Drought-induced tree death has become a serious problem in global forest ecosystems. Two nonexclusive hypotheses, hydraulic failure and carbon starvation, have been proposed to explain tree die-offs. To clarify the mechanisms, we investigated the physiological processes of drought-induced tree death in saplings with contrasting Huber values (sapwood area/total leaf area). First, hydraulic failure and reduced respiration were found in the initial process of tree decline, and in the last stage carbon starvation leaded to tree death. The carbohydrate reserves at the stem bases, low in healthy trees, were accumulated at the beginning of the declining process because of phloem transport failure, and then decreased just before dying. The concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates at the stem bases are a good indicator of tree damage. The physiological processes and carbon sink-source dynamics that occur during lethal drought provide important insight into the adaptive measures underlying forest die-offs under global warming conditions.