A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species

Powers, Jennifer S.; Vargas G., German; Brodribb, Timothy J.; Schwartz, Naomi B.; Pérez‐Aviles, Daniel; Smith‐Martin, Chris M.; Becknell, Justin M.; Aureli, Filippo; Blanco, Roger; Calderón‐Morales, Erick; Calvo‐Alvarado, Julio C.; Calvo‐Obando, Ana Julieta; Chavarría, María Marta; Carvajal‐Vanegas, Dorian; Jiménez‐Rodríguez, César D.; Murillo Chacon, Evin; Schaffner, Colleen M.; Werden, Leland K.; Xu, Xiangtao; Medvigy, David

doi:10.1111/gcb.15037

Title: A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species

Journal Article · Thu Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Global Change Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15037· OSTI ID:1802617

^[1]; Vargas G., German ^[1]; Brodribb, Timothy J. ^[2]; Schwartz, Naomi B. ^[3]; Pérez‐Aviles, Daniel ^[1]; Smith‐Martin, Chris M. ^[1]; Becknell, Justin M. ^[4]; Aureli, Filippo ^[5]; Blanco, Roger ^[6]; Calderón‐Morales, Erick ^[1]; Calvo‐Alvarado, Julio C. ^[7]; Calvo‐Obando, Ana Julieta ^[7]; Chavarría, María Marta ^[6]; Carvajal‐Vanegas, Dorian ^[7]; Jiménez‐Rodríguez, César D. ^[8]; Murillo Chacon, Evin ^[6]; Schaffner, Colleen M. ^[9]; Werden, Leland K. ^[1];

^[10];

^[11]

University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN (United States)
Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS (Australia)
Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
Colby College, Waterville, ME (United States)
Liverpool John Moores Univ. (United Kingdom); University of Veracruz (Mexico)
Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservación (SINAC) Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía (MINAE) (Costa Rica)
Tecnológico de Costa Rica (Costa Rica)
Tecnológico de Costa Rica (Costa Rica); Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands)
University of Veracruz (Mexico); Adams State University, Alamosa, CO (United States)
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)

Abstract Drought‐related tree mortality is now a widespread phenomenon predicted to increase in magnitude with climate change. However, the patterns of which species and trees are most vulnerable to drought, and the underlying mechanisms have remained elusive, in part due to the lack of relevant data and difficulty of predicting the location of catastrophic drought years in advance. We used long‐term demographic records and extensive databases of functional traits and distribution patterns to understand the responses of 20–53 species to an extreme drought in a seasonally dry tropical forest in Costa Rica, which occurred during the 2015 El Niño Southern Oscillation event. Overall, species‐specific mortality rates during the drought ranged from 0% to 34%, and varied little as a function of tree size. By contrast, hydraulic safety margins correlated well with probability of mortality among species, while morphological or leaf economics spectrum traits did not. This firmly suggests hydraulic traits as targets for future research.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); Technological Institute of Costa Rica; Chester Zoo; National Geographic Society; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT); Australian Research Council (ARC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0014363; DEB 1053237; NSF PRFB 1711366; CRN3025; GrantGEO-128040; DP170100761; DESC0014363

OSTI ID:: 1802617

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1615120

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Vol. 26, Issue 5; ISSN 1354-1013

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 116 works

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A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species Powers, Jennifer; Vargas-G, German; Brodribb, Timothy Borealis https://doi.org/10.5683/sp2/zqjuen	dataset	January 2021

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A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species Powers, Jennifer; Vargas-G, German; Brodribb, Timothy The University of British Columbia https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0398056	dataset	January 2020
A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species Powers, Jennifer; Vargas-G, German; Brodribb, Timothy Borealis https://doi.org/10.5683/sp2/zqjuen	dataset	January 2021

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
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