A new study leveraging 20,000 tree-ring records and nearly 150 scientists' contributions from across the globe shows that, while droughts appear to have had a modest impact on tropical tree growth in the past, that may not be the case for long.
A new study leveraging 20,000 tree-ring records and nearly 150 scientists' contributions from across the globe shows that, while droughts appear to have had a modest impact on tropical tree growth in the past, that may not be the case for long.
The research team calculated that, on average across the tropics, trees grew 2.5 percent less during drought years compared to years with normal or above-average precipitation. Surprisingly, the researchers also found an almost complete recovery in the year following the drought. However, that resilience, they warn, could weaken when droughts occur more frequently and become more intense – particularly within drier, semi-arid regions of the tropics.
Few comprehensive studies on tropical tree rings have been published, largely because year-long warm and moist conditions were thought to prevent regular annual ring formation. But scientists have come to understand that some tropical tree species and their rings can chart water availability, explained Valerie Trouet, co-author on the study and professor of dendrochronology at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.
Read more at: University of Arizona
Tree-ring sampling of a tropical cedar tree in a dry forest in Brazil. A new study that U of A researchers co-authored shows that while droughts appear to have had modest impact on tropical tree growth in the past, that may not be the case for long. (Photo Credit: Peter Groenendijk)
