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Unterholzner L, Castagneri D, Cerrato R, Știrbu MI, Roibu CC, Carrer M. Climate response of a glacial relict conifer across its distribution range is invariant in space but not in time. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 906:167512. [PMID: 37813259 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167512] [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: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023]
Abstract
Climate change impacts on forest trees will be particularly severe for relict species endemic to the subalpine forest, such as Pinus cembra in the Alps and Carpathians. Most current knowledge about the response of this species to climate comes from tree-ring width analysis. However, this approach cannot perform in-depth and highly time-resolved analysis on the climate influence on specific growth processes and xylem functions. We analyzed xylem anatomical traits from six sites covering most of the longitudinal range of this species. Associations between climate and cell number, lumen area and cell wall thickness were computed for the 1920-2010 period using climate records aligned to degree-day temperature sum thresholds. The anatomical chronologies were clearly distinct between the Alps and Carpathians. However, climate responses were similar for all sites, suggesting common species-specific response mechanisms. Temperature showed a positive correlation with both cell number and cell wall thickness. Cell lumen size exhibited an early positive association, followed by strong negative association with temperature and a positive one with precipitation. This highlights that the cell enlargement process was negatively related to high temperature at high elevation, where meristematic processes are rather supposed to be constrained by low temperatures. Therefore, long-term climate warming can have negative consequences on the xylem potential to transport water at all investigated sites. Moreover, in the last 30 years, we observed a slight anticipation of some responses and a decrease in climate sensitivity of some xylem parameters. Our findings provide evidence of temporally unstable but spatially consistent climate response of Pinus cembra from the Alps to the Carpathians. The low diversity in xylem phenotypic responses to climate suggests that future warming could extensively and evenly affect the species throughout its entire distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucrezia Unterholzner
- Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, via dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy; Chair of Forest Growth and Woody Biomass Production, Technische Universität Dresden, Pienner Straße 8, 01737 Tharandt, Germany
| | - Daniele Castagneri
- Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, via dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy.
| | - Riccardo Cerrato
- Department of Earth Sciences (DST), University of Pisa, via S. Maria 53, 56124 Pisa, Italy
| | - Marian-Ionuț Știrbu
- Forest Biometrics Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry, "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Universității street, no. 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
| | - Cătălin-Constantin Roibu
- Forest Biometrics Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry, "Ștefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Universității street, no. 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
| | - Marco Carrer
- Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, via dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
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Zhang C, Khan A, Duan CY, Cao Y, Wu DD, Hao GY. Xylem hydraulics strongly influence the niche differentiation of tree species along the slope of a river valley in a water-limited area. PLANT, CELL & ENVIRONMENT 2023; 46:106-118. [PMID: 36253806 DOI: 10.1111/pce.14467] [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: 08/22/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Xylem hydraulic characteristics govern plant water transport, affecting both drought resistance and photosynthetic gas exchange. Therefore, they play critical roles in determining the adaptation of different species to environments with various water regimes. Here, we tested the hypothesis that variation in xylem traits associated with a trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety against drought-induced embolism contributes to niche differentiation of tree species along a sharp water availability gradient on the slope of a unique river valley located in a semi-humid area. We found that tree species showed clear niche differentiation with decreasing water availability from the bottom towards the top of the valley. Tree species occupying different positions, in terms of vertical distribution distance from the bottom of the valley, showed a strong trade-off between xylem water transport efficiency and safety, as evidenced by variations in xylem structural traits at both the tissue and pit levels. This optimized their xylem hydraulics in their respective water regimes. Thus, the trade-off between hydraulic efficiency and safety contributes to clear niche differentiation and, thereby, to the coexistence of tree species in the valley with heterogeneous water availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- Daqinggou Ecological Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Attaullah Khan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- Daqinggou Ecological Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
| | - Chun-Yang Duan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- Daqinggou Ecological Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yu Cao
