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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

The Calibration and Use of Capacitance Sensors to Monitor Stem Water Content in Trees
Published on: December 27, 2017
FOREST ECOLOGY. Pervasive drought legacies in forest ecosystems and their implications for carbon cycle models
W R L Anderegg1, C Schwalm2, F Biondi3
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Terrestrial ecosystems show lasting "legacy effects" after severe drought, with reduced growth persisting for years. Current climate models fail to capture this delayed recovery, impacting carbon cycle predictions.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Climate Science
- Forestry
Background:
- Climate extremes significantly impact terrestrial ecosystems, yet their long-term effects on the carbon cycle are not fully understood.
- Predicting carbon cycle feedbacks to climate change requires accurate modeling of vegetation responses to extreme events.
- Current climate-vegetation models often oversimplify post-drought recovery, assuming immediate and complete regrowth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the duration and extent of tree growth recovery after severe drought events globally.
- To compare real-world tree recovery patterns with simulations from current climate-vegetation models.
- To identify factors influencing the prevalence and severity of drought legacy effects in forest ecosystems.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of stem growth data from 1338 forest sites worldwide (49,339 site-years).
- Comparison of observed post-drought recovery with simulations from established climate-vegetation models.
- Identification of ecosystem types, tree families (Pinaceae), and species traits (hydraulic safety margins) associated with legacy effects.
Main Results:
- Pervasive and substantial legacy effects of reduced tree growth were observed for 1-4 years post-drought.
- These legacy effects were most pronounced in dry ecosystems, among Pinaceae, and species with low hydraulic safety margins.
- Climate-vegetation models significantly underestimated or failed to simulate these drought legacy effects.
Conclusions:
- Ecosystems exhibit hysteresis in carbon cycling due to delayed recovery from climate extremes like drought.
- Observed legacy effects necessitate improvements in climate-vegetation models for accurate climate change impact assessments.
- Understanding delayed recovery is crucial for predicting future terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics and climate feedbacks.
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