Resilience and response: Unveiling the impacts of extreme droughts on forests through integrated dendrochronological and remote sensing analyses

Extreme droughts are anticipated to have detrimental impacts on forest ecosystems, especially in water-limited regions, due to the influence of climate change. However, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the patterns in species-specific responses to extreme droughts. Here, we conducted a study integrating dendrochronology and remote sensing methods to investigate the mosaic-distributed maple-oak (native) natural forests and poplar plantations (introduced) in the Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China. We assessed the impacts of extreme droughts on tree performances by measuring interannual variations in radial growth and vegetation index. The results showed that precipitation and self-calibrated palmer drought severity index (scPDSI) are the major factors influencing tree-ring width index (RWI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The severe droughts between 2000 and 2004 resulted in reduced RWI in the three studied tree species as well as led to NDVI reductions in both the maple-oak natural forests and the poplar plantations. The RWI reached the nadir during the 2000–2004 severe droughts and remained at low levels two years after the severe drought, creating a legacy effect. In contrast to the lack of significant correlation between RWI and scPDSI, NDVI exhibited a significant positive correlation with scPDSI indicating the greater sensitivity of canopy performance to droughts than radial growth. Furthermore, interspecific differences in RWI and NDVI responses were observed, with the fast-growing poplar species experiencing a more significant RWI decrease and more negative NDVI anomaly during severe droughts than native species, highlighting the species-specific trade-offs between drought resilience and growth rate. This study emphasizes the importance of combining tree-level radial growth with landscape-scale canopy remote sensing to understand forest resilience and response. Our study improves our understanding of forest responses to extreme drought and highlights species differences in climate responses, offering crucial insights for optimizing species selection in sustainable afforestation and forest management in water-limited regions under the influence of climate change.