Publication Date:
2024-01-12
Description:
The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is
\nunclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with
\nhotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected by prior adaptation, or
\nmore vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits. Here we
\nreport that forests in drier South American climates experienced the greatest
\nimpacts of the 2015\xe2\x80\x932016 El Ni\xc3\xb1o, indicating greater vulnerability to extreme
\ntemperatures and drought. The long-term, ground-measured tree-by-tree
\nresponses of 123 forest plots across tropical South America show that the
\nbiomass carbon sink ceased during the event with carbon balance becoming
\nindistinguishable from zero (\xe2\x88\x920.02\xe2\x80\x89\xc2\xb1\xe2\x80\x890.37\xe2\x80\x89Mg\xe2\x80\x89C\xe2\x80\x89ha\xe2\x88\x921 per year). However,
\nintact tropical South American forests overall were no more sensitive to the
\nextreme 2015\xe2\x80\x932016 El Ni\xc3\xb1o than to previous less intense events, remaining a
\nkey defence against climate change as long as they are protected.
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf