Phylogeny and Climate Jointly Modulate Forest Growth Resistance in Response to Extreme Droughts in Arid Regions

IF 6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Global Ecology and Biogeography Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1111/geb.70129

Jitang Li, Zehao Shen, Antonio Gazol, Eryuan Liang, Xuejing Wang, J. Julio Camarero

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

Repeated droughts have proven more harmful to forest growth than single extreme droughts. However, the impacts of drought durations on global forests and their underlying drivers remain poorly understood. The drought responses can be evaluated by drought sensitivity (resistance, R_t) and the post-drought recovery rate (resilience, R_s). Differing drought responses are attributed to the different evolutionary strategies of species, which are shaped by their distinct physiological traits. Given the spatial variability in climate warming rates and aridification, understanding how trees respond to droughts of different characteristics (duration, recurrence, severity) in forested biomes is crucial to forecast productivity trends.

Location

Global.

Time Period

1950–2020.

Major Taxa Studied

Tree species.

Methods

By explicitly considering different drought durations (single-year and multi-year extreme droughts), we assessed drought impacts on the growth of global forests. In addition, the roles played by environmental conditions (climate, soils), stand attributes (age, density), functional traits (wood density, leaf and hydraulic traits), and phylogeny in forest responses to drought were also considered. We used three tree-ring databases (global ITRDB, European GenTree, and tropical data) accounting for 4374 site chronologies during the period 1950–2020, and quantified patterns in tree responses to drought in different climatic regions and biomes, including tropical forests.

Results

In general, significantly higher R_t and R_s were observed in humid regions. Interestingly, while multi-year extreme droughts caused worse impacts than single extreme droughts on R_s, they did not affect R_t among drought events. Specifically, R_t in arid regions was phylogenetically conserved and largely depended on wood density (WD) and hydraulic safety margin (HSM), while in humid regions, it was closely linked to climate, SLA, and HSM.

Main Conclusions

These findings provide new insights on the forest responses to different types of droughts, emphasising an ecological and evolutionary framework of jointly considering environmental conditions, phylogeny, and functional traits in predicting growth resilience to guide management under more arid conditions.

Abstract Image

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系统发育与气候共同调节干旱区森林对极端干旱的抗性

事实证明，反复的干旱比单一的极端干旱对森林生长的危害更大。然而，干旱持续时间对全球森林的影响及其潜在驱动因素仍然知之甚少。干旱响应可以通过干旱敏感性（抗旱性，Rt）和干旱后恢复速率（恢复力，Rs）来评价。不同的干旱反应归因于物种不同的进化策略，这是由它们不同的生理特征决定的。考虑到气候变暖率和干旱化的空间变异性，了解森林生物群系中树木对不同特征（持续时间、复发性、严重程度）干旱的反应，对于预测生产力趋势至关重要。

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来源期刊

Global Ecology and Biogeography 环境科学-生态学

CiteScore

12.10

自引率

3.10%

发文量

170

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Global Ecology and Biogeography (GEB) welcomes papers that investigate broad-scale (in space, time and/or taxonomy), general patterns in the organization of ecological systems and assemblages, and the processes that underlie them. In particular, GEB welcomes studies that use macroecological methods, comparative analyses, meta-analyses, reviews, spatial analyses and modelling to arrive at general, conceptual conclusions. Studies in GEB need not be global in spatial extent, but the conclusions and implications of the study must be relevant to ecologists and biogeographers globally, rather than being limited to local areas, or specific taxa. Similarly, GEB is not limited to spatial studies; we are equally interested in the general patterns of nature through time, among taxa (e.g., body sizes, dispersal abilities), through the course of evolution, etc. Further, GEB welcomes papers that investigate general impacts of human activities on ecological systems in accordance with the above criteria.