Hammond, William M.William M.HammondWilliams, A. ParkA. ParkWilliamsAbatzoglou, John T.John T.AbatzoglouAdams, Henry D.Henry D.AdamsKlein, TamirTamirKleinLópez, RosanaRosanaLópezSáenz-Romero, CuauhtémocCuauhtémocSáenz-RomeroHartmann, HenrikHenrikHartmannBreshears, David D.David D.BreshearsAllen, Craig D.Craig D.Allen2023-03-142023-03-142022-04-05https://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gro-2/122513Earth's forests face grave challenges in the Anthropocene, including hotter droughts increasingly associated with widespread forest die-off events. But despite the vital importance of forests to global ecosystem services, their fates in a warming world remain highly uncertain. Lacking is quantitative determination of commonality in climate anomalies associated with pulses of tree mortality-from published, field-documented mortality events-required for understanding the role of extreme climate events in overall global tree die-off patterns. Here we established a geo-referenced global database documenting climate-induced mortality events spanning all tree-supporting biomes and continents, from 154 peer-reviewed studies since 1970. Our analysis quantifies a global "hotter-drought fingerprint" from these tree-mortality sites-effectively a hotter and drier climate signal for tree mortality-across 675 locations encompassing 1,303 plots. Frequency of these observed mortality-year climate conditions strongly increases nonlinearly under projected warming. Our database also provides initial footing for further community-developed, quantitative, ground-based monitoring of global tree mortality.enjournal_article10.1038/s41467-022-29289-235383157