干旱和林分因子对树木死亡的影响——以美国德克萨斯州东部国家森林为例

为探讨不同时间尺度、气候因子及林分因子对森林中树木死亡的影响,本研究以美国德克萨斯州东部的4个国家森林中264个重复调查的森林样地为对象,使用近20年来美国森林清查4个周期的数据,估算其在清查周期和年度水平上的树木死亡率变化,并使用广义线性混合效应模型来分析气候因子(干旱强度、干旱持续时间、年均温和年降水量)、树木大小(胸径)和林分因子(树木胸高断面积、林分密度和林分年龄)对树木存活的影响。结果表明: 在重度干旱当年和重度干旱的清查周期中,森林的树木死亡率分别增加了151%和123%,天气干扰(干旱和飓风)和植物之间的竞争是其主要的影响因素;干旱强度(标准化降水蒸散发指数,SPEI)和干旱持续时间对树木的存活具有显著的负效应,年降水量对树木的存活具有显著的正效应;树木胸高面积对树木存活具有显著的负效应,树木大小、林分年龄和林分密度对树木存活均具有显著的正效应,但是大树比小树更容易受到天气影响而死亡;在重度干旱的清查周期中,松树种组的树木死亡率(2.1%)比阔叶树木种组(3.9%)低,天然林的树木死亡率(3.0%)高于人工林(1.9%)。在分析树木死亡率时,需同时考虑个体树木大小、林分因子与气候因子的相对重要性。     

Fire deficits have increased drought sensitivity in dry conifer forests: Fire frequency and tree‐ring carbon isotope evidence from Central Oregon

A century of fire suppression across the Western United States has led to more crowded forests and increased competition for resources. Studies of forest thinning or stand conditions after mortality events have provided indirect evidence for how competition can promote drought stress and predispose forests to severe fire and/or bark beetle outbreaks. Here, we demonstrate linkages between fire deficits and increasing drought stress through analyses of annually resolved tree‐ring growth, fire scars, and carbon isotope discrimination (Δ¹³C) across a dry mixed‐conifer forest landscape. Fire deficits across the study area have increased the sensitivity of leaf gas exchange to drought stress over the past >100 years. Since 1910, stand basal area in these forests has more than doubled and fire‐return intervals have increased from 25 to 140 years. Meanwhile, the portion of interannual variation in tree‐ring Δ¹³C explained by the Palmer Drought Severity Index has more than doubled in ca. 300–500‐year‐old Pinus ponderosa as well as in fire‐intolerant, ca. 90–190‐year‐old Abies grandis. Drought stress has increased in stands with a basal area of ≥25 m²/ha in 1910, as indicated by negative temporal Δ¹³C trends, whereas stands with basal area ≤25 m²/ha in 1910, due to frequent or intense wildfire activity in decades beforehand, were initially buffered from increased drought stress and have benefited more from rising ambient carbon dioxide concentrations, [CO₂], as demonstrated by positive temporal Δ¹³C trends. Furthermore, the average Δ¹³C response across all P. ponderosa since 1830 indicates that photosynthetic assimilation rates and stomatal conductance have been reduced by ~10% and ~20%, respectively, compared to expected trends due to increasing [CO₂]. Although disturbance legacies contribute to local‐scale intensity of drought stress, fire deficits have reduced drought resistance of mixed‐conifer forests and made them more susceptible to challenges by pests and pathogens and other disturbances.     

