The importance of physiological, structural and trait responses to drought stress in driving spatial and temporal variation in GPP across Amazon forests

Flack-Prain, Sophie; Meir, Patrick; Malhi, Yadvinder; Smallman, Thomas Luke; Williams, Mathew

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 22

Research article

|

25 Nov 2019

Research article |

| 25 Nov 2019

The importance of physiological, structural and trait responses to drought stress in driving spatial and temporal variation in GPP across Amazon forests

Sophie Flack-Prain, Patrick Meir, Yadvinder Malhi, Thomas Luke Smallman, and Mathew Williams

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4463-2019-supplement

Data sets

Drought impact on forest carbon dynamics and fluxes in Amazonia C. E. Doughty, D. B. Metcalfe, C. A. Girardin, F. F. Amezquita, D. G. Cabrera, W. H. Huasco, J. E. Silva-Espejo, A. Araujo-Murakami, M. C. da Costa, W. Rocha, T. R. Feldpausch, A. L. Mendoza, A. C. da Costa, P. Meir, O. L. Phillips, and Y. Malhi https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14213

The importance of physiological, structural and trait responses to drought stress in driving spatial and temporal variation in GPP across Amazon forests S. Flack-Prain, P. Meir, Y. Malhi, T. Smallman, and M. Williams https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/2710

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Short summary

Across the Amazon rainforest, trees take in carbon through photosynthesis. However, photosynthesis across the basin is threatened by predicted shifts in rainfall patterns. To unpick how changes in rainfall affect photosynthesis, we use a model which combines climate data with our knowledge of photosynthesis and other plant processes. We find that stomatal constraints are less important, and instead shifts in leaf surface area and leaf properties drive changes in photosynthesis with rainfall.