1. Tree mode of death and mortality risk factors across Amazon forests.
- Author
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Esquivel-Muelbert A, Phillips OL, Brienen RJW, Fauset S, Sullivan MJP, Baker TR, Chao KJ, Feldpausch TR, Gloor E, Higuchi N, Houwing-Duistermaat J, Lloyd J, Liu H, Malhi Y, Marimon B, Marimon Junior BH, Monteagudo-Mendoza A, Poorter L, Silveira M, Torre EV, Dávila EA, Del Aguila Pasquel J, Almeida E, Loayza PA, Andrade A, Aragão LEOC, Araujo-Murakami A, Arets E, Arroyo L, Aymard C GA, Baisie M, Baraloto C, Camargo PB, Barroso J, Blanc L, Bonal D, Bongers F, Boot R, Brown F, Burban B, Camargo JL, Castro W, Moscoso VC, Chave J, Comiskey J, Valverde FC, da Costa AL, Cardozo ND, Di Fiore A, Dourdain A, Erwin T, Llampazo GF, Vieira ICG, Herrera R, Honorio Coronado E, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco I, Jimenez-Rojas E, Killeen T, Laurance S, Laurance W, Levesley A, Lewis SL, Ladvocat KLLM, Lopez-Gonzalez G, Lovejoy T, Meir P, Mendoza C, Morandi P, Neill D, Nogueira Lima AJ, Vargas PN, de Oliveira EA, Camacho NP, Pardo G, Peacock J, Peña-Claros M, Peñuela-Mora MC, Pickavance G, Pipoly J, Pitman N, Prieto A, Pugh TAM, Quesada C, Ramirez-Angulo H, de Almeida Reis SM, Rejou-Machain M, Correa ZR, Bayona LR, Rudas A, Salomão R, Serrano J, Espejo JS, Silva N, Singh J, Stahl C, Stropp J, Swamy V, Talbot J, Ter Steege H, Terborgh J, Thomas R, Toledo M, Torres-Lezama A, Gamarra LV, van der Heijden G, van der Meer P, van der Hout P, Martinez RV, Vieira SA, Cayo JV, Vos V, Zagt R, Zuidema P, and Galbraith D
- Subjects
- Biomass, Brazil, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Ecosystem, Environmental Monitoring, Models, Biological, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Tropical Climate, Ecology, Forests, Trees growth & development
- Abstract
The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers of tropical tree death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment of how and why trees die, analysing over 120,000 trees representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While tree mortality rates vary greatly Amazon-wide, on average trees are as likely to die standing as they are broken or uprooted-modes of death with different ecological consequences. Species-level growth rate is the single most important predictor of tree death in Amazonia, with faster-growing species being at higher risk. Within species, however, the slowest-growing trees are at greatest risk while the effect of tree size varies across the basin. In the driest Amazonian region species-level bioclimatic distributional patterns also predict the risk of death, suggesting that these forests are experiencing climatic conditions beyond their adaptative limits. These results provide not only a holistic pan-Amazonian picture of tree death but large-scale evidence for the overarching importance of the growth-survival trade-off in driving tropical tree mortality.
- Published
- 2020
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