Coupled effects of wind‐storms and drought on tree mortality across 115 forest stands from the Western Alps and the Jura mountains

Damage due to wind‐storms and droughts is increasing in many temperate forests, yet little is known about the long‐term roles of these key climatic factors in forest dynamics and in the carbon budget. The objective of this study was to estimate individual and coupled effects of droughts and wind‐storms on adult tree mortality across a 31‐year period in 115 managed, mixed coniferous forest stands from the Western Alps and the Jura mountains. For each stand, yearly mortality was inferred from management records, yearly drought from interpolated fields of monthly temperature, precipitation and soil water holding capacity, and wind‐storms from interpolated fields of daily maximum wind speed. We performed a thorough model selection based on a leave‐one‐out cross‐validation of the time series. We compared different critical wind speeds (CWSs) for damage, wind‐storm, and stand variables and statistical models. We found that a model including stand characteristics, drought, and storm strength using a CWS of 25 ms^?1 performed the best across most stands. Using this best model, we found that drought increased damage risk only in the most southerly forests, and its effect is generally maintained for up to 2 years. Storm strength increased damage risk in all forests in a relatively uniform way. In some stands, we found positive interaction between drought and storm strength most likely because drought weakens trees, and they became more prone to stem breakage under wind‐loading. In other stands, we found negative interaction between drought and storm strength, where excessive rain likely leads to soil water saturation making trees more susceptible to overturning in a wind‐storm. Our results stress that temporal data are essential to make valid inferences about ecological impacts of disturbance events, and that making inferences about disturbance agents separately can be of limited validity. Under projected future climatic conditions, the direction and strength of these ecological interactions could also change.     

Growth, carbon-isotope discrimination, and drought-associated mortality across a Pinus ponderosa elevational transect

Drought‐ and insect‐associated tree mortality at low‐elevation ecotones is a widespread phenomenon but the underlying mechanisms are uncertain. Enhanced growth sensitivity to climate is widely observed among trees that die, indicating that a predisposing physiological mechanism(s) underlies tree mortality. We tested three, linked hypotheses regarding mortality using a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) elevation transect that experienced low‐elevation mortality following prolonged drought. The hypotheses were: (1) mortality was associated with greater growth sensitivity to climate, (2) mortality was associated with greater sensitivity of gas exchange to climate, and (3) growth and gas exchange were correlated. Support for all three hypotheses would indicate that mortality results at least in part from gas exchange constraints. We assessed growth using basal area increment normalized by tree basal area [basal area increment (BAI)/basal area (BA)] to account for differences in tree size. Whole‐crown gas exchange was indexed via estimates of the CO₂ partial pressure difference between leaf and atmosphere (p_a?p_c) derived from tree ring carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C), corrected for temporal trends in atmospheric CO₂ and δ¹³C and elevation trends in pressure. Trees that survived the drought exhibited strong correlations among and between BAI, BAI/BA, p_a?p_c, and climate. In contrast, trees that died exhibited greater growth sensitivity to climate than trees that survived, no sensitivity of p_a?p_c to climate, and a steep relationship between p_a?p_c and BAI/BA. The p_a?p_c results are consistent with predictions from a theoretical hydraulic model, suggesting trees that died had a limited buffer between mean water availability during their lifespan and water availability during drought – i.e., chronic water stress. It appears that chronic water stress predisposed low‐elevation trees to mortality during drought via constrained gas exchange. Continued intensification of drought in mid‐latitude regions may drive increased mortality and ecotone shifts in temperate forests and woodlands.     

Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest

Drought‐induced, regional‐scale dieback of forests has emerged as a global concern that is expected to escalate under model projections of climate change. Since 2000, drought of unusual severity, extent, and duration has affected large areas of western North America, leading to regional‐scale dieback of forests in the southwestern US. We report on drought impacts on forests in a region farther north, encompassing the transition between boreal forest and prairie in western Canada. A central question is the significance of drought as an agent of large‐scale tree mortality and its potential future impact on carbon cycling in this cold region. We used a combination of plot‐based, meteorological, and remote sensing measures to map and quantify aboveground, dead biomass of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) across an 11.5 Mha survey area where drought was exceptionally severe during 2001–2002. Within this area, a satellite‐based land cover map showed that aspen‐dominated broadleaf forests occupied 2.3 Mha. Aerial surveys revealed extensive patches of severe mortality (>55%) resembling the impacts of fire. Dead aboveground biomass was estimated at 45 Mt, representing 20% of the total aboveground biomass, based on a spatial interpolation of plot‐based measurements. Spatial variation in percentage dead biomass showed a moderately strong correlation with drought severity. In the prairie‐like, southern half of the study area where the drought was most severe, 35% of aspen biomass was dead, compared with an estimated 7% dead biomass in the absence of drought. Drought led to an estimated 29 Mt increase in dead biomass across the survey area, corresponding to 14 Mt of potential future carbon emissions following decomposition. Many recent, comparable episodes of drought‐induced forest dieback have been reported from around the world, which points to an emerging need for multiscale monitoring approaches to quantify drought effects on woody biomass and carbon cycling across large areas.     

