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To absorb and store carbon, trees need to stay alive, but more and more trees in the Amazon are doing the opposite. Scientists now know why.
According to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, the average growth rate of a tree species is the main risk factor for tree death in the Amazon region. Researchers found that the fastest growing trees tend to die young.
The findings help explain why tree mortality is on the rise across the Amazon region. Previous studies indicate that climate change favors faster-growing tree species. This is bad news for the planet.
If rising temperatures continue to change forest composition and favor faster-growing tree species, tree mortality in the Amazon is likely to continue to increase. The latest research suggests that the Amazon’s ability to sequester carbon will suffer.
“Understanding the root causes of tree mortality will help us better predict and plan for future trends, but this is a huge undertaking, as there are more than 15,000 different tree species in the Amazon,” lead author Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert , an ecologist at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, said in a news release.
Tree death is relatively rare, making it difficult to study. To obtain information, Esquivel-Muelbert and his research partners used the RAINFOR network, a database compiled by 100 different scientists over the past three decades.
The researchers analyzed growth rate data from 124,000 living trees, 18,000 of which died during the 30-year data collection period. Scientists studied the cause of death for each of the 18,000 deaths.
“This requires detailed forensic work and equates to massive ‘Amazon CSI’ engagement by skilled researchers from a dozen nations,” said Oliver Phillips, professor of ecology at the University of Leeds.
The detailed forensic work helped scientists determine that faster-growing trees are more likely to die young.
“Now that we can see more clearly what is happening in the forest, there are clear opportunities for action,” said Beatriz Marimon, a researcher at Mato Grosso State University in Brazil.
“We are finding that drought is also causing the death of trees, but so far only in the southern Amazon. What is happening here should act as an early warning system, because we have to prevent the same fate from happening to trees elsewhere, ”Marimon said.
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