Global field observations of tree die-off reveal hotter-drought fingerprint for Earth’s forests

Earth's forests face grave challenges in the Anthropocene, including hotter droughts increasingly associated with widespread forest die-off events. But despite the vital importance of forests to global ecosystem services, their fates in a warming world remain highly uncertain. Lacking is quantitative determination of commonality in climate anomalies associated with pulses of tree mortality-from published, field-documented mortality events-required for understanding the role of extreme climate events in overall global tree die-off patterns. Here we established a geo-referenced global database documenting climate-induced mortality events spanning all tree-supporting biomes and continents, from 154 peer-reviewed…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1550756, 1755345, 1824796, 1925837, 1-653428
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: DESC0022302
• UD
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
• MU
  Murdoch University
• UM
  Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey

  Award: G18AC00320
• NI
  National Institute of Food and Agriculture

  Awards: ARZT-1390130-M12-222, WNP00009
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MR/P014097/1, MR/P014097/2
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Award: BB/R010668/1
• CD
  Coordinación de la Investigación Científica
• DO
  Division of Integrative Organismal Systems

  Award: 1755345