Tropical tree mortality has increased with rising atmosheric water stress

London

2022

528-533

Sonderdruck

40003330

Evidence that tree mortally is accelerating in some regions of the tropics, with profound consequences for the future of the tropical carbon sink and the global anthropogenic carbon budget left to limit peak global warming below 2°C. However, the mechanisms that may be driwing such mortaliy changes and whether particular species are especially vulnerable remain unclear. Here we analyse a 49-year record of tree dynamics from 24 old-growth forest plots encompassing a broad climatic gradient across the Australian moist tropics and find that annual tree mortality risk has, on average, doubled across all plots and species over the last 35 years, indicating a potential halving in life expectancy and carbon residence time.