Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America

Deforestation is widely studied throughout the world. However, a less evident issue is the effect of climate change and drought on remnants of native forests. The objective of this work was to understand the geographic variations in resistance to drought of the Mediterranean sclerophyllous forests o...

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Main Authors: Miranda, Alejandro, Lara, Antonio, Altamirano, Adison, Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo, González, Mauro E., Camarero, Jesus Julio
Format: info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7779
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X20303381
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106401
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author Miranda, Alejandro
Lara, Antonio
Altamirano, Adison
Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo
González, Mauro E.
Camarero, Jesus Julio
author_browse Altamirano, Adison
Camarero, Jesus Julio
Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo
González, Mauro E.
Lara, Antonio
Miranda, Alejandro
author_facet Miranda, Alejandro
Lara, Antonio
Altamirano, Adison
Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo
González, Mauro E.
Camarero, Jesus Julio
author_sort Miranda, Alejandro
collection INTA Digital
description Deforestation is widely studied throughout the world. However, a less evident issue is the effect of climate change and drought on remnants of native forests. The objective of this work was to understand the geographic variations in resistance to drought of the Mediterranean sclerophyllous forests of central Chile. These forests have been historically reduced and fragmented and in recent years were subjected to the most prolonged drought occurred between 2010 and 2017. Using data from the MODIS satellite sensor, temporal trends in the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were quantified. We related these trends with different environmental variables to understand the effects of geographical variation and forest type as indicators of resistance to drought. We observed a significant direct effect of drought, attributable to the reduced precipitation in central Chile, and a significantly reduced NDVI in near one-third of the region forests (browning). However, NDVI and therefore forest productivity were more stable in some mesic sites such as ravine bottoms, but not on south-facing slopes. This suggests that under a regime of reduced precipitations, a greater available soil humidity would be a more important factor than the fact of receiving less solar radiation. Finally, the highest degree of browning was observed in semi-arid sclerophyllous forest dominated by species tolerant to drought. Our findings emphasize the need to consider topographic site conditions to adequately assess forest productivity and vulnerability where local wet conditions could provide drought refuges. This recent drought may be analogous to forecasted warmer and drier climate conditions with more frequent and severe droughts, so our results may serve as a general framework for climate-smart decisions in highly threatened forest restoration and conservation.
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spelling INTA77792020-08-27T17:33:03Z Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America Miranda, Alejandro Lara, Antonio Altamirano, Adison Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo González, Mauro E. Camarero, Jesus Julio Cambio Climático Sequía Bosques Resiliencia Teledetección América del Sur Climate Change Drought Forests Resilience Remote Sensing South America Deforestation is widely studied throughout the world. However, a less evident issue is the effect of climate change and drought on remnants of native forests. The objective of this work was to understand the geographic variations in resistance to drought of the Mediterranean sclerophyllous forests of central Chile. These forests have been historically reduced and fragmented and in recent years were subjected to the most prolonged drought occurred between 2010 and 2017. Using data from the MODIS satellite sensor, temporal trends in the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were quantified. We related these trends with different environmental variables to understand the effects of geographical variation and forest type as indicators of resistance to drought. We observed a significant direct effect of drought, attributable to the reduced precipitation in central Chile, and a significantly reduced NDVI in near one-third of the region forests (browning). However, NDVI and therefore forest productivity were more stable in some mesic sites such as ravine bottoms, but not on south-facing slopes. This suggests that under a regime of reduced precipitations, a greater available soil humidity would be a more important factor than the fact of receiving less solar radiation. Finally, the highest degree of browning was observed in semi-arid sclerophyllous forest dominated by species tolerant to drought. Our findings emphasize the need to consider topographic site conditions to adequately assess forest productivity and vulnerability where local wet conditions could provide drought refuges. This recent drought may be analogous to forecasted warmer and drier climate conditions with more frequent and severe droughts, so our results may serve as a general framework for climate-smart decisions in highly threatened forest restoration and conservation. Instituto de Clima y Agua Fil: Miranda, Alejandro. Universidad de La Frontera. Departamento de Ciencias Forestales. Laboratorio de Ecología del Paisaje y Conservación; Chile. Universidad Austral de Chile. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales. Escuela de Graduados; Chile. Universidad de Chile. Center for Climate and Resilience Research; Chile Fil: Lara, Antonio. Universidad de Chile. Center for Climate and Resilience Research; Chile. Universidad Austral de Chile. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio; Chile Fil: Altamirano, Adison Universidad de La Frontera. Departamento de Ciencias Forestales. Laboratorio de Ecología del Paisaje y Conservación; Chile. Universidad de La Frontera. Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales. Butamallin Research Center for Global Change; Chile Fil: Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información; Argentina Fil: González, Mauro E. Universidad de Chile. Center for Climate and Resilience Research; Chile. Universidad Austral de Chile. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales. Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio; Chile Fil: Camarero, Jesus Julio. CSIC. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología; España 2020-08-27T17:29:44Z 2020-08-27T17:29:44Z 2020-08 info:ar-repo/semantics/artículo info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7779 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X20303381 1470-160X https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106401 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess application/pdf Elsevier Ecological Indicators 115 : 10640 (August 2020)
spellingShingle Cambio Climático
Sequía
Bosques
Resiliencia
Teledetección
América del Sur
Climate Change
Drought
Forests
Resilience
Remote Sensing
South America
Miranda, Alejandro
Lara, Antonio
Altamirano, Adison
Di Bella, Carlos Marcelo
González, Mauro E.
Camarero, Jesus Julio
Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title_full Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title_fullStr Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title_full_unstemmed Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title_short Forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of South America
title_sort forest browning trends in response to drought in a highly threatened mediterranean landscape of south america
topic Cambio Climático
Sequía
Bosques
Resiliencia
Teledetección
América del Sur
Climate Change
Drought
Forests
Resilience
Remote Sensing
South America
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12123/7779
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X20303381
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106401
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