The Effect of Habitat Association and Edaphic Conditions on Tree Mortality during El Niño‐induced Drought in a Bornean Dipterocarp Forest

The effects of El Niño‐induced droughts on dipterocarp forests must be quantified to evaluate the implications of future global climatic changes for the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. We studied the mortality of trees ≥ 1 cm in diameter in a lowland dipterocarp forest in Borneo before, during, and after the 1997/1998 El Niño drought. The annual mortality rates were 1.30, 1.75, and 1.66 percent/yr for the pre‐drought, drought, and post‐drought periods, respectively. The effect of drought was tree size‐dependent being greater for larger trees. Modified logistic regression analysis revealed a significant interaction effect between species' habitat association and edaphic condition on mortality rates in all periods. For species associated with wet habitat, drought effect was greater in dry conditions than in wet conditions, in both the drought and post‐drought periods. The mortality rates of dry‐habitat species were less affected by the drought both in dry and wet conditions. A similar pattern was also found in common Dipterocarpaceae species; mortality rates increased more in species associated with wet‐habitat in the drought and post‐drought periods. Species and families with higher mortality in the pre‐drought period tended to experience greater mortality increases during the drought and post‐drought periods. These results suggest that changes in drought regimes alter the species composition and spatial distribution of dipterocarp forests.     

Measuring canopy loss and climatic thresholds from an extreme drought along a fivefold precipitation gradient across Texas

Globally, trees are increasingly dying from extreme drought, a trend that is expected to increase with climate change. Loss of trees has significant ecological, biophysical, and biogeochemical consequences. In 2011, a record drought caused widespread tree mortality in Texas. Using remotely sensed imagery, we quantified canopy loss during and after the drought across the state at 30‐m spatial resolution, from the eastern pine/hardwood forests to the western shrublands, a region that includes the boundaries of many species ranges. Canopy loss observations in ~200 multitemporal fine‐scale orthophotos (1‐m) were used to train coarser Landsat imagery (30‐m) to create 30‐m binary statewide canopy loss maps. We found that canopy loss occurred across all major ecoregions of Texas, with an average loss of 9.5%. The drought had the highest impact in post oak woodlands, pinyon‐juniper shrublands and Ashe juniper woodlands. Focusing on a 100‐km by ~1,000‐km transect spanning the State's fivefold east–west precipitation gradient (~1,500 to ~300 mm), we compared spatially explicit 2011 climatic anomalies to our canopy loss maps. Much of the canopy loss occurred in areas that passed specific climatic thresholds: warm season anomalies in mean temperature (+1.6°C) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD, +0.66 kPa), annual percent deviation in precipitation (?38%), and 2011 difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (?1,206 mm). Although similarly low precipitation occurred during the landmark 1950s drought, the VPD and temperature anomalies observed in 2011 were even greater. Furthermore, future climate data under the representative concentration pathway 8.5 trajectory project that average values will surpass the 2011 VPD anomaly during the 2070–2099 period and the temperature anomaly during the 2040–2099 period. Identifying vulnerable ecological systems to drought stress and climate thresholds associated with canopy loss will aid in predicting how forests will respond to a changing climate and how ecological landscapes will change in the near term.     

