Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Ecology

Drought and dead trees

Subjects

Drought has emerged as a major threat to the world's forests. A study shows that tree mortality in Canada's boreal forests has increased by nearly 5% per year — much higher than expected — owing to water stress from regional warming.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Conceptual schematic showing how tree mortality might vary with temperature, drought duration and intensity, and precipitation.

References

  1. Peng, C. et al. Nature Clim. Change 1, 467–471 10.1038/nclimate1293 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Allen, C. et al. Forest Ecol. Manage. 259, 660–684 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Pan, Y. et al. Science 333, 988–993 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schaberg. et al. Ecosyst. Health. 7, 214–228 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. McDowell, N. et al. Trends Ecol. Evol. 26, 523–532 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Van Mantgem, P. et al. Science 323, 521–524 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Michaelian, M. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 17, 2084–2094 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Phillips, O. et al. Science 323, 1344–1347 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Bentz, B. et al. BioScience 60, 602–613 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Westerling, A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 13165–13170 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Harmon, M. et al. J. Geophys. Res. 116, G00K04 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Stinson, G. et al. Glob. Change Biol. 17, 2227–2244 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Birdsey.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Birdsey, R., Pan, Y. Drought and dead trees. Nature Clim Change 1, 444–445 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1298

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1298

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing