Rutuja Chitra-Tarak

Most of my publications are openly accessible. PDFs of almost all of my publications can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. This is particularly for tropical students and researchers, and the general public, who could not afford journal subscriptions.

(⁺post-doc, graduate student, or undergraduate student mentee)

2024

18. Chitra-Tarak, R*, J Needham*, A Hanbury-Brown, E Robles, C Varadharajan, R Knox, L Kueppers. (2024) Advancing our understanding of tropical forests and improving the predictive capability of vegetation models with data-model integration at BCI. The First 100 Years of Research on Barro Colorado Island: Plant and Ecosystem Science. Helene C. Muller-Landau and S. Joseph Wright, editors. A Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. *Co-first authors.
19. Robbins Z⁺, J Chambers, R Chitra‐Tarak, B Christoffersen, LT Dickman, R Fisher, A Jonko, R Knox, C Koven, L Kueppers, N McDowell, C Xu. (2024) Future climate doubles the risk of hydraulic failure in a wet tropical forest. New Phytologist, 244, 2239-2250.
    • See Commentary by Mackay, DS, 2024. Future tree mortality is impossible to observe, but a new model reveals why tropical tree traits matter more than climate change variability for predicting hydraulic failure. New Phytologist, 244, 2115–2117.
20. Chen⁺, S, S Stark, A Nobre, L Cuartas, D Amore, N Restrepo-Coupe MN Smith, R Chitra-Tarak, H Ko, B Nelson, S Saleska. (2024). Amazon forest biogeography predicts resilience and vulnerability to drought. Nature, 1–7.

2023

15. Xu C, B Christoffersen, Z Robbins⁺, R Knox, R A Fisher, R Chitra-Tarak, M Slot, K Solander, L Kueppers, C Koven, N McDowell (2023) Quantification of hydraulic trait control on plant hydrodynamics and risk of hydraulic failure within a demographic structured vegetation model in a tropical forest (FATES-HYDRO V1. 0) Geoscientific Model Development, 16, 6267-6283.
16. Robbins Z⁺, C Xu, A Jonko, R Chitra-Tarak, CJ Fettig, J Costanza, LA Mortenson, BH Aukema, LM Kueppers, RM Scheller. (2023) Carbon stored in live ponderosa pines in the Sierra Nevada will not return to pre-drought levels during the 21st century due to bark beetle outbreaks. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11. 
17. Chitra-Tarak, R, and JF Warren. (2023) Amazon drought resilience – emerging results point to new empirical needs. New Phytologist, 237, 703-706.
    • Invited commentary on Costa et al. New Phytologist, 237, 714-733.

2021

12. Robbins, Z⁺, C Xu, B Aukema, P Buotte, R Chitra-Tarak, C Fettig, L Mortenson, M Goulden, D Goodsman, L Kueppers, C Koven, G Madakumbura, L Mortenson, J Powell, A Hall, R Scheller. (2021) Warming increased bark beetle-induced tree mortality by 30% during an extreme drought in California. Global Change Biology, 28, 509-523. 
    • *94^th Citation Percentile in Ecology
    • Reported by: San Francisco Chronicles, Science Times, Santa Fe New Mexican, Enviro Bites, Eureka Alert and The Sacramento Bee
13. Chitra-Tarak, R, C Xu, S Aguilar, K Anderson-Teixeira, J Chambers, M Detto, B Faybishenko, RA Fisher, R Knox, C Koven, L Kueppers, N Kunert, SJ Kupers, NG McDowell, BD Newman, SR Paton, R Pérez, L Ruiz, L Sack, JM Warren, BT Wolfe, C Wright, SJ Wright, J Zailaa, SM McMahon (2021) Hydraulically-vulnerable trees survive on deep-water access during droughts in a tropical forest. New Phytologist, 231, 1798–1813.
    • 97^th Citation Percentile in Plant Science in 2021 by Web of Science
    • Top Downloaded Article in New Phytologist in 2021

2020

10. Chitra-Tarak, R, et al. (2020) Soil Water Potentials (1990-2018) from a calibrated ELM-FATES and rooting depth inverse modeling and analyses scripts, PA-BCI, Panama. NGEE Tropics Data Collection. https://doi.org/10.15486/ngt/1696806
11. Fung, T, RA Chisholm, several authors including R Chitra-Tarak. (2020) Temporal population variability in local forest communities has mixed effects on tree species richness across a latitudinal gradient. Ecology Letters, 23, 160–71. 

2018

8. Chitra-Tarak, R*, L Ruiz, HS Dattaraja, J Riotte, MS Mohan Kumar, HS Suresh, SM McMahon & R Sukumar (2018) The roots of the drought: Hydrology and water uptake strategies mediate forest-wide demographic response to precipitation. Journal of Ecology, 106, 1495-1507. 
   • *Awarded British Ecological Society’s Harper Prize 
   • Recognized as the best paper in Journal of Ecology in 2018 by an early career researcher 
   • Reported by: The Hindu, India
   • 94^th Citation Percentile in Plant Science in 2018 by Web of Science
9. Chitra-Tarak, R et al. (2018), Data from: The roots of the drought: hydrology and water uptake strategies mediate forest-wide demographic response to precipitation, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nm3d3

2016

6. Eco-Hydrology of a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest: Tree Growth, Belowground Water Dynamics and Drought-Vulnerability (2016). Thesis submitted for ‘Doctor of Philosophy‘ in the Faculty of Science, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Series No. G27771.  https://rutuja.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/rutuja_thesis_final_20sep2016.pdf

2015

5. Chitra-Tarak, R, L Ruiz, S Pulla, HS Dattaraja, HS Suresh & R Sukumar (2015) And yet it shrinks: A novel method for correcting bias in forest tree growth estimates caused by water-induced fluctuations. Forest Ecology and Management, 336, 129–136.
6. Pulla, S, G Ramaswami, N Mondal, R Chitra-Tarak, HS Suresh, HS Dattaraja, P Vivek, N Parthasarathy, BR Ramesh & R Sukumar (2015) Assessing the Resilience of Global Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests. International Forestry Review, 17, 91–113. 

2014

3. Riotte, J, J Maréchal, S Audry, C Kumar, JP Bedimo, L Ruiz, M Sekhar, M Cisel, R Chitra-Tarak, MRR Varma, C Lagane, P Reddy & JJ Braun (2014) Vegetation impact on stream chemical fluxes: Mule Hole watershed (South India). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 145, 116-138. 

2009

2. Sen, R, S Samudre, MC Shilpa, R Chitra Tarak & R Gadagkar (2009) Middle aged wasps mate through most of the year, without regard to body size, ovarian development and nest mateship: a laboratory study of the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata. Insectes Sociaux, 57, 95–103. 

2007 

1. Chitra-Tarak, R. Evolution of cooperation in the centipede game: the role of discriminators. (2007) Submitted for ‘Master of Science’ in Biodiversity & Taxonomy, University of Pune, India. Published as Conference Proceedings at the 18^th International Conference on Game Theory at Stony Brook, USA. http://old.gtcenter.org/Archive/Conf07/Downloads/Conf/Dahanukar448.pdf

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Data Publication

1. Chitra-Tarak, R, SM McMahon and P Neale. (2019) SERC Meteorological Data. The Smithsonian Institution. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.25573/serc.11020646.v2