Environmental Drought Approach in Tropical Dry Forests: A Review

Tropical dry forests are highly vulnerable to droughts, yet drought research approaches in these ecosystems remain geographically and methodologically inconsistent. This work aims to synthesize the methodologies used to study droughts in tropical dry forests (TDFs) and compare them with approaches from environmental drought research, which is a recent drought typology that integrates diverse factors influencing drought that impacts ecosystems. To achieve this, a consistent approach is applied to compile the main metrics in TDF drought research and then compare them to those used in environmental drought research to uncover potential opportunities to understand droughts in TDFs. The results reveal gaps in using environmental drought metrics, particularly hydrological, human, and geophysical data, in TDF drought studies. The results support the hypothesis that environmental metrics are missing in the study of droughts, affecting the understanding of their variation, impacts, and responses of TDFs to drought. This review emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary approach that integrates environmental metrics to improve drought assessment and resilience in water-stressed ecosystems such as TDFs, especially under the growing pressures of human-induced modifications, including climate change.