Recent droughts have highlighted the danger that a drier climate could pose to rainforest stability. A new study in Nature (1) suggests that the ways that individual trees respond to water-stress leaves them more vulnerable in the years following a drought.
Keeping-up with the neighbours: drought-stressed Amazon trees select growth at the risk of death2/5/2016 In 2005 and 2010, large parts of the Amazon Basin experienced severe drought conditions (2), which induced record-low river levels and frequent forest fires. Subsequent analyses of satellite (2) and atmospheric (3) data showed that, basin-wide, tree mortality increased following the 2005 event and in 2010, the Amazon switched from a net sink of atmospheric carbon to a net source of carbon released to the atmosphere (3). However, while these remote studies are important in detecting tipping points in the overall carbon budget, they cannot link this to how individual plants react to drought on the ground.
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AuthorJohn Carson is a palynologist working mostly in the South American tropics and currently based at University of Reading. Archives |