Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly

The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is unclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected by prior adaptation, or more vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits. Here we report that forests in drier South American climates experienced the greatest impacts of the 2015–2016 El Niño, indicating greater vulnerability to extreme temperatures and drought. The long-term, ground-measured tree-by-tree responses of 123 forest plots across tropical South America show that the biomass carbon sink ceased during the event with carbon balance becoming indistinguishable from zero (−0.02 ± 0.37 Mg C ha−1 per year). However, intact tropical South American forests overall were no more sensitive to the extreme 2015–2016 El Niño than to previous less intense events, remaining a key defence against climate change as long as they are protected.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Bennett, Amy C., Rodrigues de Sousa, Thaiane, Monteagudo-Mendoza, Abel, Esquivel-Muelbert, Adriane, Morandi, Paulo, Coelho de Souza, Fernanda, Castro, Wendeson, Duque, Luisa Fernanda, Flores Llampazo, Gerardo, dos Santos, Rubens Manoel, Ramos, Elianna, Vilanova Torre, Emilio, Álvarez-Dávila, Esteban, Baker, Timothy R., Costa, Flávia R.C, Lewis, Simon L., Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes, Schietti, Juliana, Burban, Benoit, Berenguer, Erika, Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro, Restrepo Correa, Zorayda, Lopez, Wilmar, Delgado Santana, Flávia, Viscarra, Laura Jessica, Elias, Fernando, Vásquez Martinez, Rodolfo, Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur, Galbraith, David, Sullivan, Martin J. P., Emilio, Thaise, Prestes, Nayane C. C. S., Barlow, Jos, Alencar Fagundes, Nathalle Cristine, Almeida de Oliveira, Edmar, Alvarez Loayza, Patricia, Alves, Luciana F., Aparecida Vieira, Simone, Andrade Maia, Vinícius, Aragao, Luiz E.O.C., Arets, Eric, Arroyo, Luzmila, Banki, Olaf, Baraloto, Christopher, Barbosa Camargo, Plínio, Barroso, Jorcely G., Bento da Silva, Wilder, Bonal, Damien, Borges Miranda Santos, Alisson, Brienen, Roel, Brown, Foster, Castilho, Carolina V., Cerruto Ribeiro, Sabina, Chama Moscoso, Victor, Chavez, Ezequiel, Comiskey, James A., Cornejo Valverde, Fernando, Davila Cardozo, Nallaret, de Aguiar-Campos, Natália, de Oliveira Melo, Lia, del Aguila Pasquel, Jhon, Derroire, Géraldine, Disney, Mathias, do Socorro, Maria, Dourdain, Aurélie, Feldpausch, Ted R., Ferreira, Joice Nunes, Forni Martins, Valeria, Gardner, Toby, Gloor, Emanuel, Gutierrez Sibauty, Gloria, Guillen, René, Hase, Eduardo, Herault, Bruno, et al.
Format:	article biblioteca
Language:	eng
Subjects:	P40 - Météorologie et climatologie, K70 - Dégâts causés aux forêts et leur protection, F40 - Écologie végétale, écologie forestière, événements météorologiques extrêmes, forêt tropicale, accident climatique, dégradation des forêts, perturbation de l'écosystème, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3044, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_c0860ce1, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_24904, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_29581, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_331593, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_4549f84e, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7253,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606252/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606252/1/Sensitivity_of_South_American_tropical_forests_to_.pdf
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