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Title
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Research frontiers for improving our understanding of drought-induced tree and forest mortality
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Author
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Abstract
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| nitori Accumulating evidence highlights increased mortality risks for trees during severe drought, particularly under warmer temperatures and increasing vapour pressure deficit (VPD). Resulting forest die-off events have severe consequences for ecosystem services, biophysical and biogeochemical land-atmosphere processes. Despite advances in monitoring, modelling and experimental studies of the causes and consequences of tree death from individual tree to ecosystem and global scale, a general mechanistic understanding and realistic predictions of drought mortality under future climate conditions are still lacking. We update a global tree mortality map and present a roadmap to a more holistic understanding of forest mortality across scales. We highlight priority research frontiers that promote: (1) new avenues for research on key tree ecophysiological responses to drought; (2) scaling from the tree/plot level to the ecosystem and region; (3) improvements of mortality risk predictions based on both empirical and mechanistic insights; and (4) a global mong network of forest mortality. In light of recent and anticipated large forest die-off events such a research agenda is timely and needed to achieve scientific understanding for realistic predictions of drought-induced tree mortality. The implementation of a sustainable network will require support by stakeholders and political authorities at the international level. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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New phytologist. - Oxford
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Publication
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Oxford
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2018
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ISSN
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0028-646X
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DOI
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10.1111/NPH.15048
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Volume/pages
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218
:1
(2018)
, p. 15-28
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ISI
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000426520900004
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Pubmed ID
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29488280
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
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