IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v12y2022i12d10.1038_s41558-022-01528-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Younger trees in the upper canopy are more sensitive but also more resilient to drought

Author

Listed:
  • Tsun Fung Au

    (Indiana University
    University of Michigan
    University of Michigan
    Indiana University)

  • Justin T. Maxwell

    (Indiana University)

  • Scott M. Robeson

    (Indiana University)

  • Jinbao Li

    (The University of Hong Kong)

  • Sacha M. O. Siani

    (Indiana University
    Indiana University)

  • Kimberly A. Novick

    (Indiana University)

  • Matthew P. Dannenberg

    (University of Iowa)

  • Richard P. Phillips

    (Indiana University)

  • Teng Li

    (Guangzhou University)

  • Zhenju Chen

    (Shenyang Agricultural University
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    National Research Station of Changbai Forest Ecosystem)

  • Jonathan Lenoir

    (UMR CNRS 7058 ‘Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés’ (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne)

Abstract

As forest demographics are altered by the global decline of old trees and reforestation efforts, younger trees are expected to have an increasingly important influence on carbon sequestration and forest ecosystem functioning. However, the relative resilience of these younger trees to climate change stressors is poorly understood. Here we examine age-dependent drought sensitivity of over 20,000 individual trees across five continents and show that younger trees in the upper canopy layer have larger growth reductions during drought. Angiosperms show greater age differences than gymnosperms, and age-dependent sensitivity is more pronounced in humid climates compared with more arid regions. However, younger canopy-dominant trees also recover more quickly from drought. The future combination of increased drought events and an increased proportion of younger canopy-dominant trees suggests a larger adverse impact on carbon stocks in the short term, while the higher resilience of younger canopy-dominant trees could positively affect carbon stocks over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsun Fung Au & Justin T. Maxwell & Scott M. Robeson & Jinbao Li & Sacha M. O. Siani & Kimberly A. Novick & Matthew P. Dannenberg & Richard P. Phillips & Teng Li & Zhenju Chen & Jonathan Lenoir, 2022. "Younger trees in the upper canopy are more sensitive but also more resilient to drought," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(12), pages 1168-1174, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:12:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1038_s41558-022-01528-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01528-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01528-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-022-01528-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Holtmann, Anne & Huth, Andreas & Bohn, Friedrich & Fischer, Rico, 2024. "Assessing the impact of multi-year droughts on German forests in the context of increased tree mortality," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 492(C).
    2. Xianliang Zhang & Tim Rademacher & Hongyan Liu & Lu Wang & Rubén D. Manzanedo, 2023. "Fading regulation of diurnal temperature ranges on drought-induced growth loss for drought-tolerant tree species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:12:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1038_s41558-022-01528-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.