East Texas forests show strong resilience to exceptional drought

IF 3 2区农林科学 Q1 FORESTRY

Forestry Pub Date : 2022-12-18 DOI:10.1093/forestry/cpac050

Tilak Chaudhary, Weimin Xi, Mukti Subedi, Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, Haibin Su, Nicholas P Dewez, Stephen Clarke

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Drought-induced tree mortality has increased in many parts of the world because of climate change, and in some regions, has altered forest structure, species composition and ecosystem functions. These developments have the potential to reduce forest resilience and push forests over a tipping point to an alternate state (i.e. a different forest type or a non-forest ecosystem). Texas experienced an exceptional drought in 2011, which killed an estimated 65.5 million trees in the heavily forested areas of the East Texas region. The objective of this study was to understand the effects of the 2011 drought on mortality, biomass and growth in this region and explore forest stability at species, forest and ecoregion levels. We categorized 19 years’ time-series data of 1455 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots into four periods, base (2001–2003), pre-drought (2004–2010), drought (2011–2016) and post-drought (2017–2019), and used repeated-measures analysis of variance to analyse annual mortality, biomass loss, growth rates and the Forest Stability Index to understand forest stability. Our results show that tree mortality and biomass loss increased significantly during the drought period and annual growth rates declined. During the post-drought period, mortality and biomass loss rates returned to the pre-drought level and growth partially recovered. During the drought period, FSI dropped at species, forest type and ecoregion levels but recovered during the post-drought period, except for the Oak Woods and Prairies ecoregion and for forests dominated by southern red oak. Our results indicate that East Texas forests are undergoing a reorganization and recovery stage (in terms of species composition and stand structure) but have yet to reach a tipping point. Given the increased frequency and severity of climate change-induced weather events, East Texas forests could approach a tipping point in the future if there is insufficient time between events for reorganization and recovery. Further analyses are needed to understand the fate of tree species and forests in East Texas under global climate change.

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东德克萨斯州的森林对异常干旱表现出很强的适应能力

由于气候变化，干旱导致的树木死亡率在世界许多地区有所增加，在一些地区，干旱改变了森林结构、物种组成和生态系统功能。这些发展有可能降低森林的恢复力，并将森林推向一个临界点，进入另一种状态(即不同的森林类型或非森林生态系统)。2011年，德克萨斯州经历了一场罕见的干旱，在东德克萨斯地区森林茂密的地区，估计有6550万棵树死亡。本研究的目的是了解2011年干旱对该地区死亡率、生物量和生长的影响，并在物种、森林和生态区域层面探讨森林稳定性。我们将1455个森林清查与分析样地19年时间序列数据划分为基准期(2001-2003年)、干旱前期(2004-2010年)、干旱期(2011-2016年)和干旱后期(2017-2019年)4个时期，并使用重复测量方差分析方法分析年死亡率、生物量损失、生长率和森林稳定性指数，以了解森林的稳定性。结果表明，干旱期树木死亡率和生物量损失显著增加，年生长率下降。在干旱后时期，死亡率和生物量损失率恢复到干旱前的水平，生长部分恢复。在干旱期，除橡树林和草原生态区以及以南方红橡树为主的森林外，FSI在物种、森林类型和生态区水平上均有所下降，在干旱后恢复。研究结果表明，东德克萨斯森林在物种组成和林分结构方面正处于重组和恢复阶段，但尚未达到临界点。考虑到气候变化引起的天气事件的频率和严重程度的增加，如果事件之间没有足够的时间进行重组和恢复，东德克萨斯森林可能在未来接近一个临界点。在全球气候变化的影响下，需要进一步的分析来了解东德克萨斯州的树种和森林的命运。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Forestry 农林科学-林学

CiteScore

6.70

自引率

7.10%

发文量

审稿时长

12-24 weeks

期刊介绍： The journal is inclusive of all subjects, geographical zones and study locations, including trees in urban environments, plantations and natural forests. We welcome papers that consider economic, environmental and social factors and, in particular, studies that take an integrated approach to sustainable management. In considering suitability for publication, attention is given to the originality of contributions and their likely impact on policy and practice, as well as their contribution to the development of knowledge. Special Issues - each year one edition of Forestry will be a Special Issue and will focus on one subject in detail; this will usually be by publication of the proceedings of an international meeting.