The sensitivity of wood production to seasonal and interannual variations in climate in a lowland Amazonian rainforest

Lucy Rowland, Y Malhi, J E Silva-Espejo, F Farfán-Amézquita, K Halladay, C E Doughty, P Meir, O L Phillips

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Understanding climatic controls on tropical forest productivity is key to developing more reliable models for predicting how tropical biomes may respond to climate change. Currently there is no consensus on which factors control seasonal changes in tropical forest tree growth. This study reports the first comprehensive plot-level description of the seasonality of growth in a Peruvian tropical forest. We test whether seasonal and interannual variations in climate are correlated with changes in biomass increment, and whether such relationships differ among trees with different functional traits. We found that biomass increments, measured every 3 months on the two plots, were reduced by between 40 and 55 % in the peak dry season (July-September) relative to peak wet season (January-March). The seasonal patterns of biomass accumulation are significantly (p 
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)295-306
JournalOecologia
Volume174
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Sept 2013

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