Drought in Tropical Dry Forests:
How do extreme climate events shape the future of tropical forest communities?
Tropical dry forest tree species have adaptations that allow them to tolerate seasonal drought. But what happens if the rains fail to come?
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As the global climate changes, many areas of the topics are expected to grow drier. Understanding that different biomes may react differently to those changes is crucial to predicting what the tropics will look like in the future. In this case study students will learn about the tropical dry forest biome, a tropical environment characterized by seasonal drought. Using the example of an extreme drought event, students will explore different forms of spatial and temporal variability: variation within a biome, long-term change driven by climate change, year-to-year variation in climate and the role of extreme climatic events.
Students will additionally explore the role of long-term ecological monitoring in documenting the effects of these changes and evaluate different monitoring schemes. What kind of monitoring scheme is necessary to capture variation at all of these different levels?
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