Cumulative growth and stress responses to the 2018-2019 drought in a European floodplain forest

Droughts increasingly threaten the worlds forests and their potential to mitigate climate change. In 2018-2019, Central European forests were hit by two consecutive hotter drought years, an unprecedented phenomenon that is likely to occur more frequently with climate change. Here, we examine trees growth resistance and physiological stress responses (increase in carbon isotope composition; {Delta}{delta}13C) to this consecutive drought based on tree-rings of dominant tree species in a Central European floodplain forest. Tree growth was not reduced for most species in 2018, indicating that water supply in floodplain forests can partly buffer meteorological water deficits. Drought stress in 2018 was comparable to former single drought years, but the cumulative drought stress in 2019 induced drastic decreases in growth resistance and increases in {Delta}{delta}13C across all species. Consecutive hotter droughts pose a novel threat to forests under climate change, even in forest ecosystems with high levels of water supply.