Articles | Volume 17, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-2621-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-2621-2020
Research article
 | 
15 May 2020
Research article |  | 15 May 2020

Drought resistance increases from the individual to the ecosystem level in highly diverse Neotropical rainforest: a meta-analysis of leaf, tree and ecosystem responses to drought

Thomas Janssen, Katrin Fleischer, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Kim Naudts, and Han Dolman

Related authors

Geographically divergent trends in snow disappearance timing and fire ignitions across boreal North America
Thomas D. Hessilt, Brendan M. Rogers, Rebecca C. Scholten, Stefano Potter, Thomas A. J. Janssen, and Sander Veraverbeke
Biogeosciences, 21, 109–129, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-109-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-109-2024, 2024
Short summary
Drought effects on leaf fall, leaf flushing and stem growth in the Amazon forest: reconciling remote sensing data and field observations
Thomas Janssen, Ype van der Velde, Florian Hofhansl, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Kim Naudts, Bart Driessen, Katrin Fleischer, and Han Dolman
Biogeosciences, 18, 4445–4472, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4445-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-4445-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: Terrestrial
Role of air–soil temperature in the leaf area index (LAI) course and role of height–diameter at breast height (DBH) in the maximum LAI during foliation of Platanus orientalis L. in an urban–rural greenway system
Melih Öztürk, Turgay Biricik, and Rıdvan Koruyan
Biogeosciences, 22, 2351–2362, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2351-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2351-2025, 2025
Short summary
Ecosystem leaf area, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration responses to wildfire in the Columbia River basin
Mingjie Shi, Nate McDowell, Huilin Huang, Faria Zahura, Lingcheng Li, and Xingyuan Chen
Biogeosciences, 22, 2225–2238, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2225-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2225-2025, 2025
Short summary
Optimal set of leaf and aboveground tree elements for predicting forest functioning
Écio Souza Diniz, Eladio Rodríguez-Penedo, Roger Grau-Andrés, Jordi Vayreda, and Marcos Fernández-Martínez
Biogeosciences, 22, 2115–2132, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2115-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2115-2025, 2025
Short summary
Water usage of old-growth oak at elevated CO2 in the FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) of climate change
Susan E. Quick, Giulio Curioni, Nicholas J. Harper, Stefan Krause, and A. Robert MacKenzie
Biogeosciences, 22, 1557–1581, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1557-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1557-2025, 2025
Short summary
Elephant megacarcasses increase local nutrient pools in African savanna soils and plants
Courtney G. Reed, Michelle L. Budny, Johan T. du Toit, Ryan Helcoski, Joshua P. Schimel, Izak P. J. Smit, Tercia Strydom, Aimee Tallian, Dave I. Thompson, Helga van Coller, Nathan P. Lemoine, and Deron E. Burkepile
Biogeosciences, 22, 1583–1596, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1583-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1583-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Albert, L. P., Wu, J., Prohaska, N., de Camargo, P. B., Huxman, T. E., Tribuzy, E. S., Ivanov, V. Y., Oliveira, R. S., Garcia, S., Smith, M. N., Oliveira Junior, R. C., Restrepo-Coupe, N., da Silva, R., Stark, S. C., Martins, G. A., Penha, D. V., and Saleska, S. R.: Age-dependent leaf physiology and consequences for crown-scale carbon uptake during the dry season in an Amazon evergreen forest, New Phytol., 219, 870–884, https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15056, 2018. 
Alexandre, D. Y.: Comportement hydrique au cours de la saison seche et place dans la succession de trois arbres guyanais: Trema micrantha, Goupia glabra et Eperua grandiflora, Ann. Sci. Forest, 48, 101–112, 1991. 
Allen, C. D., Breshears, D. D., and McDowell, N. G.: On underestimation of global vulnerability to tree mortality and forest die-off from hotter drought in the Anthropocene, Ecosphere, 6, 1–55, https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00203.1, 2015. 
Allen, M. T. and Pearcy, R. W.: Stomatal behavior and photosynthetic performance under dynamic light regimes in a seasonally dry tropical rain forest, Oecologia, 122, 470–478, https://doi.org/10.1007/s004420050968, 2000. 
Aragão, L. E. O. C., Malhi, Y., Roman-Cuesta, R. M., Saatchi, S., Anderson, L. O., and Shimabukuro, Y. E.: Spatial patterns and fire response of recent Amazonian droughts, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L07701, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL028946, 2007. 
Download
Short summary
The frequency and severity of droughts are expected to increase in the tropics, impacting the functioning of tropical forests. Here, we synthesized observed responses to drought in Neotropical forests. We find that, during drought, trees generally close their leaf stomata, resulting in reductions in photosynthesis, growth and transpiration. However, on the ecosystem scale, these responses are not visible. This indicates that resistance to drought increases from the leaf to ecosystem scale.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint