A long-term study finds that seedling mortality increased when severe and prolonged drought occurred in Southeast Asian seasonally dry tropical forests, which are deemed more drought-tolerant than tropical rainforests.
A long-term study finds that seedling mortality increased when severe and prolonged drought occurred in Southeast Asian seasonally dry tropical forests, which are deemed more drought-tolerant than tropical rainforests.
Global climate change may lead to more extreme weather events such as droughts. To predict the impact of climate change on tropical forests, it is necessary to understand more accurately the effects of drought. El Niño often reduces rainfall and causes drier forests in the tropical regions of Southeast Asia. Since tropical rainforests there usually experience rainfall year-round with no dry season, El Niño-induced drought increases tree mortality. Seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs), on the other hand, are considered more adaptive to drought given that they experience both wet and dry seasons. However, there remains limited understanding about the effects of El Niño on SDTFs.
Addressing this knowledge gap, a research team led by graduate student Prapawadee Nutiprapun, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka City University, Professor Akira Itoh, from the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University, and Professor Dokrak Marod, from the Faculty of Forestry at Kasetsart University, monitored seedling recruitment and mortality at an SDTF in a national park in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, at monthly intervals for 7 years.
Read more at Osaka Metropolitan University
Photo Credit: SunShine_30 via Pixabay
