The importance of tropical tree-ring chronologies for global change research

Groenendijk P, Babst F, Trouet V, Fan ZX, Granato-Souza D, Locosselli GM, Mokria M, Panthi S, Pumijumnong N, Abiyu A, Acuña-Soto R, Adenesky-Filho E, Alfaro-Sánchez R, Anholetto Junior CR, Aragão JRV, Assis-Pereira G, Astudillo-Sánchez CC, Carolina Barbosa A, Barreto NdO, Battipaglia G, Beeckman H, Botosso PC, Bourland N, Bräuning A, Brienen R, Brookhouse M, Buajan S, Buckley BM, Camarero JJ, Carrillo-Parra A, Ceccantini G, Centeno-Erguera LR, Cerano-Paredes J, Cervantes-Martínez R, Chanthorn W, Chen YJ, Cintra BBL, Cornejo-Oviedo EH, Cortés-Cortés O, Costa CM, Couralet C, Crispin-DelaCruz DB, D'Arrigo R, David DA, De Ridder M, Del Valle JI, Díaz-Carrillo OA, Dobner M, Doucet JL, Dünisch O, Enquist BJ, Esemann-Quadros K, Esquivel-Arriaga G, Fayolle A, Fenilli TAB, Ferrero ME, Fichtler E, Finnegan PM, Fontana C, Francisco KS, Fu PL, Galvão F, Gebrekirstos A, Giraldo JA, Gloor E, Godoy-Veiga M, Guerra A, Haneca K, Harley GL, Heinrich I, Helle G, Hernández-Díaz JC, Hornink B, Hubau W, Inga JG, Islam M, Jiang Ym, Kaib M, Hassan Khamisi Z, Koprowski M, Layme E, Leffler AJ, Ligot G, Lisi CS, Loader NJ, Lobo FdA, Longhi-Santos T, Lopez L, López-Hernández MI, Lousada JLPC, Manzanedo RD, Marcon AK, Maxwell JT, Mendivelso HA, Mendoza-Villa ON, Menezes ÍRN, Montóia VR, Moors E, Moreno M, Muñiz-Castro MA, Nabais C, Nathalang A, Ngoma J, Nogueira FdC, Oliveira JM, Olmedo GM, Ortega-Rodriguez DR, Ortíz CER, Pagotto MA, Paredes-Villanueva K, Pérez-De-Lis G, Ponce Calderón LP, Portal-Cahuana LA, Pucha-Cofrep DA, Quadri P, Rahman M, Ramírez JA, Requena-Rojas EJ, Reyes-Flores J, Ribeiro AdS, Robertson I, Roig FA, Roquette JG, Rubio-Camacho EA, Sánchez-Salguero R, Sass-Klaassen U, Schöngart J, Scipioni MC, Sheppard PR, Silva LC, Slotta F, Soria-Díaz L, Sousa LK, Speer JH, Therrell MD, Ticse-Otarola G, Tomazello-Filho M, Torbenson MC, Tor-Ngern P, Touchan R, Van Den Bulcke J, Vázquez-Selem L, Velázquez-Pérez AH, Venegas-González A, Villalba R, Villanueva-Diaz J, Vlam M, Vourlitis G, Wehenkel C, Wils T, Zavaleta ES, Zewdu EA, Zhang YJ, Zhou ZK, Zuidema PA (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article, Review article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Book Volume: 355

