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Drought and dead trees

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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.

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

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard Birdsey and Yude Pan are with the United States Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073, USA,

    Richard Birdsey & Yude Pan

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  1. Richard Birdsey
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  2. Yude Pan
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Correspondence to Richard Birdsey.

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

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