Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 11, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aa8f55
Keywords
canopy water content; progressive water stress; forest vulnerability; imaging spectroscopy; Sierra Nevada; California
Funding
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Avatar Alliance Foundation
- Carnegie Institution for Science
- Margaret A Cargill Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
- W M Keck Foundation
- John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation
- Andrew Mellon Foundation
- Mary Anne Nyburg Baker and G Leonard Baker Jr
- William R Hearst III
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Widespread, drought-induced forest mortality has been documented on every forested continent over the last two decades, yet early pre- mortality indicators of tree death remain poorly understood. Remotely sensed physiological-based measures offer a means for large-scale analysis to understand and predict drought-induced mortality. Here, we use laser-guided imaging spectroscopy from multiple years of aerial surveys to assess the impact of sustained canopy water loss on tree mortality. We analyze both gross canopy mortality in 2016 and the change in mortality between 2015 and 2016 in millions of sampled conifer forest locations throughout the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. On average, sustained water loss and gross mortality are strongly related, and year-to-year water loss within the drought indicates subsequent mortality. Both relationships are consistent after controlling for location and tree community composition, suggesting that these metrics may serve as indicators of mortality during a drought.
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