Article Number: 109233

DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109233

Abstract

Tropical forests and woodlands are key components of the global carbon and water cycles. Yet, how climate change affects these biogeochemical cycles is poorly understood because of scarce long-term observations of tropical tree growth. The recent rise in tropical tree-ring studies may help to fill this gap, but a large-scale quantitative analysis of their potential in global change research is missing. We compiled a list of all tropical tree species known to form annual tree rings and built a network encompassing 492 tropical ring-width chronologies to evaluate the potential to generate insights on climate sensitivity of woody productivity and to build centuries-long reconstructions of climate variability. We assess chronology quality, length, and climatic representativeness and explore how these change along climatic gradients. Finally, we applied species-distribution modeling to identify regions with potential for tree-ring studies in ecological and climatic studies. The number of tropical chronologies has rapidly increased, with ∼400 added over the past two decades. Yet, tree-ring studies are biased towards high-elevation locations, with gaps in warmer and wetter climates, on the African continent, and for angiosperm species. The longest chronologies with strongest climate signals (i.e., synchronous growth variations among trees) are from cool regions. In wet regions, climate signals and precipitation sensitivity decrease. Most tropical regions harbor 5–15 (and up to 80) species with proven potential to generate chronologies. The potential for long climate reconstructions is particularly high in drier high elevation sites. Our findings support strategies to effectively expand tree-ring research in the tropics, by targeting specific species and regions. Tropical dendrochronology can importantly contribute to global change research by generating historical context of climate extremes, quantifying climate sensitivity of woody productivity and benchmarking vegetation models.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) / University of Campinas Brazil (BR) Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (AAMU) / Alabama A&M University United States (USA) (US) University of São Paulo / Universidade de São Paulo (USP) Brazil (BR) Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) China (CN) Mahidol University / มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล Thailand (TH) World Agroforestry Centre Kenya (KE) National Autonomous University of Mexico / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Mexico (MX) Universidade Regional de Blumenau (FURB) Brazil (BR) Northern Forestry Centre (NoFC) Canada (CA) Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá (IDSM) Brazil (BR) Federal University of Sergipe / Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS) Brazil (BR) Swansea University United Kingdom (GB) Federal University of Lavras / Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA) Brazil (BR) Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli Italy (IT) Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias Mexico (MX) University of Arizona United States (USA) (US) Federal University of Santa Catarina / Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) Brazil (BR) Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil (BR) Universidad Continental Peru (PE) Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Bangladesh (BD) Königliches Museum für Zentral-Afrika / Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika / Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale Belgium (BE) Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS) / Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze Czech Republic (CZ) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service United States (USA) (US) Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária Brazil (BR) Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) / Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu (UMK) Poland (PL) Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria INIA Peru (PE) South Dakota State University United States (USA) (US) University of Liège (ULg) / Université de Liège Belgium (BE) University of Leeds United Kingdom (GB) Australian National University (ANU) Australia (AU) Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul Brazil (BR) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory United States (USA) (US) Centro Científico Tecnológico Mendoza Argentina (AR) Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro Mexico (MX) Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología Spain (ES) Centro de Investigação e de Tecnologias Agroambientais e Biológicas CIFAB Portugal (PT) Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango (UJED) Mexico (MX) Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ) / Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich Switzerland (CH) Autonomous University of Tamaulipas / Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas (UAT) Mexico (MX) Indiana University United States (USA) (US) Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) Colombia (CO) Autonomous University of Queretaro / Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Mexico (MX) Kasetsart University / มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์ Thailand (TH) University of Birmingham United Kingdom (GB) Universiteit Gent (UGent) / Ghent University Belgium (BE) Universidad Pablo de Olavide of Seville Spain (ES) Wageningen University & Research Netherlands (NL) National Institute for Amazonian Research / Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) Brazil (BR) Universidad Nacional de Colombia Colombia (CO) University of Oregon (UO) United States (USA) (US) Freie Universität Berlin Germany (DE) Federal University of Western Pará / Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará (UFOPA) Brazil (BR) Indiana State University United States (USA) (US) The University of Alabama United States (USA) (US) Universidade da Região de Joinville (UNIVILLE) Brazil (BR) IHE Delft Netherlands (NL) Cirad France (FR) Universidad de Guadalajara (UDEG) Mexico (MX) Universidade de Coimbra Portugal (PT) Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Germany (DE) National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) Thailand (TH) Copperbelt University Zambia (ZM) Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Sergipe (IFS) Brazil (BR) Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) Brazil (BR) University of Western Australia (UWA) Australia (AU) USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station United States (USA) (US) University of Santiago de Compostela / Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC) Spain (ES) El Colegio de la Frontera Sur Mexico (MX) Antioquia Institute of Technology / Tecnológico de Antioquia – University Institute Colombia (CO) Universidad Nacional de Loja (UNL) Ecuador (EC) University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz, UCSC) United States (USA) (US) Universidad del Cauca Colombia (CO) Flanders Heritage Agency Belgium (BE) University of Idaho United States (USA) (US) Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI) Germany (DE) Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum - GFZ Germany (DE) Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) Germany (DE) Chulalongkorn University / จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย Thailand (TH) University of O'Higgins (UOH) / Universidad de O'Higgins Chile (CL) Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences Netherlands (NL) California State University / Cal State San Marcos (CSUSM) United States (USA) (US) Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) Netherlands (NL) Addis Ababa University (AAU) Ethiopia (ET) University of Maine United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Groenendijk, P., Babst, F., Trouet, V., Fan, Z.X., Granato-Souza, D., Locosselli, G.M.,... Zuidema, P.A. (2025). The importance of tropical tree-ring chronologies for global change research. Quaternary Science Reviews, 355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109233

MLA:

Groenendijk, Peter, et al. "The importance of tropical tree-ring chronologies for global change research." Quaternary Science Reviews 355 (2025).

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