Nate G. McDowell

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first global assessment of recent tree mortality attributed to drought and heat stress and identify key information gaps and scientific uncertainties that currently hinder our ability to predict tree mortality in response to climate change and emphasizes the need for a globally coordinated observation system.

TL;DR: A hydraulically based theory considering carbon balance and insect resistance that allowed development and examination of hypotheses regarding survival and mortality was developed, and incorporating this hydraulic framework may be effective for modeling plant survival andortality under future climate conditions.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify ten contrasting perspectives that shape the vulnerability debate but have not been discussed collectively and present a set of global vulnerability drivers that are known with high confidence: (1) droughts eventually occur everywhere; (2) warming produces hotter Droughts; (3) atmospheric moisture demand increases nonlinearly with temperature during drought; (4) mortality can occur faster in hotter Drought, consistent with fundamental physiology; (5) shorter Drought can become lethal under warming, increasing the frequency of lethal Drought; and (6) mortality happens rapidly

TL;DR: In this article, the authors derived a forest drought-stress index (FDSI) for the southwestern United States using a comprehensive tree-ring data set representing AD 1000-2007, which is approximately equally influenced by the warm-season vapour-pressure deficit (largely controlled by temperature) and cold-season precipitation, together explaining 82% of the FDSI variability.

TL;DR: Events of regional-scale vegetation mortality appear to be increasing in a variety of biomes throughout the Earth and are frequently associated with increased temperatures, droughts, and often with outbreaks of biotic agents such as insects and pathogens.