The critical amplifying role of increasing atmospheric moisture demand on tree mortality and associated regional die-off

1 The School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 3 Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA 4 School of the Environment, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 5 Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA *Correspondence: [email protected]