Tropical Dry Forest Diversity, Climatic Response, and Resilience in a Changing Climate

Abstract

Central and South America tropical dry forest (TDF) is a water-limited biome with a high number of endemic species and numerous ecosystem services which has experienced a boom in research in the last decade. Although the number of case studies across these seasonal, water-limited, tropical forests has increased, there has not been a comprehensive review to assess the physiological variability of this biome across the continent and assess how these forests respond to climatic variables. Additionally, understanding forest change and resilience under climatic variability, currently and in the future, is essential for assessing the future extent and health of forests in the future. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to provide a literature review on the variability of TDF diversity and structure across a latitudinal gradient and to assess how these components respond to differences in climatic variables across this geographic area. We first assess the current state of understanding of the structure, biomass, phenological cycles, and successional stages across the latitudinal gradient. We subsequently review the response of these five areas to differences in precipitation, temperature, and extreme weather events, such as droughts and hurricanes. We find that there is a range of adaptability to precipitation, with many areas exhibiting drought tolerance except under the most extreme circumstances, while being susceptible to damage from increased extreme precipitation events. Finally, we use this climatic response to provide a commentary on the projected resilience of TDFs under climatic changes, finding a likelihood of resilience under drying scenarios, although model projections do not agree on the magnitude or direction of precipitation change. This review of quantitative studies will provide more concrete details on the current diversity that encompasses the TDF, the natural climatic ranges under which this ecosystem can survive and thrive, and can help inform future forest management practices under climate change scenarios.

Disentangling the influence of ecological and historical factors on seed germination and seedling types in a Neotropical dry forest

“…The strategy observed in herb species could allow them to efficiently use temporarily available water, since the rainy season in the tropical dry forests is characterized by episodes of precipitation followed by periods of drought. However, a change in the distribution of precipitation is currently occurring due to global climate change, and rain episodes are now more frequently followed by prolonged periods of drought [61]. In this context, we observed high mortality in some herb species (e.g.…”

Impact of Severe Drought during the Strong 2015/2016 El Nino on the Phenology and Survival of Secondary Dry Dipterocarp Species in Western Thailand

“…How phenology of TDFs is responding to climate fluctuations and extreme events is still poorly understood compared to the phenology of plants from savanna and moist forests in the tropical regions [3,15]. Although studies focusing on TDFs phenology have recently increased, most of them were located in Africa and tropical America particularly in Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil [16]. Only a few have examined TDFs phenology in SEA [17].…”

Flooding regime drives tree community structure in Neotropical dry forests

“…In our study, therefore, diversity patterns appeared to be more sensitive to waterlogging and flood pulse perturbation than to drought stress. This is possibly because species in semi-arid regions may be better adapted to seasonal drought than to floods (Stan & Sanchez-Azofeifa, 2019). Wittmann et al (2010) proposed that flooded areas in the Amazon Basin act as a refuge for waterlogging-adapted flora in periods of marked drought.…”

“…Plant community and vegetation structure have received a lot of attention due to their importance in ecosystem functioning, in environments changed by disturbances such as fire, floods and land use (Araújo, Tng, et al., ; Chazdon, ), and soil‐related stress (Araújo, Mendes, et al., ; De Jager, Thomsen, & Yin, ). Understanding how disturbance–stress gradients shaping vegetation structure underlie ecosystems processes, is important for management and ecological applications, particularly in current times, in which climate change is predicted to have drastic impacts on vegetation systems globally (Laurance et al., ; Stan & Sanchez‐Azofeifa, ).…”