Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 118, Issue 21, Pages -Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2003169118
Keywords
temperature; drought; ENSO; carbon cycle; El Nino
Categories
Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship [NE/L002574/1]
- NERC Open CASE award
- European Research Council Advanced Grant [T-FORCES 291585]
- NERC Consortium Grant TROBIT [NE/D005590]
- European Research Council advanced grant
- CIFOR
- Gordon and Betty More Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship
- NERC New Investigators grant
- Philip Leverhulme award
- Gabon's National Parks Agency
- T-FORCES
- Royal Society GCRF Fund International Collaboration Award [ICA\R1\180100]
- Belgian Science Policy Office BELSPO [SD/AR/01A/COBIMFO, BR/132/A1/AFRIFORD, BR/143/A3/HERBAXYLAREDD, FED-tWIN2019-prf-075/CongoFORCE]
- Flemish Interuniversity Council VLIR-UOS [CD2018TEA459A103]
- European Union through the FORETS project (FOrmation, Recherche, Environnement dans la TShopo)
- XIth European Development Fund
- European Research Council [AdG 291585]
- NERC Grant [NE/B503384/1, NE/I028122/1, NE/P008755/1]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant [1656]
- European Union [283080]
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (MonANPeru) Grant [NE/F005806/1]
- NERC Impact Accelerator Grant
- NERC New Investigators Award
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The responses of African tropical forests to the 2015-2016 El Nino event showed a level of resilience, with a decrease in overall biomass increase but maintaining characteristics of a carbon sink.
The responses of tropical forests to environmental change are critical uncertainties in predicting the future impacts of climate change. The positive phase of the 2015-2016 El Nino Southern Oscillation resulted in unprecedented heat and low precipitation in the tropics with substantial impacts on the global carbon cycle. The role of African tropical forests is uncertain as their responses to short-term drought and temperature anomalies have yet to be determined using on-the-ground measurements. African tropical forests may be particularly sensitive because they exist in relatively dry conditions compared with Amazonian or Asian forests, or they may be more resistant because of an abundance of drought-adapted species. Here, we report responses of structurally intact old-growth lowland tropical forests inventoried within the African Tropical Rainforest Observatory Network (AfriTRON). We use 100 long-term inventory plots from six countries each measured at least twice prior to and once following the 2015-2016 El Nino event. These plots experienced the highest temperatures and driest conditions on record. The record temperature did not significantly reduce carbon gains from tree growth or significantly increase carbon losses from tree mortality, but the record drought did significantly decrease net carbon uptake. Overall, the long-term biomass increase of these forests was reduced due to the El Nino event, but these plots remained a live biomass carbon sink (0.51 +/- 0.40 Mg C ha(-1) y(-1)) despite extreme environmental conditions. Our analyses, while limited to African tropical forests, suggest they may be more resistant to climatic extremes than Amazonian and Asian forests.
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