Tropical trees are dying faster than they ever have on record, and the culprit scientists identified in a 2025 study isn't heat or drought — it's ordinary thunderstorms, now fiercer with climate chang
A 2025 study suggests that ordinary tropical thunderstorms are a significantly larger driver of tree mortality than previously recognized. Researchers argue that these storms, intensified by climate change, are damaging forest carbon storage more than heat or drought alone.
Why it matters
Understanding the primary drivers of forest loss is critical for accurate climate modeling and global carbon sequestration strategies.
Tropical forests face a hidden killer: the ordinary thunderstorm is becoming extraordinary, and scientists may have drastically underestimated how much damage it now inflicts.
By Space Daily Editorial Team · Editorial process
The surprising part of the 2025 paper is not that storms can kill trees. Anyone who has stood in a forest after a hard squall has seen broken branches, split trunks and fresh gaps in the canopy.
The surprising part is the scale that Evan Gora and colleagues argue may have been missed. In a 2025 Ecology Letters perspective, the team writes that research into changing tropical forests has focused heavily on drought, heat, fire and rising carbon dioxide, while convective storms have often been left out of the explanation .
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