Tropical Trees More Adaptable to Droughts than Previously Thought
Researchers found 17 of 18 tropical tree species adjusted water-transport traits to local rainfall, challenging the idea that drought resistance stays fixed within species.
- A new study published in Nature reveals that tropical trees are more adaptable to drought than scientists previously believed, with 17 of the 18 species studied adjusting internal water transport systems to match local rainfall conditions.
- Ecologists previously assumed hydraulic traits were fixed within species, but study senior author Maria Uriarte of Columbia University said, "The prevailing view has been that these critical drought-resistance traits don't change much within species. We found exactly the opposite."
- Researchers from the United States, Sweden, and Australia measured 11 hydraulic traits in nearly 300 trees across Puerto Rico, with species adapting to environments ranging from "everwet" to dry forests .
- Study leader Chris Smith-Martin of the University of Minnesota said building tree flexibility into climate models could "sharpen" understanding of forest resilience and carbon storage as climate changes.
- This discovery offers "unexpected hope" amid global warming, yet ecologists still fear severe droughts threaten carbon absorption; the trees' adaptive capacity suggests they may better endure changing climates than previously recognized.
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Tropical trees more adaptable to droughts than previously thought
Tropical forests store enormous amounts of carbon and harbor most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity.
Tropical trees show unexpected drought adaptability across Puerto Rico's rainfall extremes
Tropical forests store enormous amounts of carbon and harbor most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, but scientists fear that increasingly severe droughts threaten their ability to survive and continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. A new study published in Nature offers unexpected hope, however, and shows that tropical trees may be more adaptable to drought than scientists had previously believed.
Intraspecific variation in tropical trees can drive resistance to drought
Nature, Published online: 12 August 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02292-zDifferent tropical tree species can vary in their ability to withstand drought — and so too, it seems, can distinct populations of the same tree species.
Nature conservationists sound the alarm: trees in the region have to fight with heat and drought this summer. The birch is particularly vulnerable.
In the face of repeated heat waves, trees struggle to absorb CO2 and forests play their role as carbon sinks. The drought, which affects 95% of French territory, according to an analysis on Monday, August 10, worsens the phenomenon.
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