Journal
NEW PHYTOLOGIST
Volume 200, Issue 2, Pages 413-421Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/nph.12362
Keywords
climate change; die-off; drought; mortality; Pinus edulis; pinyon pine; pinyon-juniper woodlands; threshold
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [EAR-0724958, DEB-0443526]
- USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Middle Rio Grande Ecosystem Management Unit
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Recent regional tree die-off events appear to have been triggered by a combination of drought and heat - referred to as global-change-type drought'. To complement experiments focused on resolving mechanisms of drought-induced tree mortality, an evaluation of how patterns of tree die-off relate to highly spatially variable precipitation is needed. Here, we explore precipitation relationships with a die-off event of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis Engelm.) in southwestern North America during the 2002-2003 global-change-type drought. Pinyon die-off and its relationship with precipitation was quantified spatially along a precipitation gradient in north-central New Mexico with standard field plot measurements of die-off combined with canopy cover derived from normalized burn ratio (NBR) from Landsat imagery. Pinyon die-off patterns revealed threshold responses to precipitation (cumulative 2002-2003) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), with little to no mortality (<10%) above 600mm and below warm season VPD of c. 1.7kPa. [Correction added after online publication 17 June 2013; in the preceding sentence, the word below' has been inserted.] Our results refine how precipitation patterns within a region influence pinyon die-off, revealing a precipitation and VPD threshold for tree mortality and its uncertainty band where other factors probably come into play - a response type that influences stand demography and landscape heterogeneity and is of general interest, yet has not been documented.
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