Windthrow Variability in Central Amazonia

Negrón‐Juárez, Robinson I.; Jenkins, Hillary S.; Raupp, Carlos F. M.; Riley, William J.; Kueppers, Lara M.; Marra, Daniel Magnabosco; Ribeiro, Gustavo Lins; Monteiro, Maria Terezinha Ferreira; Candido, Luis A.; Chambers, Jeffrey Q.; Higuchi, Níro

doi:10.3390/atmos8020028

Cited by 42 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Quantifying these patterns is increasingly important because climatic change is expected to alter tree mortality rates (Breshears et al , ; van Mantgem et al , ) with profound consequences for forest physiognomy and ecosystem function (Dale et al , ; Phillips et al , ; McDowell et al , ). Historically, agents such as windthrow and drought were considered the primary causes of tree mortality in most broadleaf tropical forests (Phillips et al , ; Bennett et al , ; Negrón‐Juárez et al , ), but supporting data are limited (McDowell et al , ). Here, we show that a neglected phenomenon – lightning – is the single most important cause of large tree mortality in an old‐growth lowland tropical forest of central Panama.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning is a major cause of large tree mortality in a lowland neotropical forest

et al. 2019

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The mortality rates of large trees are critical to determining carbon stocks in tropical forests, but the mechanisms of tropical tree mortality remain poorly understood. Lightning strikes thousands of tropical trees every day, but is commonly assumed to be a minor agent of tree mortality in most tropical forests.We use the first systematic quantification of lightning-caused mortality to show that lightning is a major cause of death for the largest trees in an old-growth lowland forest in Panama. A novel lightning strike location system together with field surveys of strike sites revealed that, on average, each strike directly kills 3.5 trees (> 10 cm diameter) and damages 11.4 more.Given lightning frequency data from the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network and historical total tree mortality rates for this site, we conclude that lightning accounts for 40.5% of the mortality of large trees (> 60 cm diameter) in the short term and probably contributes to an additional 9.0% of large tree deaths over the long term.Any changes in cloud-to-ground lightning frequency due to climatic change will alter tree mortality rates; projected 25-50% increases in lightning frequency would increase large tree mortality rates in this forest by 9-18%. The results of this study indicate that lightning plays a critical and previously underestimated role in tropical forest dynamics and carbon cycling.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning is a major cause of large tree mortality in a lowland neotropical forest

et al. 2019

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“…One major contributor of tree mortality in the Amazon are downbursts (strong descending winds) associated with severe convective systems as squall lines (Garstang et al 1998, Negrón-Juárez et al 2017, Cohen et al 1989. Downbursts create gaps of uprooted or broken trees, windthrows (Mitchell 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability of Amazon forests to storm-driven tree mortality

Negrón‐Juárez

Holm

Marra

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Tree mortality is a key driver of forest community composition and carbon dynamics. Strong winds associated with severe convective storms are dominant natural drivers of tree mortality in the Amazon. Why forests vary with respect to their vulnerability to wind events and how the predicted increase in storm events might affect forest ecosystems within the Amazon are not well understood. We found that windthrows are common in the Amazon region extending from northwest (Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and west Brazil) to central Brazil, with the highest occurrence of windthrows in the northwest Amazon. More frequent winds, produced by more frequent severe convective systems, in combination with well-known processes that limit the anchoring of trees in the soil, help to explain the higher vulnerability of the northwest Amazon forests to winds. Projected increases in the frequency and intensity of convective storms in the Amazon have the potential to increase wind-related tree mortality. A forest demographic model calibrated for the northwestern and the central Amazon showed that northwestern forests are more resilient to increased wind-related tree mortality than forests in the central Amazon. Our study emphasizes the importance of including wind-related tree mortality in model simulations for reliable predictions of the future of tropical forests and their effects on the Earth' system. A R 1995 Classification of multispectral images based on fractions of endmembers-application to land-cover change in the Brazilian amazon Remote Sens. Environ. 52 137-54 Aragao L E O C et al 2009 Above-and below-ground net primary productivity across ten Amazonian forests on contrasting soils Biogeosciences 6 2759-78 Baker T R et al 2004 Variation in wood density determines spatial patterns in Amazonian forest biomass Glob. Change Biol. 10 545-62 Boose E R, Serrano M I and Foster D R 2004 Landscape and regional impacts of hurricanes in Puerto Rico Ecol. Monogr. 74 335-52 Carlotto M J 1999 Reducing the effects of space-varying, wavelength-dependent scattering in multispectral imagery Int. J. Remote Sens. 20 3333-44 Chambers J Q, dos Santos J, Ribeiro R J and Higuchi N 2001 Tree damage, allometric relationships, and above-ground net primary production in central Amazon forest Forest Ecol.

