Pervasive drought legacies in forest ecosystems and their implications for carbon cycle models

Anderegg, William R. L.; Schwalm, Christopher R.; Biondi, Franco; Camarero, J. Julio; Koch, George; Litvak, M. E.; Ogle, Kiona; Shaw, John D.; Shevliakova, Elena; Williams, A. Park; Wolf, Adam; Ziaco, Emanuele; Pacala, Stephen W.

doi:10.1126/science.aab1833

Cited by 854 publications

(901 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Our findings support a corollary hypothesis that partial drought-induced damage to still-living trees can impact whole-ecosystem photosynthesis adversely for multiple years, which is consistent with findings from regional-and global-scale forest biometric studies (Anderegg et al, 2015;Brienen et al, 2015). In order to understand how drought disturbance uniquely impacts forest recovery, observational studies and plot-based manipulation experiments are needed in conjunction with models.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…It is possible that the 1997-1998 El Niño drought not only killed entire trees but also damaged living trees through hydraulic failure and partial limb death, affecting canopy photosynthesis for subsequent years. An analysis of over 1000 temperate forest census sites suggests that recovery of live tree biomass accumulation may be delayed by up to 4 years after drought (Anderegg et al, 2015). Following the 2005 and 2010 western droughts, findings from forest inventories (Brienen et al, 2015) and remote sensing (Saatchi et al, 2013) suggested that legacy effects from tropical forest droughts can also persist for 4 years or more.…”

Section: Legacy Impacts Of Drought On Ecosystem Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On interannual to decadal timescales, endogenous changes in forest NEE can arise from disturbance and recovery (Nelson et al, 1994;Moorcroft et al, 2001;Chambers et al, 2013;Espírito-Santo et al, 2014;Anderegg et al, 2015). The km67 eddy flux site in the Tapajós National Forest (TNF) presents a unique opportunity to study the potential legacy of disturbance caused by drought.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Carbon exchange in an Amazon forest: from hours to years

Hayek

Longo

et al. 2018

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. In Amazon forests, the relative contributions of climate, phenology, and disturbance to net ecosystem exchange of carbon (NEE) are not well understood. To partition influences across various timescales, we use a statistical model to represent eddy-covariance-derived NEE in an evergreen eastern Amazon forest as a constant response to changing meteorology and phenology throughout a decade. Our best fit model represented hourly NEE variations as changes due to sunlight, while seasonal variations arose from phenology influencing photosynthesis and from rainfall influencing ecosystem respiration, where phenology was asynchronous with dry-season onset. We compared annual model residuals with biometric forest surveys to estimate impacts of drought disturbance. We found that our simple model represented hourly and monthly variations in NEE well (R 2 = 0.81 and 0.59, respectively). Modeled phenology explained 1 % of hourly and 26 % of monthly variations in observed NEE, whereas the remaining modeled variability was due to changes in meteorology. We did not find evidence to support the common assumption that the forest phenology was seasonally light-or water-triggered. Our model simulated annual NEE well, with the exception of 2002, the first year of our data record, which contained 1.2 MgC ha −1 of residual net emissions, because photosynthesis was anomalously low. Because a severe drought occurred in 1998, we hypothesized that this drought caused a persistent, multi-year depression of photosynthesis. Our results suggest drought can have lasting impacts on photosynthesis, possibly via partial damage to still-living trees.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Legacy Impacts Of Drought On Ecosystem Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Carbon exchange in an Amazon forest: from hours to years

Hayek

Longo

et al. 2018

Biogeosciences

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“…As discussed in Sect. 2, trees store carbohydrates in their needles, leaves, and cambium (Fritts, 1976) and suffer injuries due to short-term climatic events (e.g., droughts) that may affect growth rates for years after the event (Anderegg et al, 2015); soil moisture persists from one season to the next (Delworth and Manabe, 1993), and water in lakes and caves can take years or decades to cycle through such archives (Hurst, 1951;Benson et al, 2003;Evans et al, 2006;Truebe et al, 2010). Accordingly, spectral reddening will distort the importance of low-frequency variations by making them seem more substantial in the proxy than they are in the underlying climate system (see Fig.…”

Section: Expectations Of Temporal or Spatial Consistency Betweenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing proxy and model estimates of hydroclimate variability and change over the Common Era

Smerdon¹,

Luterbacher²,

Phipps³

et al. 2017

Clim. Past

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Abstract. Water availability is fundamental to societies and ecosystems, but our understanding of variations in hydroclimate (including extreme events, flooding, and decadal periods of drought) is limited because of a paucity of modern instrumental observations that are distributed unevenly across the globe and only span parts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Such data coverage is insufficient for characterizing hydroclimate and its associated dynamics because of its multidecadal to centennial variability and highly regionalized spatial signature. High-resolution (seasonal to decadal) hydroclimatic proxies that span all or parts of the Common Era (CE) and paleoclimate simulations from climate models are therefore important tools for augmenting our understanding of hydroclimate variability. In particular, the comparison of the two sources of information is critical for addressing the uncertainties and limitations of both while enriching each of their interpretations. We review the principal proxy data available for hydroclimatic reconstructions over the CE and highlight the contemporary understanding of how these proxies are interpreted as hydroclimate indicators. We also review the available last-millennium simulations from fully coupled climate models and discuss several outstanding challenges associated with simulating hydroclimate variability and change over the CE. A specific review of simulated hydroclimatic changes forced by volcanic events is provided, as is a discussion of expected improvements in estimated radiative forcings, models, and their implementation in the future. Our review of hydroclimatic proxies and last-millennium model simulations is used as the basis for articulating a variety of considerations and best practices for how to perform proxy-model comparisons of CE hydroclimate. This discussion provides a framework for how best to evaluate hydroclimate variability and its associated dynamics using these comparisons and how they can better inform interpretations of both proxy data and model simulations. We subsequently explore means of using proxy-model comparisons to better constrain and characterize future hydroclimate risks. This is explored specifically in the context of several examples that demonstrate how proxy-model comparisons can be used to quantitatively constrain future hydroclimatic risks as estimated from climate model projections.

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“…The vulnerability of tree species to drought-related reductions in growth is species-(e.g., Fekedulegn et al 2003;Pan et al 1997) or functional group-specific (Anderegg et al 2015). In a recent study, Elliott et al (2015) analyzed the variability of drought response of six prominent Appalachian hardwood species and observed the individual tree drought-growth relationships varied according to xylem architecture, with diffuse porous species (e.g., yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.), red maple (Acer rubrum L.), sweet birch (Betula lenta L.)) more susceptible to reduced growth than ring-porous oak (Quercus L.) species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought response of upland oak (Quercus L.) species in Appalachian hardwood forests of the southeastern USA

Keyser

Brown

2016

Annals of Forest Science

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Abstract& Key message In Appalachian hardwood forests, density, stem size, and productivity affected growth during drought for red oak, but not white oak species. Minor effects of density suggest that a single low thinning does little to promote drought resilience for oaks in the region. & Context Management is increasingly focused on promoting resilience to disturbance. Because stand density can modulate climate-growth relationships, thinning may be an adaptation strategy that promotes resistance/resilience to drought. & Aims We examined how density, manipulated via thinning, stem size, and site productivity, influences the drought response of northern red, black, chestnut, and white oak. & Methods We modeled the role of density, stem size, and site productivity on resistance, recovery, and resilience during two drought events. & Results Chestnut and white oak displayed greater resistance, recovery, and/or resilience than did northern red and black oak. For black oak, density and stem size negatively affected resistance during the first and second drought, respectively. Density, stem size, and site productivity had no effect on chestnut and white oak. & Conclusion The lack of sensitivity of chestnut and white oak to the ranges of density, stem size, and site productivity observed in this study and generally better resistance, recovery, and resilience suggests that management focused on the maintenance of these species, as opposed to a single silvicultural low thinning, may be a possible strategy for sustaining the growth and productivity of oak species in Appalachian hardwood stands. Drought response as affected by alternative thinning interventions should be evaluated.

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Pervasive drought legacies in forest ecosystems and their implications for carbon cycle models

Cited by 854 publications

References 60 publications

Carbon exchange in an Amazon forest: from hours to years

Carbon exchange in an Amazon forest: from hours to years

Comparing proxy and model estimates of hydroclimate variability and change over the Common Era

Drought response of upland oak (Quercus L.) species in Appalachian hardwood forests of the southeastern USA

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