Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly

Amy Bennett*, Thaiane Rodrigues de sousa, Abel Monteagudo-Mendoza, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Paulo Morandi, Fernanda Coelho de souza, Wendeson Castro, Luisa Duque, Gerardo Flores llampazo, Rubens Manoel dos santos, Eliana Ramos, Emilio Vilanova torre, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Timothy Baker, Flávia Costa, Simon Lewis, Beatriz Marimon, Juliana Schietti, Benoît Burban, Erika BerenguerAlejandro Araujo-Murakami, Zorayda Restrepo correa, Wilmar Lopez, Flávia Delgado santana, Laura Jessica Viscarra, Fernando Elias, Rodolfo Vasquez martinez, Ben Marimon-Junior, David Galbraith, Martin Sullivan, Thaise Emilio, Nayane Prestes, Jos Barlow, Nathalle Alencar Fagundes, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Patricia Alvarez Loayza, Luciana Alves, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Vinícius Andrade Maia, Luiz Aragão, Eric Arets, Luzmila Arroyo, Olaf Bánki, Christopher Baraloto, Plínio Barbosa Camargo, Jorcely Barroso, Wilder Bento da Silva, Damien Bonal, Flavio Maës dos santos, Roel Brienen, Foster Brown, Carolina Castilho, Sabina Cerruto ribeiro, Victor Chama moscoso, Ezequiel Chavez, James Comiskey, Fernando Cornejo valverde, Nállarett Dávila cardozo, Natália De aguiar-Campos, Lia De oliveira melo, Jhon Del aguila pasquel, Géraldine Derroire, Mathias Disney, Maria Do Socorro, Aurélie Dourdain, Ted Feldpausch, Joice Ferreira, Valeria Forni martins, Toby Gardner, Emanuel Gloor, Gloria Gutierrez sibauty, René Guillen, Eduardo Hase, Bruno Hérault, Eurídice Honorio coronado, Walter Huaraca huasco, John Janovec, Eliana Jimenez-Rojas, Carlos Joly, Michelle Kalamandeen, Timothy Killeen, Camila Lais farrapo, Aurora Levesley, Leon Lizon romano, Gabriela Lopez gonzalez, Flavio Maës dos santos, William Magnusson, Yadvinder Malhi, Simone Matias de almeida reis, Karina Melgaço, Omar Melo cruz, Irina Mendoza polo, Tatiana Montañez, Jean Morel, Percy Núñez vargas, Raimunda Oliveira de araújo, Nadir Pallqui camacho, Alexander Parada gutierrez, Toby Pennington, Georgia Pickavance, John Pipoly, Nigel Pitman, Carlos Quesada, Freddy Ramirez arevalo, Hirma Ramírez‐angulo, Rafael Flora ramos, Cléber Rodrigo de souza, Anand Roopsind, Gustavo Schwartz, Richarlly Silva, Javier Silva espejo, Marcos Silveira, James Singh, Yhan Soto shareva, Marc Steininger, Juliana Stropp, Joey Talbot, Hans Ter steege, John Terborgh, Raquel Thomas, Luis Valenzuela gamarra, Geertje Van der heijden, Peter Van der hout, Roderick Zagt, Oliver Phillips

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is unclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected by prior adaptation, or more vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits. Here we report that forests in drier South American climates experienced the greatest impacts of the 2015–2016 El Niño, indicating greater vulnerability to extreme temperatures and drought. The long-term, ground-measured tree-by-tree responses of 123 forest plots across tropical South America show that the biomass carbon sink ceased during the event with carbon balance becoming indistinguishable from zero (−0.02 ± 0.37 Mg C ha−1 per year). However, intact tropical South American forests overall were no more sensitive to the extreme 2015–2016 El Niño than to previous less intense events, remaining a key defence against climate change as long as they are protected.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)967-974
JournalNature Climate Change
Volume13
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2023

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  • Data package for ‘Sensitivity of South American tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly’.

