This data package contains data from: Mode of death and mortality risk factors in Amazon trees. Nat Commun 11, 5515 (2020)'
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:
Additionally, please cite the data package:
Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Oliver L. Phillips, [...] David Galbraith et al. 2020. Data and R-code from 'Mode of death and mortality risk factors in Amazon trees. Nat Commun 11, 5515 (2020) '
ForestPlots.NET DOI: 10.5521/forestplots.net/2020_6
Abstract
R-Code available at: https://github.com/AEMuelbert/AmazonTreeMortality
ABSTRACT: The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers of tropical tree death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment of how and why trees die, analysing over 120,000 trees representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While tree mortality rates vary greatly Amazon-wide, on average trees are as likely to die standing as they are broken or uprooted—modes of death with different ecological consequences. Species-level growth rate is the single most important predictor of tree death in Amazonia, with faster-growing species being at higher risk. Within species, however, the slowest-growing trees are at greatest risk while the effect of tree size varies across the basin. In the driest Amazonian region species-level bioclimatic distributional patterns also predict the risk of death, suggesting that these forests are experiencing climatic conditions beyond their adaptative limits. These results provide not only a holistic pan-Amazonian picture of tree death but large-scale evidence for the overarching importance of the growth–survival trade-off in driving tropical tree mortality.
