Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2118
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2118
01 Aug 2024
 | 01 Aug 2024

Sensitivity of tropical woodland savannas to El Niño droughts

Simone Matias Reis, Yadvinder Malhi, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Beatriz S. Marimon, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Renata Freitag, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Luciana Januário de Souza, Ediméia Laura Souza da Silva, Eduarda Bernardes Santos, Kamila Parreira da Silva, Maélly Dállet Alves Gonçalves, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Oliver L. Phillips, and Imma Oliveras Menor

Abstract. The 2015–2016 El Niño event led to one of the most intense and hottest droughts for many tropical forests, profoundly impacting forest productivity. However, we know little about how this event affected the Cerrado, the largest savanna in South America. Here we report 5 years of productivity of the dominant vegetation types in Cerrado, savanna (cerrado) and transitional forest-savanna (cerradão), continuously tracked before, during, and after the El Niño. We carried out intensive monitoring between 2014 and 2019 of the productivity of key vegetation components (stems, leaves, roots). Before the El Niño total productivity was ~25 % higher in the cerradão compared to the cerrado. However, cerradão productivity declined strongly by 29 % during the El Niño event. The most impacted component was stem productivity, reducing by 58 %. By contrast, cerrado productivity varied little over the years, and while the most affected component was fine roots, declining by 38 % during the event, fine root productivity recovered soon after the El Niño. The two vegetation types also showed contrasting patterns in the allocation of productivity to canopy, wood, and fine-root production. Our findings demonstrate that cerradão can show low resistance and resilience to climatic disturbances due to the slow recovery of productivity. This suggests that the transitional Amazon-Cerrado ecosystems between South America’s largest biomes may be particularly vulnerable to drought enhanced by climate change.

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Simone Matias Reis, Yadvinder Malhi, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Beatriz S. Marimon, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Renata Freitag, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Luciana Januário de Souza, Ediméia Laura Souza da Silva, Eduarda Bernardes Santos, Kamila Parreira da Silva, Maélly Dállet Alves Gonçalves, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Oliver L. Phillips, and Imma Oliveras Menor

Status: final response (author comments only)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-2118', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Sep 2024
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-2118', Anonymous Referee #2, 23 Sep 2024
Simone Matias Reis, Yadvinder Malhi, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Beatriz S. Marimon, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Renata Freitag, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Luciana Januário de Souza, Ediméia Laura Souza da Silva, Eduarda Bernardes Santos, Kamila Parreira da Silva, Maélly Dállet Alves Gonçalves, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Oliver L. Phillips, and Imma Oliveras Menor
Simone Matias Reis, Yadvinder Malhi, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Beatriz S. Marimon, Huanyuan Zhang-Zheng, Renata Freitag, Cécile A. J. Girardin, Edmar Almeida de Oliveira, Karine da Silva Peixoto, Luciana Januário de Souza, Ediméia Laura Souza da Silva, Eduarda Bernardes Santos, Kamila Parreira da Silva, Maélly Dállet Alves Gonçalves, Cecilia A. L. Dahlsjö, Oliver L. Phillips, and Imma Oliveras Menor

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Short summary
The 2015–2016 El Niño caused severe droughts in tropical forests, but its impact on the Cerrado, largest savanna, was unclear. Our study tracked the productivity of two key Cerrado vegetation types over five years. Before El Niño, productivity was higher in the transitional forest-savanna, but it dropped sharply during the event. Meanwhile, the savanna showed minor changes. These findings suggest that transitional ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to drought and climate change.