    Bennett, A. (Creator), Rodrigues de sousa, T. (Creator), Monteagudo-Mendoza, A. (Creator), Esquivel-Muelbert, A. (Creator), Morandi, P. (Creator), Coelho de souza, F. (Creator), Castro, W. (Creator), Duque, L. (Creator), Flores llampazo, G. (Creator), Manoel dos santos, R. (Creator), Ramos, E. (Creator), Vilanova torre, E. (Creator), Alvarez-Davila, E. (Creator), Baker, T. (Creator), Costa, F. (Creator), Lewis, S. (Creator), Marimon, B. (Creator), Schietti, J. (Creator), Burban, B. (Creator), Berenguer, E. (Creator), Araujo-Murakami, A. (Creator), Restrepo correa, Z. (Creator), Lopez, W. (Creator), Delgado santana, F. (Creator), Viscarra, L. J. (Creator), Elias, F. (Creator), Vasquez martinez, R. (Creator), Marimon-Junior, B. (Creator), Galbraith, D. (Creator), Sullivan, M. (Creator), Emilio, T. (Creator), Prestes, N. (Creator), Barlow, J. (Creator), Alencar Fagundes, N. (Creator), Almeida de Oliveira, E. (Creator), Alvarez Loayza, P. (Creator), Alves, L. (Creator), Aparecida Vieira, S. (Creator), Andrade Maia, V. (Creator), Aragão, L. (Creator), Arets, E. (Creator), Arroyo, L. (Creator), Bánki, O. (Creator), Baraloto, C. (Creator), Barbosa Camargo, P. (Creator), Barroso, J. (Creator), Bento da Silva, W. (Creator), Bonal, D. (Creator), Maës dos santos, F. (Creator), Brienen, R. (Creator), Brown, F. (Creator), Castilho, C. (Creator), Cerruto ribeiro, S. (Creator), Chama moscoso, V. (Creator), Chavez, E. (Creator), Comiskey, J. (Creator), Cornejo valverde, F. (Creator), Dávila cardozo, N. (Creator), De aguiar-Campos, N. (Creator), De oliveira melo, L. (Creator), Del aguila pasquel, J. (Creator), Derroire, G. (Creator), Disney, M. (Creator), Do Socorro, M. (Creator), Dourdain, A. (Creator), Feldpausch, T. (Creator), Ferreira, J. (Creator), Forni martins, V. (Creator), Gardner, T. (Creator), Gloor, E. (Creator), Gutierrez sibauty, G. (Creator), Guillen, R. (Creator), Hase, E. (Creator), Hérault, B. (Creator), Honorio coronado, E. (Creator), Huaraca huasco, W. (Creator), Janovec, J. (Creator), Jimenez-Rojas, E. (Creator), Joly, C. (Creator), Kalamandeen, M. (Creator), Killeen, T. (Creator), Lais farrapo, C. (Creator), Levesley, A. (Creator), Lizon romano, L. (Creator), Lopez gonzalez, G. (Creator), Maës dos santos, F. (Creator), Magnusson, W. (Creator), Malhi, Y. (Creator), Matias de almeida reis, S. (Creator), Melgaço, K. (Creator), Melo cruz, O. (Creator), Mendoza polo, I. (Creator), Montañez, T. (Creator), Morel, J. (Creator), Núñez vargas, P. (Creator), Oliveira de araújo, R. (Creator), Pallqui camacho, N. (Creator), Parada gutierrez, A. (Creator), Pennington, T. (Creator), Pickavance, G. (Creator), Pipoly, J. (Creator), Pitman, N. (Creator), Quesada, C. (Creator), Ramirez arevalo, F. (Creator), Ramírez‐angulo, H. (Creator), Flora ramos, R. (Creator), Rodrigo de souza, C. (Creator), Roopsind, A. (Creator), Schwartz, G. (Creator), Silva, R. (Creator), Silva espejo, J. (Creator), Silveira, M. (Creator), Singh, J. (Creator), Soto shareva, Y. (Creator), Steininger, M. (Creator), Stropp, J. (Creator), Talbot, J. (Creator), Ter steege, H. (Creator), Terborgh, J. (Creator), Thomas, R. (Creator), Valenzuela gamarra, L. (Creator), Van der heijden, G. (Creator), Van der hout, P. (Creator), Zagt, R. (Creator) & Phillips, O. (Creator), 2023

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