Predicting Tree Mortality Die-off Events Associated with Hotter Drought and Assessing Their Global Consequences via Ecoclimate Teleconnections.
Abstract
Evidence that tree mortality is increasingly likely occur in extensive die-off events across the terrestrial biosphere continues to mount. The consequences of such extensive mortality events are potentially profound, not only for the locations where die-off events occur, but also for other locations that could be impacted via ecoclimate teleconnections, whereby the land surface changes associated with die-off in one location could alter atmospheric circulation patterns and affect vegetation elsewhere. Here, we (1) recap the background of tree mortality as an emerging environmental issue, (2) highlight recent advances that could help us improve predictions of the vulnerability to tree mortality, including the underlying importance of hydraulic failure, the potential to develop climatic envelopes specific to tree mortality events, and consideration of the role of heat waves; and (3) initial bounding simulations that indicate the potential for tree die-off events in different locations to alter ecoclimate teleconnections. As we move toward globally coordinated carbon accounting and management, the high vulnerability to tree die-off events and the potential for such events to affect vegetation elsewhere will both need to be accounted for.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMGC13N..02B
- Keywords:
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- 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1699 General or miscellaneous;
- GLOBAL CHANGE