Drought timing and local climate determine the sensitivity of eastern temperate forests to drought

Projected changes in temperature and drought regime are likely to reduce carbon (C) storage in forests, thereby amplifying rates of climate change. While such reductions are often presumed to be greatest in semi‐arid forests that experience widespread tree mortality, the consequences of drought may also be important in temperate mesic forests of Eastern North America (ENA) if tree growth is significantly curtailed by drought. Investigations of the environmental conditions that determine drought sensitivity are critically needed to accurately predict ecosystem feedbacks to climate change. We matched site factors with the growth responses to drought of 10,753 trees across mesic forests of ENA, representing 24 species and 346 stands, to determine the broad‐scale drivers of drought sensitivity for the dominant trees in ENA. Here we show that two factors—the timing of drought, and the atmospheric demand for water (i.e., local potential evapotranspiration; PET)—are stronger drivers of drought sensitivity than soil and stand characteristics. Drought‐induced reductions in tree growth were greatest when the droughts occurred during early‐season peaks in radial growth, especially for trees growing in the warmest, driest regions (i.e., highest PET). Further, mean species trait values (rooting depth and ψ₅₀) were poor predictors of drought sensitivity, as intraspecific variation in sensitivity was equal to or greater than interspecific variation in 17 of 24 species. From a general circulation model ensemble, we find that future increases in early‐season PET may exacerbate these effects, and potentially offset gains in C uptake and storage in ENA owing to other global change factors.     

Historical and event‐based bioclimatic suitability predicts regional forest vulnerability to compound effects of severe drought and bark beetle infestation

Vulnerability to climate change, and particularly to climate extreme events, is expected to vary across species ranges. Thus, we need tools to standardize the variability in regional climatic legacy and extreme climate across populations and species. Extreme climate events (e.g., droughts) can erode populations close to the limits of species' climatic tolerance. Populations in climatic‐core locations may also become vulnerable because they have developed a greater demand for resources (i.e., water) that cannot be enough satisfied during the periods of scarcity. These mechanisms can become exacerbated in tree populations when combined with antagonistic biotic interactions, such as insect infestation. We used climatic suitability indices derived from Species Distribution Models (SDMs) to standardize the climatic conditions experienced across Pinus edulis populations in southwestern North America, during a historical period (1972–2000) and during an extreme event (2001–2007), when the compound effect of hot drought and bark beetle infestation caused widespread die‐off and mortality. Pinus edulis climatic suitability diminished dramatically during the die‐off period, with remarkable variation between years. P. edulis die‐off occurred mainly not just in sites that experienced lower climatic suitability during the drought but also where climatic suitability was higher during the historical period. The combined effect of historically high climatic suitability and a marked decrease in the climatic suitability during the drought best explained the range‐wide mortality. Lagged effects of climatic suitability loss in previous years and co‐occurrence of Juniperus monosperma also explained P. edulis die‐off in particular years. Overall, the study shows that past climatic legacy, likely determining acclimation, together with competitive interactions plays a major role in responses to extreme drought. It also provides a new approach to standardize the magnitude of climatic variability across populations using SDMs, improving our capacity to predict population's or species' vulnerability to climatic change.     

Wildfire refugia in forests: Severe fire weather and drought mute the influence of topography and fuel age

