Fig. 2: Tree mortality rate varied by spatial location, genus, and elevation.
From: Tree mortality during long-term droughts is lower in structurally complex forest stands
a The location of our study area in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, California, USA and its annual mean temperature (T) and annual total precipitation (P) during the 2012–2016 drought, compared to the average annual mean temperature (Tave) and the average annual total precipitation (Pave) from 1980 to 2019. Shaded areas indicate differences in precipitation and temperature between the drought period (2012-2016 in solid lines) and average conditions (in dashed lines). b Spatial pattern of tree mortality rate over 2012–2016 (100 m × 100 m cells) across the study area. A tree was identified as dead if over 35% of its crown was classified as dead, following the suggestion from Stovall et al. 17. Polygons with gray boundary lines represent forest stands61. The mean stand size was 0.144 km2 with a coefficient of variation of 86.6%. c Tree mortality rate by elevation for the four major genera in the study area. The marker size is proportional to the number of trees in each elevation gradient (100 m) for each genus.
