Reduced ecosystem resilience quantifies fine-scale heterogeneity in tropical forest mortality responses to drought

Wu, Donghai; Vargas G., German; Powers, Jennifer S.; McDowell, Nate G.; Becknell, Justin M.; Pérez‐Aviles, Daniel; Medvigy, David; Liu, Yanlan; Katul, Gabriel G.; Calvo‐Alvarado, Julio César; Calvo‐Obando, Ana; Sanchez‐Azofeifa, Arturo; Xu, Xiangtao

doi:10.1111/gcb.16046

Title: Reduced ecosystem resilience quantifies fine-scale heterogeneity in tropical forest mortality responses to drought

Journal Article · 16 December 2021 · Global Change Biology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16046 · OSTI ID:1890938

^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Becknell, Justin M. ^[4]; Pérez‐Aviles, Daniel ^[2];

^[5]; Liu, Yanlan ^[6]; Katul, Gabriel G. ^[7]; Calvo‐Alvarado, Julio César ^[8]; Calvo‐Obando, Ana ^[8]; Sanchez‐Azofeifa, Arturo ^[9];

^[1]

Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Atmospheric Science and Global Change Div. (ASGC); Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
Colby College, Waterville, ME (United States)
Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)
Costa Rica Institute of Technology (Costa Rica)
Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (Canada)

Sensitivity of forest mortality to drought in carbon-dense tropical forests remains fraught with uncertainty, while extreme droughts are predicted to be more frequent and intense. Here, in this study, the potential of temporal autocorrelation of high-frequency variability in Landsat Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), an indicator of ecosystem resilience, to predict spatial and temporal variations of forest biomass mortality is evaluated against in situ census observations for 64 site-year combinations in Costa Rican tropical dry forests during the 2015 ENSO drought. Temporal autocorrelation, within the optimal moving window of 24 months, demonstrated robust predictive power for in situ mortality (leave-one- out cross-validation R² = 0.54), which allows for estimates of annual biomass mortality patterns at 30 m resolution. Subsequent spatial analysis showed substantial fine-scale heterogeneity of forest mortality patterns, largely driven by drought intensity and ecosystem properties related to plant water use such as forest deciduousness and topography. Highly deciduous forest patches demonstrated much lower mortality sensitivity to drought stress than less deciduous forest patches after elevation was controlled. Our results highlight the potential of high-resolution remote sensing to “fingerprint” forest mortality and the significant role of ecosystem heterogeneity in forest biomass resistance to drought.

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Research Organization:: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; SC0014363

OSTI ID:: 1890938

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-169613

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 28; ISSN 1354-1013

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
EVI
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Title: Reduced ecosystem resilience quantifies fine-scale heterogeneity in tropical forest mortality responses to drought

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