Wildfire refugia (unburnt patches within large wildfires) are important for the persistence of fire‐sensitive species across forested landscapes globally. A key challenge is to identify the factors that determine the distribution of fire refugia across space and time. In particular, determining the relative influence of climatic and landscape factors is important in order to understand likely changes in the distribution of wildfire refugia under future climates. Here, we examine the relative effect of weather (i.e. fire weather, drought severity) and landscape features (i.e. topography, fuel age, vegetation type) on the occurrence of fire refugia across 26 large wildfires in south‐eastern Australia. Fire weather and drought severity were the primary drivers of the occurrence of fire refugia, moderating the effect of landscape attributes. Unburnt patches rarely occurred under ‘severe’ fire weather, irrespective of drought severity, topography, fuels or vegetation community. The influence of drought severity and landscape factors played out most strongly under ‘moderate’ fire weather. In mesic forests, fire refugia were linked to variables that affect fuel moisture, whereby the occurrence of unburnt patches decreased with increasing drought conditions and were associated with more mesic topographic locations (i.e. gullies, pole‐facing aspects) and vegetation communities (i.e. closed‐forest). In dry forest, the occurrence of refugia was responsive to fuel age, being associated with recently burnt areas (<5 years since fire). Overall, these results show that increased severity of fire weather and increased drought conditions, both predicted under future climate scenarios, are likely to lead to a reduction of wildfire refugia across forests of southern Australia. Protection of topographic areas able to provide long‐term fire refugia will be an important step towards maintaining the ecological integrity of forests under future climate change.     

Relationships between individual‐tree mortality and water‐balance variables indicate positive trends in water stress‐induced tree mortality across North America

Accounting for water stress‐induced tree mortality in forest productivity models remains a challenge due to uncertainty in stress tolerance of tree populations. In this study, logistic regression models were developed to assess species‐specific relationships between probability of mortality (P_m) and drought, drawing on 8.1 million observations of change in vital status (m) of individual trees across North America. Drought was defined by standardized (relative) values of soil water content (W_s,z) and reference evapotranspiration (ET_r,z) at each field plot. The models additionally tested for interactions between the water‐balance variables, aridity class of the site (AC), and estimated tree height (h). Considering drought improved model performance in 95 (80) per cent of the 64 tested species during calibration (cross‐validation). On average, sensitivity to relative drought increased with site AC (i.e. aridity). Interaction between water‐balance variables and estimated tree height indicated that drought sensitivity commonly decreased during early height development and increased during late height development, which may reflect expansion of the root system and decreasing whole‐plant, leaf‐specific hydraulic conductance, respectively. Across North America, predictions suggested that changes in the water balance caused mortality to increase from 1.1% yr^?1 in 1951 to 2.0% yr^?1 in 2014 (a net change of 0.9 ± 0.3% yr^?1). Interannual variation in mortality also increased, driven by increasingly severe droughts in 1988, 1998, 2006, 2007 and 2012. With strong confidence, this study indicates that water stress is a common cause of tree mortality. With weak‐to‐moderate confidence, this study strengthens previous claims attributing positive trends in mortality to increasing levels of water stress. This ‘learn‐as‐we‐go’ approach – defined by sampling rare drought events as they continue to intensify – will help to constrain the hydraulic limits of dominant tree species and the viability of boreal and temperate forest biomes under continued climate change.     

Coarse woody debris in undisturbed and logged forests in the eastern Brazilian Amazon

Coarse woody debris (CWD) is an important component of the carbon cycle in tropical forests. We measured the volume and density of fallen CWD at two sites, Cauaxi and Tapajós in the Eastern Amazon. At both sites we studied undisturbed forests (UFs) and logged forests 1 year after harvest. Conventional logging (CL) and reduced impact logging (RIL) were used for management on areas where the geometric volumes of logs harvested was about 25–30 m³ ha^?1. Density for five classes of fallen CWD for large material (>10 cm diameter) ranged from 0.71 to 0.28 Mg m^?3 depending upon the degree of decomposition. Density of wood within large fallen logs varied with position relative to the ground and with distance from the center of the log. Densities for materials with diameters from 2 to 5 and 5 to 10 cm were 0.36 and 0.45 Mg m^?3, respectively. The average mass (±SE) of fallen CWD at Cauaxi was 55.2 (4.7), 74.7 (0.6), and 107.8 (10.5) Mg ha^?1 for duplicate UF, RIL, and CL sites, respectively. At Tapajós, the average mass of fallen CWD was 50.7 (1.1) Mg ha^?1 for UF and 76.2 (10.2) Mg ha^?1 for RIL for duplicate sites compared with 282 Mg ha^?1 for live aboveground biomass. Small‐ and medium‐sized material (<10 cm dia.) accounted for 8–18% of the total fallen CWD mass. The large amount of fallen CWD at these UF sites relative to standing aboveground biomass suggests either that the forests have recently been subjected to a pulse of high mortality or that they normally suffer a high mortality rate in the range of 0.03 per year. Accounting for background CWD in UF, CL management produced 2.7 times as much CWD as RIL management. Excess CWD at logging sites would generate a substantial CO₂ emission given the high rates of decay in moist tropical forests.     

