Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39898424›Full record

ArticleGlobal change biology2025

Satellite Observations Reveal a Positive Relationship Between Trait-Based Diversity and Drought Response in Temperate Forests.

Isabelle S Helfenstein, Joan T Sturm, Bernhard Schmid, Alexander Damm, Meredith C Schuman, Felix Morsdorf

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Global change biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Isabelle S HelfensteinRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-7089-5768
Joan T SturmRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-4245-7757
Bernhard SchmidRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-8430-3214
Alexander DammRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-8965-3427
Meredith C SchumanRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-3159-3534
Felix MorsdorfRemote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-6713-1599

Funding

NOMIS FoundationUniversity of Zurich
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Climate extremes such as droughts are expected to increase in frequency and intensity with global change. Therefore, it is important to map and predict ecosystem responses to such extreme events to maintain ecosystem functions and services. Alongside abiotic factors, biotic factors such as the proportion of needle and broadleaf trees were found to affect forest drought responses, corroborating results from biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments. Yet it remains unclear to what extent the behavior of non-experimental systems at large scales corresponds to the relationships discovered in BEF experiments. Using remote sensing, the trait-based functional diversity of forest ecosystems can be directly quantified. We investigated the relationship between remotely sensed functional richness and evenness and forest drought responses using data from temperate mixed forests in Switzerland, which experienced an extremely hot and dry summer in 2018. We used Sentinel-2 satellite data to assess aspects of functional diversity and quantified drought response in terms of resistance, recovery, and resilience from 2017 to 2020 in a scalable approach. We then analyzed the BEF relationship between functional diversity measures and drought response for different aggregation levels of richness and evenness of three physiological canopy traits (chlorophyll, carotenoid/chlorophyll ratio, and equivalent water thickness). Forest stands with greater trait richness were more resistant and resilient to the drought event, and the relationship of trait evenness with resistance or resilience was hump-shaped or negative, respectively. These results suggest forest functional diversity can support forests in such drought responses via a mixture of complementarity and dominance effects, the first indicated by positive richness effects and the second by negative evenness effects. Our results link ecosystem functioning and biodiversity at large scales and provide new insights into the BEF relationships in non-experimental forest ecosystems.

Indexed as

BiodiversityDroughtsForestsTreesClimate ChangeRemote Sensing TechnologySatellite ImagerySwitzerlandbiodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF)ecological monitoringfunctional diversityplant traitsremote sensingSentinel‐2

Identifiers

PMID39898424
PMCPMC11789211

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.