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Diverging functional strategies but high sensitivity to an extreme drought in tropical dry forests

2020; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/ele.13659

1461-0248

Roy González‐M., Juan M. Posada, Carlos P. Carmona, Fabián Garzón, Viviana Salinas, Álvaro Idárraga, Camila Pizano, Andrés Avella, René López Camacho, Natalia Norden, Jhon Nieto, Sandra P. Medina, Gina M. Rodríguez‐M., Rebeca Franke‐Ante, Alba Marina Torres, Rubén Jurado, Hermes Cuadros, Alejandro Castaño, Hernando García, Beatriz Salgado‐Negret,

Forest ecology and management

Extreme drought events have negative effects on forest diversity and functioning. At the species level, however, these effects are still unclear, as species vary in their response to drought through specific functional trait combinations. We used long-term demographic records of 21,821 trees and extensive databases of traits to understand the responses of 338 tropical dry forests tree species to ENSO2015 , the driest event in decades in Northern South America. Functional differences between species were related to the hydraulic safety-efficiency trade-off, but unexpectedly, dominant species were characterised by high investment in leaf and wood tissues regardless of their leaf phenological habit. Despite broad functional trait combinations, tree mortality was more widespread in the functional space than tree growth, where less adapted species showed more negative net biomass balances. Our results suggest that if dry conditions increase in this ecosystem, ecological functionality and biomass gain would be reduced.