Soil fertility and drought interact to determine large variations in wood production for a hyperdominant Amazonian tree species

Abstract

IntroductionThe productivity of the Amazon Rainforest is related to climate and soil fertility. However, the degrees to which these interactions influence multiannual to decadal variations in tree diameter growth are still poorly explored.MethodsTo fill this gap, we used radiocarbon measurements to evaluate the variation in tree growth rates over the past decades in an important hyperdominant species, Eschweilera coriacea (Lecythidaceae), from six sites in the Brazilian Amazon that span a range of soil properties and climate.ResultsUsing linear mixed-effects models, we show that temporal variations in mean annual diameter increment evaluated over a specific time period reflect interactions between soil fertility and the drought index (SPEI-Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index).DiscussionOur results indicate that the growth response of trees to drought is strongly dependent on soil conditions, a facet of forest productivity that is still underexplored, and which has great potential for improving predictions of future tropical tree growth in the face of projected climate change.

Insights into Growth, Ring Formation and Maximum Ages of Brazil Nut Trees (Bertholletia excelsa) Using 14C Dating and Tree-Ring Analysis

“…From the late 1950s to early 1960s, tropospheric 14 C levels almost doubled due to the large-scale thermonuclear bomb tests conducted during the Cold War Era, followed by a sharp decrease after the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 (Levin et al 2022), such that the C fixed by trees from the atmosphere in a given year should have a specific 14 C signature (Santos et al 2022). The visual identification of tree-rings jointly applied with “bomb peak” 14 C analysis has been important for determining the growth periodicity of tropical trees and evaluating the annual nature of tree rings (Lisi et al 2001; Andreu-Hayles et al 2015; Santos et al 2015; Ohashi et al 2016; Linares et al 2017; Herrera-Ramirez et al 2017; Santos et al 2022; Durgante et al 2023). Studies designed in this way have shown the latitudinal congruence between 14 C levels in trees across the tropics (Andreu-Hayles et al 2015), the dendrochronological potential of tropical species (Linares et al 2017), and provided evidence for local fossil CO 2 emissions (Santos et al 2022).…”

Hydrological and climate intensification induces conservative behavior in the Hydrochorea corymbosa xylem production in a Central Amazon floodplain forest

“…Trees adjust diameter growth and xylem anatomy according to environmental conditions (Mencuccini and Grace, 1995;White et al, 1998;Bryukhanova and Fonti, 2013;Venegas-Gonzaĺez et al, 2015;Durgante et al, 2023;Alves et al, 2024). In non-flooded forests, when the climatic conditions are favorable for growth, trees develop more acquisitive xylem anatomy, such as larger vessel diameters and smaller amounts of axial parenchyma (Chave et al, 2009;Poorter et al, 2010;Klein et al, 2018a;Silva da Costa et al, 2020).…”