Globe
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of species’ mortality rates across 475 species finds that species-specific mortality anomalies from community mortality rate in a given drought were associated with plant hydraulic traits, providing broad support for the hypothesis that hydraulic traits capture key mechanisms determining tree death.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global field observations of tree die-off reveal hotter-drought fingerprint for Earth’s forests
William M. Hammond,A. Park Williams,John T. Abatzoglou,Henry D. Adams,Tamir Klein,Rosana López,Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero,Henrik Hartmann,David D. Breshears,Craig D. Allen +9 more
TL;DR: This paper established a geo-referenced global database documenting climate-induced mortality events spanning all tree-supporting biomes and continents, from 154 peer-reviewed studies since 1970.
Journal ArticleDOI
Increased likelihood of heat-induced large wildfires in the Mediterranean Basin.
Julien Ruffault,Thomas Curt,Vincent Moron,Ricardo M. Trigo,Ricardo M. Trigo,Florent Mouillot,Nikos Koutsias,François Pimont,Nicolas Martin-StPaul,Renaud Barbero,Jean-Luc Dupuy,Ana Russo,Chiraz Belhadj-Khedher +12 more
TL;DR: It is shown that future climate scenarios point to an increase in the frequency of two heat-induced fire-weather types that have been related to the largest wildfires in recent years, suggesting that the frequency and extent of large wildfires will increase throughout the Mediterranean Basin.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests
Craig D. Allen,Alison K. Macalady,Haroun Chenchouni,Dominique Bachelet,Nate G. McDowell,Michel Vennetier,Thomas Kitzberger,Andreas Rigling,David D. Breshears,Edward H. Hogg,Patrick Gonzalez,Rod Fensham,Zhen Zhang,Jorge Castro,N.A. Demidova,Jong Hwan Lim,Gillian Allard,Steven W. Running,Akkin Semerci,Neil S. Cobb +19 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress and identify key information gaps and scientific uncertainties that currently hinder our ability to predict tree mortality in response to climate change and emphasizes the need for a globally coordinated observation system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought?
Nate G. McDowell,William T. Pockman,Craig D. Allen,David D. Breshears,Neil S. Cobb,Thomas Kolb,Jennifer A. Plaut,John S. Sperry,Adam G. West,Adam G. West,David G. Williams,Enrico A. Yepez +11 more
TL;DR: A hydraulically based theory considering carbon balance and insect resistance that allowed development and examination of hypotheses regarding survival and mortality was developed, and incorporating this hydraulic framework may be effective for modeling plant survival andortality under future climate conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
What have we learned from 15 years of free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE)? A meta-analytic review of the responses of photosynthesis, canopy properties and plant production to rising CO2.
TL;DR: The results from this review may provide the most plausible estimates of how plants in their native environments and field-grown crops will respond to rising atmospheric [CO(2)]; but even with FACE there are limitations, which are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global warming and changes in drought
Kevin E. Trenberth,Aiguo Dai,Aiguo Dai,Gerard van der Schrier,Gerard van der Schrier,Philip Jones,Philip Jones,Jonathan Barichivich,Jonathan Barichivich,Keith R. Briffa,Justin Sheffield +10 more
TL;DR: In this article, a commonly used drought index and observational data are examined to identify the cause of these discrepancies, and the authors indicate that improvements in the quality and coverage of precipitation data and quantification of natural variability are necessary to provide a better understanding of how drought is changing.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global convergence in the vulnerability of forests to drought
Brendan Choat,Steven Jansen,Timothy J. Brodribb,Hervé Cochard,Hervé Cochard,Sylvain Delzon,Radika Bhaskar,Sandra Janet Bucci,Taylor S. Feild,Sean M. Gleason,Uwe G. Hacke,Anna L. Jacobsen,Frederic Lens,Hafiz Maherali,Jordi Martínez-Vilalta,Stefan Mayr,Maurizio Mencuccini,Patrick J. Mitchell,Andrea Nardini,Jarmila Pittermann,R. Brandon Pratt,John S. Sperry,Mark Westoby,Ian J. Wright,Amy E. Zanne,Amy E. Zanne +25 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw together published and unpublished data on the vulnerability of the transport system to drought-induced embolism for a large number of woody species, with a view to examining the likely consequences of climate change for forest biomes.
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