Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42745816›Full record

ArticleCommunications earth & environment2026

Amazonian trees under long-term drought exposure are more resilient to El Niño extreme.

Lion R Martius, Pablo Sanchez-Martinez, Vanessa Negrão-Rodrigues, Paulo Bittencourt, Wout Cherlet, Wouter van den Broeck, Zane Cooper, Louise Terryn, Caterina Buranelli, Calil Torres-Amaral and 16 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Communications earth & environment, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing 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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

26 authors.

Lion R MartiusSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0009-0004-5517-0514
Pablo Sanchez-MartinezSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-0157-7800
Vanessa Negrão-RodriguesUniversidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Belém, Pará Brazil.ORCID 0000-0003-0400-9152
Paulo BittencourtSchool of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1618-9077
Wout CherletQ-ForestLab - Laboratory of Quantitative Forest Ecosystem Science, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Wouter van den BroeckQ-ForestLab - Laboratory of Quantitative Forest Ecosystem Science, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0003-2817-9658
Zane CooperQ-ForestLab - Laboratory of Quantitative Forest Ecosystem Science, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Louise TerrynQ-ForestLab - Laboratory of Quantitative Forest Ecosystem Science, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0001-8405-2788
Caterina BuranelliSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID 0009-0000-1329-3517
Calil Torres-AmaralInstituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará Brazil.
Ross DeansSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Oliver BinksCREAF, Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del, Vallés, Spain.
Mateus C SilvaDepartment of Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
Anthony Barbosa da SilvaUniversidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Belém, Pará Brazil.ORCID 0009-0007-2809-612X
Renan Domingues PachecoUniversidade Federal Rural da Amazônia, Belém, Pará Brazil.ORCID 0009-0009-5809-9692
Grazielle Sales TeodoroInstituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Pará Brazil.ORCID 0000-0002-5528-8828
João Athaydes Silva JuniorMuseu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará Brazil.
Kim CaldersQ-ForestLab - Laboratory of Quantitative Forest Ecosystem Science, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0002-4562-2538
Mathias DisneyDepartment of Geography, University College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2407-4026
Sassan SaatchiJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA USA.
Edward T A MitchardSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Rafael S OliveiraDepartment of Plant Biology, Institute of Biology, CP 6109, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.ORCID 0000-0002-6392-2526
Lucy RowlandDepartment of Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-0774-3216
Antonio Carlos Lola da CostaMuseu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Pará Brazil.
Maurizio MencucciniCREAF, Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del, Vallés, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-0840-1477
Patrick MeirSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The rising frequency and intensity of extreme droughts across the Amazon raises uncertainty about the capacity of tropical forests to adjust to future climate. Here, we combined the severe 2023 El Niño drought with a multi-decadal throughfall-exclusion experiment to compare eco-physiological resilience between pre-exposed drought-primed trees (PT) and untreated controls (CT). During El Niño, PTs reduced transpiration by 25%, while CTs declined by up to 54% relative to pre-drought levels. Post-drought, PTs fully recovered transpiration, whereas CTs recovered only to 77.5%, showing legacy effects and pronounced leaf area loss. These differences were reinforced by long-term structural changes (i.e., mortality) in the TFE, which reduced water competition during extreme drought. Tree structural data revealed a significantly smaller crown-to-stem size ratio in PTs, reducing sensitivity to evaporative demand and underpinning their enhanced drought resistance and resilience. These findings reveal that physiological resilience to extreme events can emerge from long-term drought exposure through structural adjustments at both ecosystem and individual tree scale.

Indexed as

PhenologyPlant physiologyTropical ecology

Identifiers

PMID42745816
PMCPMC13574715

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.