Nate G McDowell

Biographic Data

ID6232513
NAMENate G McDowell
GIVEN NAMESNate G
FAMILY NAMEMcDowell
SIGNATUREMCDOWELL N G
AFFILIATIONSPacific Northwest National Laboratory
ORCID0000-0002-2178-2254
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS11
TOTAL CITATIONS0
AUTHOR COUNT11
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2008
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX0

  • Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast

    Open AccessHenry C H Yeung, Tamlin M Pavelsky et al.ARTICLENature Sustainability2025References: 3

  • Ecohydrological decoupling under changing disturbances and climate

    Open AccessNate G McDowell, Kristina J Anderson‐teixeira et al.ARTICLEOne Earth2023

    Terrestrial disturbances are increasing in frequency and severity, perturbing the hydrologic cycle by altering vegetation-mediated water use and microclimate. Here, we synthesize the literature on post-disturbance ecohydrological coupling, including the mechanistic relationship between vegetation and streamflow, under changing disturbance regimes, atmospheric CO2, and climate. Disturbance can cause decoupling between transpiration and streamflow …

  • Soil moisture thresholds explain a shift from light-limited to water-limited sap velocity in the Central Amazon during the 2015–16 El Niño drought

    Open AccessLin Meng, Jeffrey Q Chambers et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2022

    Transpiration is often considered to be light- but not water-limited in humid tropical rainforests due to abundant soil water, even during the dry seasons. The record-breaking 2015–16 El Niño drought provided a unique opportunity to examine whether transpiration is constrained by water under severe lack of rainfall. We measured sap velocity, soil water content, and meteorological variables in an old-growth upland forest in the Central Amazon thro…

  • Tree mortality in a warming world: Causes, patterns, and implications

    Open AccessChuixiang Yi, George R Hendrey et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2022

    This ERL focus collection has published 17 papers that have advanced our understanding of different dimensions of warming-induced tree mortality. Here we summarize these focus collection papers, organized by four topics related to tree mortality: pathogens, droughts/heat waves, fire/bark beetles, and teleconnections/air pollution. This focus collection illustrates a variety of methods in measuring and modeling tree-mortality, and adds significant…

  • Nitrogen Can Limit Overstory Tree Growth Following Extreme Stand Density Increase in a Ponderosa Pine Forest

    L A Marshall, Laura A E Marshall et al.ARTICLETree-Ring Research2019

    Extreme stand density increases have occurred in ponderosa pine forests throughout the western U.S. since the early 20th Century, with adverse implications for growth, physiological functioning, and mortality risk. Identifying primary stressors on large, old overstory trees in dense forests can inform management decisions to promote resilience and survival. We tested the impact of stand density increase on overstory tree-ring growth, and the rela…

  • Mechanisms of a coniferous woodland persistence under drought and heat

    Open AccessNate G McDowell, Charlotte Grossiord et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2019

    Predictions of warmer droughts causing increasing forest mortality are becoming abundant, yet few studies have investigated the mechanisms of forest persistence. To examine the resistance of forests to warmer droughts, we used a five-year precipitation reduction (45% removal), heat (+4 C above ambient) and combined drought and heat experiment in an isolated stand of mature Pinus edulis-Juniperus monosperma. Despite severe experimental drought and…

  • Temperature response surfaces for mortality risk of tree species with future drought

    Open AccessHenry D Adams, Greg A Barron‐gafford et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2017

    Widespread, high levels of tree mortality, termed forest die-off, associated with drought and rising temperatures, are disrupting forests worldwide. Drought will likely become more frequent with climate change, but even without more frequent drought, higher temperatures can exacerbate tree water stress. The temperature sensitivity of drought-induced mortality of tree species has been evaluated experimentally for only single-step changes in temper…

  • On underestimation of global vulnerability to tree mortality and forest die‐off from hotter drought in the Anthropocene

    Open AccessCraig D Allen, David D Breshears et al.ARTICLEEcosphere2015

    Patterns, mechanisms, projections, and consequences of tree mortality and associated broad‐scale forest die‐off due to drought accompanied by warmer temperatures—“hotter drought”, an emerging characteristic of the Anthropocene—are the focus of rapidly expanding literature. Despite recent observational, experimental, and modeling studies suggesting increased vulnerability of trees to hotter drought and associated pests and pathogens, substantial d…

  • Who is the new sheriff in town regulating boreal forest growth

    Open AccessPark Williams, Chonggang Xu et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2011

    Climate change appears to be altering boreal forests. One recently observed symptom of these changes has been an apparent weakening of the positive relationship between high-latitude boreal tree growth and temperature at some sites (D'Arrigo et al 2008). This phenomenon is referred to as the 'divergence problem' or 'divergence effect' and is thought to reflect a non-linear relationship between temperature and tree growth, where recent warming has…

  • A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests

    Open AccessCraig D Allen, Alison K Macalady et al.ARTICLEForest Ecology and Management2010

  • Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: Why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought?

    Open AccessNate G McDowell, Nate McDowell et al.ARTICLENew Phytologist2008

    Severe droughts have been associated with regional‐scale forest mortality worldwide. Climate change is expected to exacerbate regional mortality events; however, prediction remains difficult because the physiological mechanisms underlying drought survival and mortality are poorly understood. We developed a hydraulically based theory considering carbon balance and insect resistance that allowed development and examination of hypotheses regarding s…