Functional traits and climate drive interspecific differences in disturbance‐induced tree mortality

• Published in: Global change biology Vol. 29; no. 10; pp. 2836 - 2851
• Main Authors: Barrere, Julien, Reineking, Björn, Cordonnier, Thomas, Kulha, Niko, Honkaniemi, Juha, Peltoniemi, Mikko, Korhonen, Kari T., Ruiz‐Benito, Paloma, Zavala, Miguel A., Kunstler, Georges
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2023; Wiley
• Subjects: Bark; Bayesian inference; climate; Climate Change; Community composition; Composition; Coniferous trees; conifers; disturbance vulnerability; Disturbances; Ecosystem disturbance; environmental change; Environmental Sciences; Fire resistance; Fires; forest dynamics; Forest ecosystems; forest inventory; Forests; Life Sciences; Mortality; National Forest Inventory; National forests; Natural disturbance; Plant species; Probability; Probability theory; Sensitivity; Small mammals; snow; Species composition; species diversity; Stand structure; Storms; trait ecology; tree mortality; trees; wood density; National Forest Inventory; disturbance vulnerability; trait ecology; tree mortality; Bayesian inference; environmental change
• ISSN: 1354-1013; 1365-2486; 1365-2486
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16630

With climate change, natural disturbances such as storm or fire are reshuffled, inducing pervasive shifts in forest dynamics. To predict how it will impact forest structure and composition, it is crucial to understand how tree species differ in their sensitivity to disturbances. In this study, we investigated how functional traits and species mean climate affect their sensitivity to disturbances while controlling for tree size and stand structure. With data on 130,594 trees located on 7617 plots that were disturbed by storm, fire, snow, biotic or other disturbances from the French, Spanish, and Finnish National Forest Inventory, we modeled annual mortality probability for 40 European tree species as a function of tree size, dominance status, disturbance type, and intensity. We tested the correlation of our estimated species probability of disturbance mortality with their traits and their mean climate niches. We found that different trait combinations controlled species sensitivity to disturbances. Storm‐sensitive species had a high height‐dbh ratio, low wood density and high maximum growth, while fire‐sensitive species had low bark thickness and high P50. Species from warmer and drier climates, where fires are more frequent, were more resistant to fire. The ranking in disturbance sensitivity between species was overall consistent across disturbance types. Productive conifer species were the most disturbance sensitive, while Mediterranean oaks were the least disturbance sensitive. Our study identified key relations between species functional traits and disturbance sensitivity, that allows more reliable predictions of how changing climate and disturbance regimes will impact future forest structure and species composition at large spatial scales. In a context of changing disturbance regimes across Europe, we investigated why tree species differ in their resistance to biotic and abiotic disturbances. Using forest inventory data from Spain, France, and Finland, we showed that resistance to most disturbance types was higher for conservative species (e.g., with high bark thickness and slow growth) and lower for productive species (e.g., high height to diameter ratio). Species resistance was also related to their mean climate, with species from arid and fire‐prone environments being more resistant to fire. Our results should help forecast how changing disturbance regimes will impact future forest composition.