Concluding synthesis: Evidence across experiments - which species and conditions lead to hydraulic failure and carbon starvation?

Background/Question/Methods

In 2008 McDowell et al. proposed a conceptual model of drought mortality suggesting  carbon starvation and hydraulic failure as mechanisms which lead to mortality. Since then, this framework has evolved to include feedback loops and interactions, as well as other processes including infestation from pests and disease.

Results/Conclusions

This session will describe outstanding questions regarding mechanisms of drought-related forest mortality, as well as results from manipulative and field experiments, as well as modelling, conceptual frameworks, and syntheses of current thinking and descriptions of what we have learned to date. Experimental results from conifers and angiosperms from across the United States, Germany and Australia are described.

Evidence will be compared from across plant functional types, describing which species, sites and conditions lead to hydraulic failure, which lead to carbon starvation, and the role that infestation may play, as well as the inter-related links between these processes.