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“…July to September (Negrón-Juárez et al, 2017). The topography is relatively flat with landforms ranging from 50-105 m above sea level (Laurance et al, 2011;Renno et al, 2008;Laurance et al, 2007), and the mean canopy height is ~ 30 m, with emergent trees reaching 55 m (Laurance et al, 2011;Lima et al, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The topography is relatively flat with landforms ranging from 50-105 m above sea level (Laurance et al, 2011;Renno et al, 2008;Laurance et al, 2007), and the mean canopy height is ~ 30 m, with emergent trees reaching 55 m (Laurance et al, 2011;Lima et al, 2007). The soil and floristic composition in this region are summarized in Negrón-Juárez et al (2017). In the BDFFP areas there are 26118 species per hectare and 608  52 stems ha −1 (trees ≥ 10 cm in DBH) (Laurance et al, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…L5 and L7 measurements provide the fraction of energy reflected by the surface and ranges from 0 (0%) to 10000 (100%). Only scenes from June, July, and August were used since these months present less cloud cover over our study area (Negrón-Juárez et al, 2017). This procedure also reduces effects associated with illumination or phenology since images correspond to the same period each year.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Landsat NIR band and ELM-FATES sensitivity to forest disturbances and regrowth in the Central Amazon

Negrón‐Juárez

Holm

Faybishenko

et al. 2019

Preprint

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<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Forest disturbance and regrowth are key processes in forest dynamics but detailed information of these processes is difficult to obtain in remote forests as the Amazon. We used chronosequences of Landsat satellite imagery to determine the sensitivity of surface reflectance from all spectral bands to windthrow, clearcutting, and burning and their successional pathways of forest regrowth in the Central Amazon. We also assess whether the forest demography model Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES) implemented in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) Land Model (ELM), ELM-FATES, accurately represents the changes for windthrow and clearcut. The results show that all spectral bands from Landsat satellite were sensitive to the disturbances but after 3 to 6 years only the Near Infrared (NIR) band had significant changes associated with the successional pathways of forest regrowth for all the disturbances considered. In general, the NIR decreased immediately after disturbance, increased to maximum values with the establishment of pioneers and early-successional tree species, and then decreased slowly and almost linearly to pre-disturbance conditions with the dynamics of forest succession. Statistical methods predict that NIR will return to pre-disturbance values in about 39 years (consistent with observational data of biomass regrowth following windthrows), and 36 and 56 years for clearcut and burning. The NIR captured the observed successional pathways of forest regrowth after clearcut and burning that diverge through time. ELM-FATES predicted higher peaks of initial forest responses (e.g., biomass, stem density) after clearcuts than after windthrows, similar to the changes in NIR. However, ELM-FATES predicted a faster recovery of forest structure and canopy-coverage back to pre-disturbance conditions for windthrows compared to clearcuts. The similarity of ELM-FATES predictions of regrowth patterns after windthrow and clearcut to those of the NIR results suggest that the dynamics of forest regrowth for these disturbances are represented with appropriate fidelity within ELM-FATES and useful as a benchmarking tool.</p>

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Windthrow Variability in Central Amazonia

Cited by 42 publications

References 78 publications

Lightning is a major cause of large tree mortality in a lowland neotropical forest

Lightning is a major cause of large tree mortality in a lowland neotropical forest

Vulnerability of Amazon forests to storm-driven tree mortality

Landsat NIR band and ELM-FATES sensitivity to forest disturbances and regrowth in the Central Amazon

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