Life after recovery: Increased resolution of forest resilience assessment sheds new light on post‐drought compensatory growth and recovery dynamics

Ovenden, Tom; Perks, Mike; Clarke, Toni‐Kim; Mencuccini, Maurizio; Jump, Alistair S.

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13576

Cited by 50 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…However, if the extreme droughts persist several years, the annual growth rate of black pine might drastically decrease. The compensatory growth in trees has been identified by several local [77], continental [78], and global scale studies [79,80] conducted on coniferous as well as on broadleaved species. In the present study, we detected a higher growth compensation in younger trees (<20 years of age) compared to older trees (21-120 years of age) (Figure 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Tree Drought Resistance and Climate-Growth Relationships under Different Tree Age Classes in a Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii Forest

Lucas‐Borja

Bose

Andivia

et al. 2021

Forests

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The magnitude of drought impact in forest ecosystems depends on which group of trees are more severely affected; greater mortality of smaller trees can modulate the trajectories of succession, while the mortality of larger trees can disproportionately offset the ecosystem’s carbon balance. Several studies have documented a greater vulnerability of large trees to extreme droughts while some other studies reported a greater growth reduction in smaller trees during droughts. We tested these hypotheses by comparing tree basal area increment (BAI), drought resistance (i.e., magnitude of growth decline during drought), and resilience (i.e., magnitude of growth recovery after drought) across five different age-classes in black pine (Pinus nigra Arn. Ssp salzmannii) forests in Spain. Our results showed that the BAI patterns, drought resistance, and resilience were strongly influenced by tree age-classes. In addition, the effect of climatic water balance (precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration) on BAI significantly varied among age-classes. The effect of water balance on BAI was lower for younger age-classes (1–39 years of age) compared to older age-classes. We observed a greater growth reduction (i.e., lower resistance) in older trees (>40 years of age) during droughts compared to younger trees (<40 years of age). However, all trees, irrespective of their ages, were able to recover the growth rates after the drought. In general, younger trees showed a greater capacity in recovering the growth rate (i.e., more resilient) than older trees. We detected no significant effects of stand basal area and stand density on BAI, drought resistance, and resilience. Overall, our results indicated that growth of older trees was more negatively affected during drought. Therefore, these older/larger trees can be selected for commercial thinning, or can be released from competition, which can minimize the potential impacts of future droughts in black pine forests in Spain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Tree Drought Resistance and Climate-Growth Relationships under Different Tree Age Classes in a Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii Forest

Lucas‐Borja

Bose

Andivia

et al. 2021

Forests

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“…On the other extreme are species that exhibit positive responses to the perturbation: species with surviving individuals who grow more after the perturbation than under conditions with no perturbation. This type of response implies many individual trees taking advantage of the sudden and temporary availability of high light conditions or the pulse in nutrient availability due to death, defoliation, etc., of their neighbors (Ovenden et al 2021). This effect is most evident immediately after a major hurricane, but any perturbation provoking high individual mortality/damage should open gaps and short-term opportunities for other individuals (Condit et al 1996, Everham III et al 1996, Brokaw 1998, Holmgren et al 2001.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy effects of drought on tree growth responses to hurricanes

Umaña

Arellano

2021

Ecography

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Natural perturbations, including hurricanes and severe droughts, are becoming more frequent and intense in the tropics, yet our understanding of forest responses to these events is still limited. While the relationships between extreme climatic events and tree mortality are frequently studied, responses of trees that survived such perturbations have been rarely reported. Perturbations and their effects can be quite variable, and trees can respond both positively and negatively to them, depending on their sensitivity and opportunistic behavior. Understanding the potential variation in responses both within and among species is important for building predictions of forest responses. We studied tree growth responses (i.e., changes relative to standard conditions) to hurricanes and drought events in Puerto Rico across six common and broadly distributed species. We examined whether there is a congruence in responses to these contrasting extreme climatic events. We show that trees are particularly susceptible to droughts but display a wide range of responses to hurricanes. Despite the high stochasticity in the impacts of hurricanes, trees that showed reduced growth during previous droughts tend to show reduced growth during the hurricanes as well. Our results demonstrate that trees subjected to different and successive major climatic stresses have consistent declines in their performance. Projected increases in the severity of droughts and tropical storms could have an accumulated, and possibly compound, impact on tree growth. Long-term demographic studies are necessary to understand legacy effects of species responses to extreme climatic perturbations.

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“…Leverkus et al (2020) use a meta-analysis approach to highlight how local environmental factors also play a key role in the resilience of trees to logging. Also, Ovenden et al (2021) report a high sensitivity of different metrics of forest resilience to the period of time considered as baseline, which calls into caution the need for a clear definition of the stable state of the system under examination. Finally, Steel et al (2021) show that topography and vegetative structure influence the resistance and recovery of forest vegetation cover and heterogeneity in California's Sierra Nevada mountain.…”

Section: Understand Resilience Under Different Disturbance Regimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, Ovenden et al. (2021) report a high sensitivity of different metrics of forest resilience to the period of time considered as baseline, which calls into caution the need for a clear definition of the stable state of the system under examination. Finally, Steel et al.…”

Section: Opportunities and Challenges In The Special Featurementioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling resilience across ecological systems, species and subdisciplines

et al. 2021

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Resilience has emerged as a key concept in ecology and conservation biology to understand and predict ecosystem responses to global change. In its broadest sense, resilience describes the ability of an ecosystem to resist, and recover from, a disturbance. However, the application of such a concept in different subdisciplines of ecology and in different study systems has resulted in a wide disparity of definitions and ways of quantifying resilience. This Special Feature, which spans the Journal of Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology and Functional Ecology, provides an overview of how ecologists define, quantify, compare and predict resilience across different study systems. The 29 contributions to this Special Feature show the broad range of approaches used by ecologists to study resilience. Almost half of the contributions (48%) study resilience at the community level, with a 30% of them studying resilience at multiple levels of biological organisation. A large proportion of these articles are observational (42%), experimental (14%) or a combination of both (17%) while a 17% utilise theoretical or computational approaches. Although 38%, 21% and 14% of the studies were based solely on plants, animals or micro‐organisms, respectively, 17% of them incorporated these multiple trophic levels. Synthesis. A unified ecological understanding of resilience across systems and taxa requires a trans‐disciplinary consensus on what resilience actually is and how to best measure it. Here, we provide an overview of how ecologists define, quantify, compare and predict resilience across different ecological systems and subdisciplines, with reference to the diverse approaches used by contributions to this Special Feature. We identify four key recommendations to harmonise future efforts in resilience research: (a) define resilience using existing theoretical frameworks; (b) use common and comparable metrics to measure resilience; (c) clearly contextualise and define the pre‐ and post‐disturbance state of the ecological system and (d) consider explicitly the disturbance type and regime impacting the system.

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Life after recovery: Increased resolution of forest resilience assessment sheds new light on post‐drought compensatory growth and recovery dynamics

Cited by 50 publications

References 84 publications

Assessing Tree Drought Resistance and Climate-Growth Relationships under Different Tree Age Classes in a Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii Forest

Assessing Tree Drought Resistance and Climate-Growth Relationships under Different Tree Age Classes in a Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii Forest

Legacy effects of drought on tree growth responses to hurricanes

Reconciling resilience across ecological systems, species and subdisciplines

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