Response of an old-growth tropical rainforest to transient high temperature and drought

Response of an old-growth tropical rainforest to transient high temperature and drought

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Global change biology. - 1999. - 19(2013), 11 vom: 03. Nov., Seite 3423-34
1. Verfasser: Silva, Carlos E (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Kellner, James R, Clark, David B, Clark, Deborah A
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2013
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Global change biology
Schlagworte:Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Costa Rica La Selva canopy drought global change rainforest
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Tropical rainforests have experienced episodes of severe heat and drought in recent decades, and climate models project a warmer and potentially drier tropical climate over this century. However, likely responses of tropical rainforests are poorly understood due to a lack of frequent long-term measurements of forest structure and dynamics. We analyzed a 12-year record (1999-2010) of 47 817 annual measurements of canopy height to characterize the response of an old-growth Neotropical rainforest to the severe heat and drought associated with the 1997-1998 El Niño. Well-drained soils on slopes and plateaus experienced a threefold increase in the fraction of the landscape in gaps (≤2 m) and a reduction in the fraction in high canopy (>15 m) causing distributions of canopy height to depart from equilibrium for a period of 2-3 years. In contrast, forests on low-lying alluvial terraces remained in equilibrium and were nearly half as likely to experience upper canopy (>15 m) disturbance over the 12 years of observation. Variation in forest response across topographic positions suggests that tropical rainforests are more sensitive to moisture deficits than high temperature and that topography likely structures landscape-level variation in the severity of drought impacts
Beschreibung:Date Completed 19.05.2014
Date Revised 09.03.2022
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:1365-2486
DOI:10.1111/gcb.12312