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Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest

Drought-induced, regional-scale dieback of forests has emerged as a global concern that is expected to escalate under model projections of climate change. Since 2000, drought of unusual severity, extent, and duration has affected large areas of western North America, leading to regional-scale diebac...

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Autores principales: Michaelian, Michael, Hogg, Edward H, Hall, Ronald J, Arsenault, Eric
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3597257/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02357.x
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author Michaelian, Michael
Hogg, Edward H
Hall, Ronald J
Arsenault, Eric
author_facet Michaelian, Michael
Hogg, Edward H
Hall, Ronald J
Arsenault, Eric
author_sort Michaelian, Michael
collection PubMed
description Drought-induced, regional-scale dieback of forests has emerged as a global concern that is expected to escalate under model projections of climate change. Since 2000, drought of unusual severity, extent, and duration has affected large areas of western North America, leading to regional-scale dieback of forests in the southwestern US. We report on drought impacts on forests in a region farther north, encompassing the transition between boreal forest and prairie in western Canada. A central question is the significance of drought as an agent of large-scale tree mortality and its potential future impact on carbon cycling in this cold region. We used a combination of plot-based, meteorological, and remote sensing measures to map and quantify aboveground, dead biomass of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) across an 11.5 Mha survey area where drought was exceptionally severe during 2001–2002. Within this area, a satellite-based land cover map showed that aspen-dominated broadleaf forests occupied 2.3 Mha. Aerial surveys revealed extensive patches of severe mortality (>55%) resembling the impacts of fire. Dead aboveground biomass was estimated at 45 Mt, representing 20% of the total aboveground biomass, based on a spatial interpolation of plot-based measurements. Spatial variation in percentage dead biomass showed a moderately strong correlation with drought severity. In the prairie-like, southern half of the study area where the drought was most severe, 35% of aspen biomass was dead, compared with an estimated 7% dead biomass in the absence of drought. Drought led to an estimated 29 Mt increase in dead biomass across the survey area, corresponding to 14 Mt of potential future carbon emissions following decomposition. Many recent, comparable episodes of drought-induced forest dieback have been reported from around the world, which points to an emerging need for multiscale monitoring approaches to quantify drought effects on woody biomass and carbon cycling across large areas.
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spelling pubmed-35972572013-03-19 Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest Michaelian, Michael Hogg, Edward H Hall, Ronald J Arsenault, Eric Glob Chang Biol Original Articles Drought-induced, regional-scale dieback of forests has emerged as a global concern that is expected to escalate under model projections of climate change. Since 2000, drought of unusual severity, extent, and duration has affected large areas of western North America, leading to regional-scale dieback of forests in the southwestern US. We report on drought impacts on forests in a region farther north, encompassing the transition between boreal forest and prairie in western Canada. A central question is the significance of drought as an agent of large-scale tree mortality and its potential future impact on carbon cycling in this cold region. We used a combination of plot-based, meteorological, and remote sensing measures to map and quantify aboveground, dead biomass of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) across an 11.5 Mha survey area where drought was exceptionally severe during 2001–2002. Within this area, a satellite-based land cover map showed that aspen-dominated broadleaf forests occupied 2.3 Mha. Aerial surveys revealed extensive patches of severe mortality (>55%) resembling the impacts of fire. Dead aboveground biomass was estimated at 45 Mt, representing 20% of the total aboveground biomass, based on a spatial interpolation of plot-based measurements. Spatial variation in percentage dead biomass showed a moderately strong correlation with drought severity. In the prairie-like, southern half of the study area where the drought was most severe, 35% of aspen biomass was dead, compared with an estimated 7% dead biomass in the absence of drought. Drought led to an estimated 29 Mt increase in dead biomass across the survey area, corresponding to 14 Mt of potential future carbon emissions following decomposition. Many recent, comparable episodes of drought-induced forest dieback have been reported from around the world, which points to an emerging need for multiscale monitoring approaches to quantify drought effects on woody biomass and carbon cycling across large areas. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3597257/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02357.x Text en © 2010 Crown in the right of Canada http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Re-use of this article is permitted in accordance with the Creative Commons Deed, Attribution 2.5, which does not permit commercial exploitation.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Michaelian, Michael
Hogg, Edward H
Hall, Ronald J
Arsenault, Eric
Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title_full Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title_fullStr Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title_full_unstemmed Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title_short Massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the Canadian boreal forest
title_sort massive mortality of aspen following severe drought along the southern edge of the canadian boreal forest
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3597257/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02357.x
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