Why natural forests survive heat waves better than planted forests
When a record-breaking drought and heat wave swept across China's Yangtze River Basin in 2022, forests across the region faced an extreme test. The event provided a rare opportunity for researchers to ...
When a record-breaking drought and heat wave swept across China's Yangtze River Basin in 2022, forests across the region faced an extreme test. The event provided a rare opportunity for researchers to test how different forests respond when rising temperatures and water shortages strike at the same time.
The basin is home to some of China's most important forests, which help prevent soil erosion, regulate water supplies and support biodiversity. As China's largest river basin, the Yangtze is also a major hub for water resources and economic activity, meaning healthy forests play a crucial role.
Following widespread deforestation and major flooding events, including the devastating 1998 Yangtze River flood, China launched large-scale tree-planting programs to restore forests and reduce soil erosion.
But as climate change drives more frequent and intense combinations of drought and extreme heat, researchers wanted to understand whether these planted forests could cope with increasingly challenging conditions and how they respond compared with forests that developed naturally. The study focused on compound drought–heat wave events, where unusually hot and dry conditions occur at the same time.
These events can be particularly damaging because plants face two stresses at once: a lack of water in the soil and increased water loss through their leaves. These combined stresses can threaten not only forest health but also the wider services forests provide, such as storing water and regulating runoff.
The results revealed a trade-off. Natural forests were better able to withstand the harsh conditions, suffering less damage during the event, while planted forests experienced greater vegetation loss but recovered more quickly once the extreme weather had passed.
The findings, published in Water Resources Research, reveal a balance between two important aspects of forest resilience: the ability to resist damage during a weather event and the ability to recover afterward.
Nature's shield against extremes
Yong Su, from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues used satellite observations to compare how the two forest types responded, looking at three measures of vegetation activity: forest greenness (how healthy and dense plant cover appears from space), photosynthesis and how much carbon was being produced through growth.
The 2022 event was among the most severe recorded in the basin since 1950. Temperatures soared to record levels while rainfall and soil moisture dropped, leaving more than 90% of the region experiencing unusually hot and dry conditions.
During the extreme weather, natural forests proved more resilient in the short term. They suffered less damage from the drought and heat wave, with more than 70% of areas analyzed showing that natural forests were better able to withstand the conditions.
The researchers suggest this stronger resistance may be linked to the greater complexity of natural forests. They typically contain a wider variety of tree species that respond differently to drought and heat, different tree ages and more layered canopies, creating a varied ecosystem that can better buffer extreme conditions.
Planted forests, by contrast, are often made up of fewer species and trees of similar ages. This simpler structure can make them more vulnerable to extreme conditions because they respond to stress in the same way.
The comeback race
When the researchers compared vegetation activity in 2023, planted forests generally showed stronger recovery than natural forests. This faster rebound may be because planted forests are often dominated by younger, fast-growing trees that can rapidly restart growth once water becomes available again.
Meanwhile, natural forests comprise larger trees, greater biomass and more complex structures that help them cope during drought, but this also means a slower recovery.
However, the effects of drought and heat can linger long after the extreme weather ends—a phenomenon known as a "drought legacy." These lasting impacts can slow the recovery of forests by affecting processes such as carbon uptake, root activity and soil interactions.
Recovery does not necessarily mean the forest has fully returned to its previous state. Some aspects of forest function, such as carbon uptake and below-ground processes involving roots and soil, can take longer to recover than visible changes in leaves and canopy greenness.
Protecting future forests
The study highlights that there is no single measure of a forest's ability to cope with climate extremes and shows why protecting remaining natural forests remains crucial, even as tree planting continues to be an important tool for restoring degraded landscapes.
The researchers suggest that improving the diversity and structure of planted forests could help make them more resistant to future climate extremes.
Moving away from single-species plantations toward more mixed forests could combine some of the resilience benefits of natural ecosystems with the rapid recovery ability of planted trees.
As climate change increases the likelihood of compound drought and heat wave events, understanding how different forests respond will be increasingly important. The key may be recognizing that both types play different but important roles in ensuring the longevity of forest ecosystems into the future.
Written for you by our author Hannah Bird, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Andrew Zinin—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.
Publication details
Yong Su et al, Higher Vulnerability But Faster Recovery in Planted Than Natural Forests During the 2022 Compound Drought–Heatwave in China's Yangtze River Basin, Water Resources Research (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2026wr044482
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Citation: Why natural forests survive heat waves better than planted forests (2026, July 10) retrieved 11 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-natural-forests-survive.html
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