Tropical tree growth driven by dry-season climate variability

Abstract

Interannual variability in the global land carbon sink is strongly related to variations in tropical temperature and rainfall. This association suggests an important role for moisture-driven fluctuations in tropical vegetation productivity, but empirical evidence to quantify the responsible ecological processes is missing. Such evidence can be obtained from tree-ring data that quantify variability in a major vegetation productivity component: woody biomass growth. Here we compile a pantropical tree-ring network to show that annual woody biomass growth increases primarily with dry-season precipitation and decreases with dry-season maximum temperature. The strength of these dry-season climate responses varies among sites, as reflected in four robust and distinct climate response groups of tropical tree growth derived from clustering. Using cluster and regression analyses, we find that dry-season climate responses are amplified in regions that are drier, hotter and more climatically variable. These amplification patterns suggest that projected global warming will probably aggravate drought-induced declines in annual tropical vegetation productivity. Our study reveals a previously underappreciated role of dry-season climate variability in driving the dynamics of tropical vegetation productivity and consequently in influencing the land carbon sink.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Zuidema, PA Babst, F Groenendijk, P Trouet, V Abiyu, A Acuna-Soto, R Adenesky-Filho, E Alfaro-Sanchez, R Vieira Aragao, JR Assis-Pereira, G Bai, X Barbosa, AC Battipaglia, G Beeckman, H Botosso, PC Bradley, T Braeuning, A Brienen, R https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-5755 Buckley, BM Julio Camarero, J Carvalho, A Ceccantini, G Centeno-Erguera, LR Cerano-Paredes, J Agustin Chavez-Duran, A Ladvocat Cintra, BB Cleaveland, MK Couralet, C D'Arrigo, R Ignacio del Valle, J Duenisch, O Enquist, BJ Esemann-Quadros, K Eshetu, Z Fan, Z-X Eugenia Ferrero, M Fichtler, E Fontana, C Francisco, KS Gebrekirstos, A Gloor, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9384-6341 Granato-Souza, D Haneca, K Harley, GL Heinrich, I Helle, G Inga, JG Islam, M Jiang, Y-M Kaib, M Khamisi, ZH Koprowski, M Kruijt, B Layme, E Leemans, R Leffler, AJ Sergio Lisi, C Loader, NJ Locosselli, GM Lopez, L Lopez-Hernandez, MI Penetra Cerveira Lousada, JL Mendivelso, HA Mokria, M Montoia, VR Moors, E Nabais, C Ngoma, J Nogueira Junior, FDC Oliveira, JM Olmedo, GM Pagotto, MA Panthi, S Perez-De-Lis, G Pucha-Cofrep, D Pumijumnong, N Rahman, M Andres Ramirez, J Jimmy Requena-Rojas, E Ribeiro, ADS Robertson, I Alejandro Roig, F Alonso Rubio-Camacho, E Sass-Klaassen, U Schongart, J Sheppard, PR Slotta, F Speer, JH Therrell, MD Toirambe, B Tomazello-Filho, M Torbenson, MCA Touchan, R Venegas-Gonzalez, A Villalba, R Villanueva-Diaz, J Vinya, R Vlam, M Wils, T Zhou, Z-K
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. This is an author produced version of an article published in Nature Geoscience. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Dates:	Published: April 2022 Published (online): 31 March 2022 Accepted: 10 February 2022
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds)
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/N012542/1 Met Office DN373701/ BLZ1 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/K01644X/1 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/R005079/1 NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/N004655/1
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	23 May 2022 15:02
Last Modified:	30 Sep 2022 00:31
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Research
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41561-022-00911-8
Related URLs:	Author
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:187188