Precipitation and soil phosphorus regulate post-drought resilience in tropical forests
Journal article, 2026
Tropical forests are increasingly affected by drought, yet the factors that control post-drought ecosystem resilience—the capacity to withstand disturbances—are not fully understood. Here we use temporal autocorrelation of satellite-derived vegetation greenness to quantify ecosystem resilience following 142,444 severe drought events across tropical forests from 2003 to 2022. We show that resilience declined in 68.8% of areas after droughts, particularly in dry environments, whereas 20.3% of areas with increased resilience were located in moist tropical forests. More intense and prolonged droughts led to a pronounced decline in resilience. Mean annual precipitation was identified as the most important regulator influencing resilience changes after drought, while soil phosphorus was the most consistent regulator across forest biomes, exhibiting widespread mitigating effects on resilience loss. Along decreasing precipitation gradients, the mitigating effect of soil phosphorus on post-drought resilience loss intensified. These findings provide insights into how tropical forests respond to drought and offer practical guidance for region-specific, adaptive forest management under a changing climate.
Author
Yang Chu
Beijing Normal University
Yuhao Feng
The University of Hong Kong
Yanjun Su
Chinese Academy of Sciences
China National Botanical Garden
Chao Wu
Tsinghua University
Yingping Wang
Monash University
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tingting Li
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lanlan Guo
Beijing Normal University
Ziqian Zhong
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Tiewei Li
Tsinghua University
Hongtao Xu
Zhejiang Normal University
Guoyan Yang
Beijing Normal University
Huan Zheng
Beijing Normal University
Xiangqi He
Beijing Normal University
Haoxiang Zhao
Beijing Normal University
Chengcheng Huang
Beijing Normal University
Yiyang Gao
Beijing Normal University
Shiyu Yao
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bin He
Tsinghua University
Nature Geoscience
1752-0894 (ISSN) 1752-0908 (eISSN)
Vol. In PressUnveiling the impacts of vapor pressure deficit on forest productivity (VAPOR)
European Commission (EC) (EC/HE/101154385), 2024-09-19 -- 2025-09-18.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Forest Science
Ecology
Climate Science
DOI
10.1038/s41561-026-02095-x