Enhanced growth resistance but no decline in growth resilience under long-term extreme droughts

Xiaona Wang; Taoran Xu; Chenxi Xu; Hongyan Liu; Zhenju Chen; Zongshan Li; Ximeng Li; Xiuchen Wu

doi:10.1111/gcb.17038

Enhanced growth resistance but no decline in growth resilience under long-term extreme droughts

Glob Chang Biol. 2024 Jan;30(1):e17038. doi: 10.1111/gcb.17038. Epub 2023 Nov 21.

Authors

Xiaona Wang^{1

2}, Taoran Xu^{1

2}, Chenxi Xu³, Hongyan Liu⁴, Zhenju Chen⁵, Zongshan Li⁶, Ximeng Li⁷, Xiuchen Wu^{1

2

8}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resources Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
² Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Tree-Ring Laboratory, Research Station of Liaohe-River Plain Forest Ecosystem CFERN, College of Forestry, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁷ College of Life and Environmental Science, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China.
⁸ Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, People's Government of Qinghai Province & Beijing Normal University, Xining, China.

PMID: 37987223
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17038

Abstract

The frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme droughts, with devastating impacts on tree growth and survival, have increased with climate change over the past decades. Assessing growth resistance and resilience to drought is a crucial prerequisite for understanding the responses of forest functioning to drought events. However, the responses of growth resistance and resilience to extreme droughts with different durations across different climatic zones remain unclear. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal patterns in growth resistance and resilience in response to extreme droughts with different durations during 1901-2015, relying on tree-ring chronologies from 2389 forest stands over the mid- and high-latitudinal Northern Hemisphere, species-specific plant functional traits, and diverse climatic factors. The findings revealed that growth resistance and resilience under 1-year droughts were higher in humid regions than in arid regions. Significant higher growth resistance was observed under 2-year droughts than under 1-year droughts in both arid and humid regions, while growth resilience did not show a significant difference. Temporally, tree growth became less resistant and resilient to 1-year droughts in 1980-2015 than in 1901-1979 in both arid and humid regions. As drought duration lengthened, the predominant impacts of climatic factors on growth resistance and resilience weakened and instead foliar economic traits, plant hydraulic traits, and soil properties became much more important in both climatic regions; in addition, such trends were also observed temporally. Finally, we found that most of the Earth system models (ESMs) used in this study overestimated growth resistance and underestimated growth resilience under both 1-year and 2-year droughts. A comprehensive ecophysiological understanding of tree growth responses to longer and intensified drought events is urgently needed, and a specific emphasis should be placed on improving the performance of ESMs.

Keywords: Earth system model; drought duration; extreme drought; resilience; resistance; tree-ring chronologies.

MeSH terms

Climate Change
Droughts*
Forests
Resilience, Psychological*
Species Specificity
Trees

Abstract

MeSH terms

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