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Enderle L, Gribbe S, Muffler L, Weigel R, Hertel D, Leuschner C. A warmer climate impairs the growth performance of Central Europe's major timber species in lowland regions. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 941:173665. [PMID: 38823720 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2024] [Revised: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 05/29/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Recent hot droughts have caused tree vitality decline and increased mortality in many forest regions on earth. Most of Central Europe's important timber species have suffered from the extreme 2018/2019 hot drought, confronting foresters with difficult questions about the choice of more drought- and heat-resistant tree species. We compared the growth dynamics of European beech, sessile oak, Scots pine and Douglas fir in a warmer and a cooler lowland region of Germany to explore the adaptive potential of the four species to climate warming (24 forest stands). The basal area increment (BAI) of the two conifers has declined since about 1990-2010 in both regions, and that of beech in the warmer region, while oak showed positive BAI trends. A 2 °C difference in mean temperatures and a higher frequency of hot days (temperature maximum >30 °C) resulted in greater sensitivity to a negative climatic water balance in beech and oak, and elevated sensitivity to summer heat in Douglas fir and pine. This suggests to include hot days in climate-growth analyses. Negative pointer years were closely related to dry years. Nevertheless, all species showed growth recovery within one to three years. We conclude that all four species are sensitive to a deteriorating climatic water balance and hot temperatures, and have so far not been able to successfully acclimate to the warmer climate, with especially Douglas and beech, but also Scots pine, being vulnerable to a warming and drying climate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena Enderle
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
| | - Stella Gribbe
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Lena Muffler
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany; Ecological-Botanical Garden, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Robert Weigel
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany; Ecological-Botanical Garden, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Dietrich Hertel
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Christoph Leuschner
- Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany
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Vangi E, Dalmonech D, Cioccolo E, Marano G, Bianchini L, Puchi PF, Grieco E, Cescatti A, Colantoni A, Chirici G, Collalti A. Stand age diversity (and more than climate change) affects forests' resilience and stability, although unevenly. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2024; 366:121822. [PMID: 39018839 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2024] [Revised: 06/17/2024] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 07/19/2024]
Abstract
Stand age significantly influences the functioning of forest ecosystems by shaping structural and physiological plant traits, affecting water and carbon budgets. Forest age distribution is determined by the interplay of tree mortality and regeneration, influenced by both natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Unfortunately, human-driven alteration of tree age distribution presents an underexplored avenue for enhancing forest stability and resilience. In our study, we investigated how age impacts the stability and resilience of the forest carbon budget under both current and future climate conditions. We employed a state-of-the-science biogeochemical, biophysical, validated process-based model on historically managed forest stands, projecting their future as undisturbed systems, i.e., left at their natural evolution with no management interventions (i.e., forests are left to develop undisturbed). Such a model, forced by climate data from five Earth System Models under four representative climate scenarios and one baseline scenario to disentangle the effect of climate change, spanned several age classes as representative of the current European forests' context, for each stand. Our findings indicate that Net Primary Production (NPP) peaks in the young and middle-aged classes (16- to 50-year-old), aligning with longstanding ecological theories, regardless of the climate scenario. Under climate change, the beech forest exhibited an increase in NPP and maintained stability across all age classes, while resilience remained constant with rising atmospheric CO2 and temperatures. However, NPP declined under climate change scenarios for the Norway spruce and Scots pine sites. In these coniferous forests, stability and resilience were more influenced. These results underscore the necessity of accounting for age class diversity -lacking in most, if not all, the current Global Vegetation Models - for reliable and robust assessments of the impacts of climate change on future forests' stability and resilience capacity. We, therefore, advocate for customized management strategies that enhance the adaptability of forests to changing climatic conditions, taking into account the diverse responses of different species and age groups to climate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elia Vangi
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; geoLAB - Laboratory of Forest Geomatics, Dept. of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via San Bonaventura 13, 50145, Firenze, Italy.
| | - Daniela Dalmonech
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Centre (NBFC), Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy
| | - Elisa Cioccolo
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (UNITUS-DAFNE), Tuscia University of Viterbo, Via San Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Gina Marano
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Leonardo Bianchini
- Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (UNITUS-DAFNE), Tuscia University of Viterbo, Via San Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Paulina F Puchi
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; Institute of BioEconomy, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IBE), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy
| | - Elisa Grieco
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy
| | - Alessandro Cescatti
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Sustainable Resources, Ispra, Italy
| | - Andrea Colantoni
- Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (UNITUS-DAFNE), Tuscia University of Viterbo, Via San Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Gherardo Chirici
- geoLAB - Laboratory of Forest Geomatics, Dept. of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via San Bonaventura 13, 50145, Firenze, Italy; Fondazione per il Futuro delle Città, Firenze, Italy
| | - Alessio Collalti
- Forest Modelling Lab., Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISAFOM), Via Madonna Alta 128, 06128, Perugia, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Centre (NBFC), Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy
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Gazol A, Valeriano C, Colangelo M, Ibáñez R, Valerio M, Rubio-Cuadrado Á, Camarero JJ. Growth of tree (Pinus sylvestris) and shrub (Amelanchier ovalis) species is constrained by drought with higher shrub sensitivity in dry sites. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 918:170539. [PMID: 38296069 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
We lack understanding of how variable is radial growth of coexisting tree and shrub species, and how growth is constrained by drought depending on site aridity. Here, we compared the radial growth of two widespread and coexisting species, a winter deciduous shrub (Amelanchier ovalis Medik.) and an evergreen conifer tree (Pinus sylvestris L.). We sampled four sites in Northeastern Spain subjected to different aridity levels and used dendrochronological methods to quantify growth patterns and responses to climate variables. The growth of the two species varied between regions, being lower in the driest sites. The first-order autocorrelation (growth persistence) was higher in more mesic sites but without clear differences between species. Tree and shrub growth negatively responded to elevated summer temperatures and positively to spring-summer precipitation and wet conditions. However, negative growth responses of the shrub to drought were only observed in the two driest sites in contrast to widespread responses of the tree. Abrupt growth reductions were common in the drier sites, but resilience indices show that the two species rapidly recovered pre-drought growth levels. The lower growth synchrony of the shrub as compared to the tree can be due to the multistemmed architecture, fast growth and low stature of the shrub. Besides, the high dependency of the shrub growth on summer rainfall can explain why drought limitations were only apparent in the two driest sites. In any case, results point out to the dendrochronological potential of shrubs, which is particularly relevant giving its ability to inhabit woodlands and treeless regions under harsh climatic conditions. Nevertheless, further research is required to elucidate the capacity of shrub species to tolerate drought, as well as to understand how shrubs thrive in water- and cold-limited environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Gazol
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, E-50192 Zaragoza, Spain.
