Widespread crown condition decline, food web disruption, and amplified tree mortality with increased climate change-type drought.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is progressively increasing severe drought events in the Northern Hemisphere, causing regional tree die-off events and contributing to the global reduction of the carbon sink efficiency of forests. There is a critical lack of integrated community-wide assessments of drought-induced responses in forests at the macroecological scale, including defoliation, mortality, and food web responses. Here we report a generalized increase in crown defoliation in southern European forests occurring during 1987-2007. Forest tree species have consistently and significantly altered their crown leaf structures, with increased percentages of defoliation in the drier parts of their distributions in response to increased water deficit. We assessed the demographic responses of trees associated wi

SUBMITTER: Carnicer J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3029725 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature