Data in support of: Distance decay and directional diffusion of ecoclimate teleconnections driven by regional-scale tree die-off

Climate change is triggering regional-scale alterations in vegetation including land cover change such as forest die-off. At sufficient magnitudes, land cover change from forest die-off in one region can change not only local climate but also vegetation including agriculture elsewhere via changes in larger-scale climate patterns, termed an “ecoclimate teleconnection”. Ecoclimate teleconnections can therefore have impacts on vegetative growth in distant regions, but the degrees to which the impact decays with distance or directionally diffuses relative to the initial perturbation are general properties that have not been evaluated. We used the Community Earth system model to study this, examining the implications of tree die-off in 14 major US forested regions. For each case, we evaluated the ecological impact across North America as a function of distance and direction from the location of regional tree die-off. We found that the effects on gross primary productivity generally decayed l...