Predicting the impacts of climate extremes on plant communities is a central challenge in ecology. Physiological traits may improve prediction of drought impacts on forests globally. The authors performed a meta-analysis across 33 studies that span all forested biomes and found that, among the examined traits, hydraulic traits explained cross-species patterns in mortality from drought. Gymnosperm and angiosperm mortality was associated with different hydraulic traits, giving insight into the relative weights of different traits and mechanisms in mortality prediction. Their results provide a foundation for more mechanistic predictions of drought-induced tree mortality across Earth's diverse forests.