| | - Cristina Valeriano
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, E-50192 Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Michele Colangelo
- Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università della Basilicata, Viale dell'Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
| | - Ricardo Ibáñez
- Departamento de Biología Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Navarra, Spain
| | - Mercedes Valerio
- Departamento de Biología Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Navarra, Spain; Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Álvaro Rubio-Cuadrado
- Departamento de Sistemas y Recursos Naturales, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
| | - J Julio Camarero
- Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, E-50192 Zaragoza, Spain
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Hogan JA, Domke GM, Zhu K, Johnson DJ, Lichstein JW. Climate change determines the sign of productivity trends in US forests. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2311132121. [PMID: 38227667 PMCID: PMC10823222 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2311132121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Forests are integral to the global land carbon sink, which has sequestered ~30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions over recent decades. The persistence of this sink depends on the balance of positive drivers that increase ecosystem carbon storage-e.g., CO2 fertilization-and negative drivers that decrease it-e.g., intensifying disturbances. The net response of forest productivity to these drivers is uncertain due to the challenge of separating their effects from background disturbance-regrowth dynamics. We fit non-linear models to US forest inventory data (113,806 plot remeasurements in non-plantation forests from ~1999 to 2020) to quantify productivity trends while accounting for stand age, tree mortality, and harvest. Productivity trends were generally positive in the eastern United States, where climate change has been mild, and negative in the western United States, where climate change has been more severe. Productivity declines in the western United States cannot be explained by increased mortality or harvest; these declines likely reflect adverse climate-change impacts on tree growth. In the eastern United States, where data were available to partition biomass change into age-dependent and age-independent components, forest maturation and increasing productivity (likely due, at least in part, to CO2 fertilization) contributed roughly equally to biomass carbon sinks. Thus, adverse effects of climate change appear to overwhelm any positive drivers in the water-limited forests of the western United States, whereas forest maturation and positive responses to age-independent drivers contribute to eastern US carbon sinks. The future land carbon balance of forests will likely depend on the geographic extent of drought and heat stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- J. Aaron Hogan
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
| | - Grant M. Domke
- Northern Research Station, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Saint Paul, MN55108
| | - Kai Zhu
- School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109
| | - Daniel J. Johnson
- School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL32611
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Cienciala E, Melichar J. Forest carbon stock development following extreme drought-induced dieback of coniferous stands in Central Europe: a CBM-CFS3 model application. CARBON BALANCE AND MANAGEMENT 2024; 19:1. [PMID: 38170292 PMCID: PMC10765692 DOI: 10.1186/s13021-023-00246-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND We analyze the forest carbon stock development following the recent historically unprecedented dieback of coniferous stands in the Czech Republic. The drought-induced bark-beetle infestation resulted in record-high sanitary logging and total harvest more than doubled from the previous period. It turned Czech forestry from a long-term carbon sink offsetting about 6% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 to a significant source of CO2 emissions in recent years (2018-2021). In 2020, the forestry sector contributed nearly 10% to the country's overall GHG emissions. Using the nationally calibrated Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3) at a regional (NUTS3) spatial resolution, we analyzed four scenarios of forest carbon stock development until 2070. Two critical points arise: the short-term prognosis for reducing current emissions from forestry and the implementation of adaptive forest management focused on tree species change and sustained carbon accumulation. RESULTS This study used four different spruce forest dieback scenarios to assess the impact of adaptive forest management on the forest carbon stock change and CO2 emissions, tree species composition, harvest possibilities, and forest structure in response to the recent unprecedented calamitous dieback in the Czech Republic. The model analysis indicates that Czech forestry may stabilize by 2025 Subsequently, it may become a sustained sink of about 3 Mt CO2 eq./year (excluding the contribution of harvested wood products), while enhancing forest resilience by the gradual implementation of adaptation measures. The speed of adaptation is linked to harvest intensity and severity of the current calamity. Under the pessimistic Black scenario, the proportion of spruce stands declines from the current 43-20% by 2070, in favor of more suited tree species such as fir and broadleaves. These species would also constitute over 50% of the harvest potential, increasingly contributing to harvest levels like those generated by Czech forestry prior to the current calamity. The standing stock would only be recovered in 50 years under the optimistic Green scenario. CONCLUSION The results show progress of adaptive management by implementing tree species change and quantify the expected harvest and mitigation potential in Czech forestry until 2070.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emil Cienciala
- IFER - Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research, Cs. Armady 655, 254 01, Jilove U Prahy, Czech Republic.
| | - Jan Melichar
- IFER - Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research, Cs. Armady 655, 254 01, Jilove U Prahy, Czech Republic
- Environment Centre, Charles University, Jose Martiho 407/2, 162 00, Prague, Czech Republic
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