Photosynthetic seasonality of global tropical forests constrained by hydroclimate

ABSTRACT The response of tropical forests to droughts is highly uncertain1. During the dry season, canopy photosynthesis of some tropical forests can decline, whereas in others it can be

maintained at the same or a higher level than during the wet season2. However, it remains uncertain to what extent water availability is responsible for productivity declines of tropical

forests during the dry season2,3. Here we use global satellite observations of two independent measures of vegetation photosynthetic properties (enhanced vegetation index from 2002 to 2012

and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence from 2007 to 2012) to investigate links between hydroclimate and tropical forest productivity. We find that above an annual rainfall threshold of

approximately 2,000 mm yr−1, the evergreen state is sustained during the dry season in tropical rainforests worldwide, whereas below that threshold, this is not the case. Through a

water-budget analysis of precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and satellite measurements of water storage change, we demonstrate that this threshold determines whether the supply of

seasonally redistributed subsurface water storage from the wet season can satisfy plant water demands in the subsequent dry season. We conclude that water availability exerts a first-order

control on vegetation seasonality in tropical forests globally. Our framework can also help identify where tropical forests may be vulnerable or resilient to future hydroclimatic changes.

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support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR RESILIENCE OF TROPICAL FOREST PHOTOSYNTHESIS IN A WARMER WORLD Article 12 October 2020 TROPICAL FORESTS ARE APPROACHING

CRITICAL TEMPERATURE THRESHOLDS Article 23 August 2023 BACKGROUND CLIMATE CONDITIONS REGULATED THE PHOTOSYNTHETIC RESPONSE OF AMAZON FORESTS TO THE 2015/2016 EL NINO-SOUTHERN OSCILLATION

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Fellowship (NESSF). J.S.K.’s contribution is supported under the NASA Terra-Aqua Science program (NNX11AD46G). S.R.S. and J.W. acknowledge support by NASA Terra-Aqua Science program

(NNX11AH24G) and by DOE Terrestrial Ecosystem Science (DE-SC0008383). We also acknowledge all the data providers for sharing the scientific data. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS

* Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA Kaiyu Guan, Ming Pan, Kelly K. Caylor, Justin Sheffield, Eric F. Wood & 

Miaoling Liang * Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA Kaiyu Guan * Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University,

Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA Haibin Li * Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA Adam Wolf * Department of Ecology and

Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Jin Wu & Scott R. Saleska * Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

David Medvigy * School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road Oxford OX1 3QY, UK, Yadvinder Malhi * The University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological

Station, Polson, Montana 59860, USA John S. Kimball * Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812, USA John S. Kimball * Department of Global

Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 260 Panama Street Stanford, California 94305, USA, Joe Berry * National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center,

Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA Joanna Joiner & Alexei I. Lyapustin Authors * Kaiyu Guan View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ming Pan

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CONTRIBUTIONS K.G., M.P. and H.L. conceived the idea; K.G. conducted the analyses; J.W., M.L., S.R.S., J.J. and A.I.L. provided the data; all authors contributed to the writing and 

revisions. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Kaiyu Guan. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Information (PDF 3525 kb) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Guan, K., Pan, M., Li, H. _et al._

Photosynthetic seasonality of global tropical forests constrained by hydroclimate. _Nature Geosci_ 8, 284–289 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2382 Download citation * Received: 21

October 2014 * Accepted: 02 February 2015 * Published: 09 March 2015 * Issue Date: April 2015 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2382 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link

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