Intra‐annual plasticity of growth mediates drought resilience over multiple years in tropical seedling communities

Precipitation patterns are changing across the globe causing more severe and frequent drought for many forest ecosystems. Although research has focused on the resistance of tree populations and communities to these novel precipitation regimes, resilience of forests is also contingent on recovery following drought, which remains poorly understood, especially in aseasonal tropical forests. We used rainfall exclusion shelters to manipulate the interannual frequency of drought for diverse seedling communities in a tropical forest and assessed resistance, recovery and resilience of seedling growth and mortality relative to everwet conditions. We found seedlings exposed to recurrent periods of drought altered their growth rates throughout the year relative to seedlings in everwet conditions. During drought periods, seedlings grew slower than seedlings in everwet conditions (i.e., resistance phase) while compensating with faster growth after drought (i.e., recovery phase). However, the response to frequent drought was species dependent as some species grew significantly slower with frequent drought relative to everwet conditions while others grew faster with frequent drought due to overcompensating growth during the recovery phase. In contrast, mortality was unrelated to rainfall conditions and instead correlated with differences in light. Intra‐annual plasticity of growth and increased annual growth of some species led to an overall maintenance of growth rates of tropical seedling communities in response to more frequent drought. These results suggest these communities can potentially adapt to predicted climate change scenarios and that plasticity in the growth of species, and not solely changes in mortality rates among species, may contribute to shifts in community composition under drought.     

Long‐term variation in Amazon forest dynamics

Questions: Have forest dynamics changed significantly in intact Amazon rainforests since the early 1980s? If so, what environmental drivers might potentially be responsible? Location: Central Amazonia, north of Manaus, Brazil. Methods: Within 20 1‐ha plots scattered over ～300 km², all trees (≥10 cm diameter at breast height) were marked, identified, and measured five times between 1981 and 2003. We estimated stand‐level dynamics (mortality, recruitment, and growth) for each census interval and evaluated weather parameters over the study period. Results: We observed a widespread, significant increase in tree mortality across our plots. Tree recruitment also rose significantly over time but lagged behind mortality. Tree growth generally accelerated but varied considerably among census intervals, and was lowest when mortality was highest. Tree basal area rose 4% overall, but stem number exhibited no clear trend. In terms of climate variation, annual maximum and minimum temperatures increased significantly during our study. Rainfall anomalies were strongly and positively associated with ENSO events. Conclusions: The increasing forest dynamics, growth, and basal area observed are broadly consistent with the CO₂ fertilization hypothesis. However, pronounced shorter‐term variability in stand dynamics might be associated with climatic vicissitudes. Tree mortality peaked, and tree recruitment and growth declined during atypically wet periods. Tree growth was fastest during dry periods, when reduced cloudiness might have increased available solar radiation. Inferences about causality are tenuous because tree data were collected only at multi‐year intervals. Mean temperatures and rainfall seasonality have both increased over time in central Amazonia, and these could potentially have long‐term effects on forest dynamics and carbon storage.     

