MEXICO: A new study has debunked the generally held notion that forests and other vegetation can quickly recover from extreme drought and has revealed that trees that outlive the drought take up to four years to completely recover from the stress and resume normal growth rates.
Researchers say that the finding is particularly important as droughts are expected to be a common occurrence owing to human-induced climate change. The finding that drought stress sets back tree growth for years suggests that Earth’s forests are capable of storing less carbon than climate models have calculated.
“This really matters because in the future droughts are expected to increase in frequency and severity due to climate change,” says lead author William R.L. Anderegg, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah. “Some forests could be in a race to recover before the next drought strikes.”
Anderegg added that if forests don’t take up the excess carbon dioxide, then climate change would speed up.
For the study, Anderegg and colleagues carefully measured the recovery of tree stem growth after severe droughts since 1948 at more than 1,300 forest sites globally using records from the International Tree Ring Data Bank. Tree rings provide a convenient history of wood growth and track carbon uptake of the ecosystem in which the tree grew.
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