Functional Traits From Imaging Spectroscopy Inform Patterns of Forest Mortality During Sierra Nevada Drought.

ABSTRACT: California's 2012-2016 megadrought led to the mortality of over 100 million trees. In the context of extreme drought and insect outbreaks, a holistic view of plant functional traits can provide further insight into underlying physiological and abiotic drivers of the patterns of mortality. We used new maps of early-drought (pre-mortality) foliar functional traits derived from the NASA AVIRIS-Classic imaging spectrometer, along with open-access climate, topography, canopy structure, and mortality data, to assess competing influences on drought mortality at the Soaproot Saddle and Lower Teakettle NEON sites in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. We aimed to (1) compare mortality trends across two independently derived mortality datasets, (2) assess trait-mortality relationships across diver

SUBMITTER: Queally N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12079731 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature