Impacts and Legacies of Extreme Precipitation on Temperate Forests During Critical Ecological Windows

Within seasonal temperate forests, changes in precipitation structure—its form, duration, and seasonal timing—is a dominant characteristic of climate change. While past research has focused primarily on annual precipitation totals, emerging evidence shows that short-duration extreme precipitation can impact ecosystem carbon, water, and biogeochemical cycling when it coincides with key phenological and physiological transitions. These impacts are mediated by the responses of plant and microbial physiology, aboveground–belowground interactions, and lagged feedbacks as organisms and communities adjust to these extremes. This review focuses on shifts ( a ) within ecosystem water cycling, ( b ) within tree growth dynamics (carbon uptake and aboveground–belowground allocation and coordination), ( c ) within soil biogeochemical cycling, ( d ) from the loss of winter snow, and ( e ) in forest structure and community composition. Together, these concepts highlight the urgent need to understand how changes in all aspects of precipitation structure reshape the functioning and resilience of mesic temperate forests.