Long‐term forest resilience to climate change indicated by mortality,regeneration, and growth in semiarid southern Siberia

Several studies have documented that regional climate warming and the resulting increase in drought stress have triggered increased tree mortality in semiarid forests with unavoidable impacts on regional and global carbon sequestration. Although climate warming is projected to continue into the future, studies examining long‐term resilience of semiarid forests against climate change are limited. In this study, long‐term forest resilience was defined as the capacity of forest recruitment to compensate for losses from mortality. We observed an obvious change in long‐term forest resilience along a local aridity gradient by reconstructing tree growth trend and disturbance history and investigating postdisturbance regeneration in semiarid forests in southern Siberia. In our study, with increased severity of local aridity, forests became vulnerable to drought stress, and regeneration first accelerated and then ceased. Radial growth of trees during 1900–2012 was also relatively stable on the moderately arid site. Furthermore, we found that smaller forest patches always have relatively weaker resilience under the same climatic conditions. Our results imply a relatively higher resilience in arid timberline forest patches than in continuous forests; however, further climate warming and increased drought could possibly cause the disappearance of small forest patches around the arid tree line. This study sheds light on climate change adaptation and provides insight into managing vulnerable semiarid forests.     

Drought induces lagged tree mortality in a subalpine forest in the Rocky Mountains

Extreme climatic events are key factors in initiating gradual or sudden changes in forest ecosystems through the promotion of severe, tree-killing disturbances such as fire, blowdown, and widespread insect outbreaks. In contrast to these climatically-incited disturbances, little is known about the more direct effect of drought on tree mortality, especially in high-elevation forests. Therefore projections of drought-induced mortality under future climatic conditions remain uncertain. For a subalpine forest landscape in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado (USA), we quantified lag effects of drought on mortality of Engelmann spruce Picea engelmannii , subalpine fir Abies lasiocarpa , and lodgepole pine Pinus contorta . For the period 1910–2004, we related death dates of 164 crossdated dead trees to early-season and late-season droughts. Following early-season droughts, spruce mortality increased over five years and fir mortality increased sharply over 11 years. Following late-season droughts, spruce showed a small increase in mortality within one year, whereas fir showed a consistent period of increased mortality over two years. Pine mortality was not affected by drought. Low pre-drought radial growth rates predisposed spruce and fir to drought-related mortality. Spruce and fir trees that died during a recent drought (2000–2004) had significantly lower pre-drought growth rates than live neighbour trees. Overall, we found large interspecific differences in drought-related mortality with fir showing the strongest effect followed by spruce and pine. This direct influence of climatic variability on differential tree mortality has the potential for driving large-scale changes in subalpine forests of the Rocky Mountains.     

Weather underground: Subsurface hydrologic processes mediate tree vulnerability to extreme climatic drought

Drought extent and severity have increased and are predicted to continue to increase in many parts of the world. Understanding tree vulnerability to drought at both individual and species levels is key to ongoing forest management and preparation for future transitions in community composition. The influence of subsurface hydrologic processes is particularly important in water‐limited ecosystems, and is an under‐studied aspect of tree drought vulnerability. With California's 2013–2016 extraordinary drought as a natural experiment, we studied four co‐occurring woodland tree species, blue oak (Quercus douglasii), valley oak (Quercus lobata), gray pine (Pinus sabiniana), and California juniper (Juniperus californica), examining drought vulnerability as a function of climate, lithology and hydrology using regional aerial dieback surveys and site‐scale field surveys. We found that in addition to climatic drought severity (i.e., rainfall), subsurface processes explained variation in drought vulnerability within and across species at both scales. Regionally for blue oak, severity of dieback was related to the bedrock lithology, with higher mortality on igneous and metamorphic substrates, and to regional reductions in groundwater. At the site scale, access to deep subsurface water, evidenced by stem water stable isotope composition, was related to canopy condition across all species. Along hillslope gradients, channel locations supported similar environments in terms of water stress across a wide climatic gradient, indicating that subsurface hydrology mediates species’ experience of drought, and that areas associated with persistent access to subsurface hydrologic resources may provide important refugia at species’ xeric range edges. Despite this persistent overall influence of the subsurface environment, individual species showed markedly different response patterns. We argue that hydrologic niche segregation can be a useful lens through which to interpret these differences in vulnerability to climatic drought and climate change.     

