This data package contains data from: Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-SA 4.).

 

When using this data, please cite the original article:

Julia Valentim Tavares, Rafael S. Oliveira, Maurizio Mencuccini, Caroline Signori-Müller, Luciano Pereira, Francisco Carvalho Diniz, Martin Gilpin, Manuel J. Marca Zevallos, Carlos A. Salas Yupayccana, Martin Acosta, Flor M. Pérez Mullisaca, Fernanda de Vasconcellos Barros, Paulo Bittencourt, Halina Jancoski, Marina Corrêa Scalon, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Imma Oliveras Menor, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Alexander Chambers-Ostler, Max Fancourt, Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Lucy Rowland, Patrick Meir, Antonio Carlos Lola da Costa, Alex Nina, Jesus M. B. Sanchez, Jose S. Tintaya, Rudi S. C. Chino, Jean Baca, Leticia Fernandes, Edwin R. M. Cumapa, João Antônio R. Santos, Renata Teixeira, Ligia Tello, Maira T. M. Ugarteche, Gina A. Cuellar, Franklin Martinez, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Everton Almeida, Wesley Jonatar Alves da Cruz, Jhon del Aguila Pasquel, Luís Aragāo, Timothy R. Baker, Plinio Barbosa de Camargo, Roel Brienen, Wendeson Castro, Sabina Cerruto Ribeiro, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Eric G. Cosio, Nallaret Davila Cardozo, Richarlly da Costa Silva, Mathias Disney, Javier Silva Espejo, Ted Feldpausch, Leandro Ferreira, Leandro Giacomin, Niro Higuchi, Marina Hirota, Euridice Honorio, Walter Huaraca Huasco, Simon Lewis, Gerardo Flores Llampazo, Yadvinder Malhi, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Paulo Morandi, Victor C. Moscoso9, Robert Muscarella, Deliane Penha, Mayda Cecília Rocha, Gleicy Rodrigues, Ademir R. Ruschel, Norma Salinas, Monique Schlickmann, Marcos Silveira, Joey Talbot, Rodolfo Vásquez, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Oliver L. Phillips, Emanuel Gloor, David R. Galbraith. Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests. Nature 2023. DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-05971-3

Additionally, please cite the data package:

Data and R-code from 'Julia Valentim Tavares, Rafael S. Oliveira, Maurizio Mencuccini, [...] Oliver L. Phillips, Emanuel Gloor, David R. Galbraith. Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests. Nature 2023. DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-05971-3'
ForestPlots.NET DOI: https://doi.org/10.5521/forestplots.net/2023_1

 

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Data package Description

 

This package contains the data and codes to recreate the main analyses and the main figures presented from Tavares et al., 2023. Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests. Nature. DOI 10.1038/s41586-023-05971-3. The pan-Amazonian hydraulic traits data set (ψ₅₀, ψ_dry, HSM₅₀) and  branch wood density per species per site, as well as forest dynamic and climate data per plot presented in this study. Please, note that basal-area-weighted mean leaf mass per area is displayed in SM. Table 2. Species stem wood density data were obtained from Global Wood Density database^1,2. Species water deficit affiliation data were extracted from Esquivel-Muelbert et al. (2017)³.

 

1.        Zanne, A. E. et al. Data from: Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters (2009). doi:10.5061/dryad.234

2.        Chave, J. et al. Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecol. Lett. 12, 351–366 (2009).

3.        Esquivel-Muelbert, A. et al. Biogeographic distributions of neotropical trees reflect their directly measured drought tolerances. Sci. Rep. 7, 1–18 (2017).

 

 

Abstract 

Tropical forests face increasing climate risk, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. While xylem embolism resistance thresholds (e.g. ψ₅₀) and hydraulic safety margins (e.g. HSM₅₀) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk, little is known about how these vary across Earth’s largest tropical forest. Here we present the first pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. ψ₅₀ and HSM₅₀ vary markedly across Amazonia and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both ψ₅₀ and HSM₅₀ influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM₅₀ was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM₅₀ are gaining more biomass than low-HSM₅₀ forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth-mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM₅₀ in Amazonia, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink.