Tree Growth, Contraction and Recovery: Disentangling Soil and Atmospheric Drought Effects.

ABSTRACT: We investigate how soil and atmospheric droughts jointly impact tree growth and recovery dynamics in a semi-arid pine forest, leveraging high-resolution stem diameter variation data and an irrigation experiment. The irrigated plot, where soil drought was mitigated, served as a benchmark to isolate the effects of atmospheric drought and distinguish them from the compound drought conditions experienced by control trees. Using a suite of tools based only on stem diameter variation, we identified growth modes that vary in accordance with soil water availability. Control trees showed negligible growth during the dry season but rapidly recovered with the onset of the wet season, matching the baseline growth rates of the irrigated trees, suggesting minimal compromise in hydraulic functioning. Our

SUBMITTER: Feuer E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12319278 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature