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Marqués L, Peltier DMP, Camarero JJ, Zavala MA, Madrigal-González J, Sangüesa-Barreda G, Ogle K. Disentangling the Legacies of Climate and Management on Tree Growth. Ecosystems 2021; 25:215-235. [PMID: 35210936 PMCID: PMC8827397 DOI: 10.1007/s10021-021-00650-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 04/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
AbstractLegacies of past climate conditions and historical management govern forest productivity and tree growth. Understanding how these processes interact and the timescales over which they influence tree growth is critical to assess forest vulnerability to climate change. Yet, few studies address this issue, likely because integrated long-term records of both growth and forest management are uncommon. We applied the stochastic antecedent modelling (SAM) framework to annual tree-ring widths from mixed forests to recover the ecological memory of tree growth. We quantified the effects of antecedent temperature and precipitation up to 4 years preceding the year of ring formation and integrated management effects with records of harvesting intensity from historical forest management archives. The SAM approach uncovered important time periods most influential to growth, typically the warmer and drier months or seasons, but variation among species and sites emerged. Silver fir responded primarily to past climate conditions (25–50 months prior to the year of ring formation), while European beech and Scots pine responded mostly to climate conditions during the year of ring formation and the previous year, although these responses varied among sites. Past management and climate interacted in such a way that harvesting promoted growth in young silver fir under wet and warm conditions and in old European beech under drier and cooler conditions. Our study shows that the ecological memory associated with climate legacies and historical forest management is species-specific and context-dependent, suggesting that both aspects are needed to properly evaluate forest functioning under climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Marqués
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), Universitätstrasse 2, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Edificio Ciencias, Campus Universitario, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
| | - Drew M. P. Peltier
- School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
| | - J. Julio Camarero
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, (IPE–CSIC), Avda. Montañana, 1005, 50192 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Miguel A. Zavala
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Edificio Ciencias, Campus Universitario, 28871 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jaime Madrigal-González
- Institute for Environmental Sciences, Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene, University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl Vogt, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
- Departamento de Biología Animal, Ecología, Edafología, Parasitología, Química agrícola, Universidad de Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno s/n, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
| | | | - Kiona Ogle
- School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
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Madrigal-González J, Andivia E, Zavala MA, Stoffel M, Calatayud J, Sánchez-Salguero R, Ballesteros-Cánovas J. Disentangling the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2018; 642:619-628. [PMID: 29909329 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2018] [Revised: 06/05/2018] [Accepted: 06/06/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Climate change can impair ecosystem functions and services in extensive dry forests worldwide. However, attribution of climate change impacts on tree growth and forest productivity is challenging due to multiple inter-annual patterns of climatic variability associated with atmospheric and oceanic circulations. Moreover, growth responses to rising atmospheric CO2, namely carbon fertilization, as well as size ontogenetic changes can obscure the climate change signature as well. Here we apply Structural Equation Models (SEM) to investigate the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment (i.e., extreme in terms of the combination of sandy-unconsolidated soils and climatic aridity). Specifically, we analyzed potential direct and indirect pathways by which different sources of climatic variability (i.e. warming and precipitation trends, the North Atlantic Oscillation, [NAO]; the Mediterranean Oscillation, [MOI]; the Atlantic Mediterranean Oscillation, [AMO]) affect aridity through their control on local climate (in terms of mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation), and subsequently tree productivity, in terms of basal area increments (BAI). Our results support the predominant role of Diameter at Breast Height (DHB) as the main growth driver. In terms of climate, NAO and AMO are the most important drivers of tree growth through their control of aridity (via effects of precipitation and temperature, respectively). Furthermore and contrary to current expectations, our findings also support a net positive role of climate warming on growth over the last 50 years and suggest that impacts of climate warming should be evaluated considering multi-annual and multi-decadal periods of local climate defined by atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaime Madrigal-González
- Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain; Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland.
| | - Enrique Andivia
- Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Miguel A Zavala
- Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Markus Stoffel
- Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland; Dendrolab, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, rue des Maraîchers 13, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland; Department F.-A, Forel for Aquatic and Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland
| | - Joaquín Calatayud
- Integrated Science Lab, Department of Physics, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden
| | - Raúl Sánchez-Salguero
- Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. Utrera, km 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain
| | - Juan Ballesteros-Cánovas
- Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland; Dendrolab, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, rue des Maraîchers 13, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland
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Marqués L, Madrigal-González J, Zavala MA, Camarero JJ, Hartig F. Last-century forest productivity in a managed dry-edge Scots pine population: the two sides of climate warming. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 28:95-105. [PMID: 28944610 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2017] [Revised: 07/31/2017] [Accepted: 08/23/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Climate change in the Mediterranean, associated with warmer temperatures and more frequent droughts, is expected to impact forest productivity and the functioning of forests ecosystems as carbon reservoirs in the region. Climate warming can positively affect forest growth by extending the growing season, whereas increasing summer drought generally reduces forest productivity and may cause growth decline, trigger dieback, hamper regeneration, and increase mortality. Forest management could potentially counteract such negative effects by reducing stand density and thereby competition for water. The effectiveness of such interventions, however, has so far mostly been evaluated for short time periods at the tree and stand levels, which limits our confidence regarding the efficacy of thinning interventions over longer time scales under the complex interplay between climate, stand structure, and forest management. In this study, we use a century-long historical data set to assess the effects of climate and management on forest productivity. We consider rear-edge Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) populations covering continental and Mediterranean conditions along an altitudinal gradient in Central Spain. We use linear mixed-effects models to disentangle the effects of altitude, climate, and stand volume on forest growth and ingrowth (recruitment and young trees' growth). We find that warming tends to benefit these tree populations, warmer winter temperature has a significant positive effect on both forest growth and ingrowth, and the effect is more pronounced at low elevations. However, drought conditions severely reduce growth and ingrowth, in particular when competition (stand volume) is high. We conclude that summer droughts are the main threat to Scots pine populations in the region, and that a reduction of stand volume can partially mitigate the negative impacts of more arid conditions. Mitigation and adaptation measures could therefore manage stand structure to adopt for the anticipated impacts of climate change in Mediterranean forest ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Marqués
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, Campus Universitario, Alcalá de Henares, 28871, Spain
| | - Jaime Madrigal-González
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, Campus Universitario, Alcalá de Henares, 28871, Spain
| | - Miguel A Zavala
- Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, Campus Universitario, Alcalá de Henares, 28871, Spain
| | - Jesús Julio Camarero
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avenida Montañana, 1005, Zaragoza, 50192, Spain
| | - Florian Hartig
- Biometry and Environmental System Analysis, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstrasse 4, Freiburg, 79106, Germany
- Theoretical Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Pre-Clinical Medicine, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 3, Regensburg, 93053, Germany
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Forest productivity in southwestern Europe is controlled by coupled North Atlantic and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations. Nat Commun 2017; 8:2222. [PMID: 29263398 PMCID: PMC5738338 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02319-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) depicts annual and decadal oscillatory modes of variability responsible for dry spells over the European continent. The NAO therefore holds a great potential to evaluate the role, as carbon sinks, of water-limited forests under climate change. However, uncertainties related to inconsistent responses of long-term forest productivity to NAO have so far hampered firm conclusions on its impacts. We hypothesize that, in part, such inconsistencies might have their origin in periodical sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean (i.e., Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, AMO). Here we show strong empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis using 120 years of periodical inventory data from Iberian pine forests. Our results point to AMO+ NAO+ and AMO−NAO− phases as being critical for forest productivity, likely due to decreased winter water balance and abnormally low winter temperatures, respectively. Our findings could be essential for the evaluation of ecosystem functioning vulnerabilities associated with increased climatic anomalies under unprecedented warming conditions in the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) drives biological responses in terrestrial ecosystems through oscillatory modes of climatic variability. Here, the authors show how landscape scale productivity responses to NAO are contingent upon the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation in southwestern Europe.
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