[MCN] A quick! update on North American forests

[Lance Olsen]

Anderegg et al cite recent widespread, 
drought-driven dieoff in a widespread North 
American tree, the aspen. Berdanier and Clark in 
press, cite recent widespread. drought-driven 
dieoff across several tree species of the 
Southeast US. Science just published a scenario 
of the boreal forest becoming a savannah, and, 
according to a news release I saw somewhere, 
another journal had earlier published a scenario, 
at boreal latitudes, of aspen expansion following 
dieoff of the currently competing conifers.
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"We find that hydraulic damage persisted and 
increased in dying trees over multiple years and 
exhibited few signs of repair  Š.  Contrary to 
the expectation that surviving trees have 
weathered severe drought, the hydraulic 
deterioration demonstrated here reveals that 
surviving regions of these forests are actually 
more vulnerable to future droughts due to 
accumulated xylem damage."

WILLIAM R. L. ANDEREGG et al. Drought's legacy: 
multiyear hydraulic deterioration underlies 
widespread aspen forest die-off and portends 
increased future risk. Global Change Biology 
(2013) 19, 1188-1196, doi: 10.1111/gcb.12100

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