Long‐term directional changes in upland Quercus forests throughout Oklahoma,USA

Questions: (1) How have the composition and structure of undisturbed upland Quercus forests changed over 50 years across a large region and moisture gradient; (2) What factors are associated with long‐term and broad‐scale changes in these forests? Location: Oklahoma, USA. Methods: We re‐sampled 30 forest stands originally sampled in the 1950s across a large geographical area and compared basal area, tree density, and sapling density between the sampling periods using paired t‐tests, CCA, and DCA. We examined vegetation dynamics in the context of drought indices compiled for the sample period. Results: Total and Quercus stellata basal area and tree density increased, but Q. stellata and Q. marilandica sapling density decreased. Juniperus virginiana and woody species richness increased for all measures. DCA indicated that re‐sampled stands generally changed from Q. stellata–Q. marilandica‐dominated forests to forests with greater woody species richness and more J. virginiana. Q. stellata remained a dominant tree species; otherwise, composition shifted towards mesophytic and invasive woody species. Measurements taken in the 1950s immediately followed a major drought; whereas subsequent decades were significantly moister. Conclusions: Fire exclusion and drought may have played an important role in driving changes towards lower dominance by Quercus, increased importance of mesophytic and invasive species, and greater woody species richness. These phenomena are similar to those found in Quercus‐dominated forests throughout the northern hemisphere.     

特大干旱对树木死亡的影响——以美国德克萨斯州东部森林为例

美国德克萨斯州在2011年经历了史上最严重的干旱,这一事件造成约3亿多株树木死亡。在大时空尺度上(面积约9×10~6 hm~2,时间跨度近20年),基于近1800个森林样地,4次周期性调查中的约209663株树木,使用主成份分析(PCA)和广义线性混合效应模型(GLM)回归,对树木死亡的时空差异及其干旱强度与长度对树木死亡造成的中长期复杂影响进行了研究。采用树木密度、树木基面积、林地年龄、样地调查时间间隔作为树木间的竞争指标,分析了造成大旱前后周期水平和年度水平上的样地树木死亡差异的原因。综合分析了不同地理区域、树木种组、胸径大小和林地起源的4个划分标准下树木死亡对死亡率的相对贡献。结果表明：松属树木的死亡率最低(7.92%);高度低、胸径小的树木的死亡率较大,分别为29.79%和26.00%。人工林的树木死亡率(10.26%)低于天然林(13.47%);西海湾平原生态区树木的死亡率在干旱后达到最大(22.27%);西南区的树木死亡率在干旱后也达到最大(13.78%);海拔和纬度对树木死亡率影响不明显。德州东部森林整体死亡格局形成原因较为复杂,各地理区域、林地起源、树木大小和不同树种,...     

Tree mortality across biomes is promoted by drought intensity,lower wood density and higher specific leaf area

Drought events are increasing globally, and reports of consequent forest mortality are widespread. However, due to a lack of a quantitative global synthesis, it is still not clear whether drought‐induced mortality rates differ among global biomes and whether functional traits influence the risk of drought‐induced mortality. To address these uncertainties, we performed a global meta‐analysis of 58 studies of drought‐induced forest mortality. Mortality rates were modelled as a function of drought, temperature, biomes, phylogenetic and functional groups and functional traits. We identified a consistent global‐scale response, where mortality increased with drought severity [log mortality (trees trees^?1 year^?1) increased 0.46 (95% CI = 0.2–0.7) with one SPEI unit drought intensity]. We found no significant differences in the magnitude of the response depending on forest biomes or between angiosperms and gymnosperms or evergreen and deciduous tree species. Functional traits explained some of the variation in drought responses between species (i.e. increased from 30 to 37% when wood density and specific leaf area were included). Tree species with denser wood and lower specific leaf area showed lower mortality responses. Our results illustrate the value of functional traits for understanding patterns of drought‐induced tree mortality and suggest that mortality could become increasingly widespread in the future.