Diversity of growth responses to recent droughts reveals the capacity of Atlantic Forest trees to cope well with current climatic variability

Understanding the behavior of trees and how they will respond to future climate change is a crucial conservation challenge, especially for tropical species. Despite the high diversity of tree species in Brazil, little is known about their tolerance limits. The study of tree rings is a valuable method for the analysis of growth dynamics with superposed epoch analysis being a good way to understand whether past dry years induce decreased tree growth, how long it takes to recover growth after a dry period, and the resilience of trees. This study investigated seven legume species (deciduous and evergreen) from three different sites in the Atlantic Forest in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The studied trees seem to have coped well with the drought periods experienced thus far with no common pattern of recovery among species at the same site. The trees were not affected in a similar way and so different mechanisms are likely involved in preventing significant decreases in growth. These data are important for conservation policies because they reveal that each species requires a unique analysis.
We thank the Laboratorio de Botanica Estrutural from Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro and the CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico Tecnologico) for the PDJ and Pesquisador Visitante fellowships, as well as CAPES (Coordenaçao de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), PPBIO (Programa de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade), and FAPERJ (Fundaçao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo `a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) for the research fellowship grant.