- Institute of Sand Land Control and Utilization, Liaoning Province, Fuxin, China
| | - De-Dong Wu
- Institute of Sand Land Control and Utilization, Liaoning Province, Fuxin, China
| | - Guang-You Hao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
- Daqinggou Ecological Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
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3
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Wu F, Jiang Y, Zhao S, Wen Y, Li W, Kang M. Applying space-for-time substitution to infer the growth response to climate may lead to overestimation of tree maladaptation: Evidence from the North American White Spruce Network. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:5172-5184. [PMID: 35714046 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2022] [Revised: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/02/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Under climate change circumstances, increasing studies have reported the temporal instability of tree growth responses to climate, which poses a major challenge to linearly extrapolating past climate and future growth dynamics using tree-ring data. Space-for-time substitution (SFTS) is a potential solution to this problem that is widely used in the dendrochronology field to project past or future temporal growth response trajectories from contemporary spatial patterns. However, the projected accuracy of the SFTS in the climate effects on tree growth remains uncertain. Here, we empirically test the SFTS method by comparing the effect of spatial and temporal climate variations on climate responses of white spruce (Picea glauca), which has a transcontinental range in North America. We first applied a response surface regression model to capture the variations in growth responses along the spatial climate gradients. The results showed that the relationships between growth and June temperature varied along spatial climate gradients in a predictable way. And their relationships varied mainly along with local temperate condition. Then, the projected correlation coefficients between growth and climate using SFTS were compared against the observed. We found that the growth response changes caused by spatial versus temporal climate variations showed opposite trends. Moreover, the projected correlation coefficients using the SFTS were significantly lower than the observed. This finding suggests that applying the SFTS to project the growth response of white spruce might lead to an overestimation of the degree of tree maladaptation in future climate scenarios. And the overestimation is likely to get weaker from Alaska and Yukon Territory in the west to Quebec in the east. Although this is only a case study of the SFTS method for projecting tree growth response, our findings suggest that direct application of the SFTS method may not be applicable to all regions and all tree species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Protection and Utilization, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuan Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Protection and Utilization, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Shoudong Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yan Wen
- State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Protection and Utilization, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Wenqing Li
- Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China, Key Laboratory of Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation, Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center, Beijing, China
| | - Muyi Kang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Protection and Utilization, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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From Intra-plant to Regional Scale: June Temperatures and Regional Climates Directly and Indirectly Control Betula nana Growth in Arctic Alaska. Ecosystems 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10021-022-00771-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
AbstractTundra shrubs reflect climate sensitivities in their growth-ring widths, yet tissue-specific shrub chronologies are poorly studied. Further, the relative importance of regional climate patterns that exert mesoscale precipitation and temperature influences on tundra shrub growth has been explored in only a few Arctic locations. Here, we investigate Betula nana growth-ring chronologies from adjacent dry heath and moist tussock tundra habitats in arctic Alaska in relation to local and regional climate. Mean shrub and five tissue-specific ring width chronologies were analyzed using serial sectioning of above- and below-ground shrub organs, resulting in 30 shrubs per site with 161 and 104 cross sections from dry and moist tundra, respectively. Betula nana growth-ring widths in both habitats were primarily related to June air temperature (1989–2014). The strongest relationships with air temperature were found for ‘Branch2’ chronologies (dry site: r = 0.78, June 16, DOY = 167; moist site: r = 0.75, June 9, DOY = 160). Additionally, below-ground chronologies (‘Root’ and ‘Root2’) from the moist site were positively correlated with daily mean air temperatures in the previous late-June (‘Root2’ chronology: r = 0.57, pDOY = 173). Most tissue-specific chronologies exhibited the strongest correlations with daily mean air temperature during the period between 8 and 20 June. Structural equation modeling indicated that shrub growth is indirectly linked to regional Arctic and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (AO and PDO) climate indices through their relation to summer sea ice extent and air temperature. Strong dependence of Betula nana growth on early growing season temperature indicates a highly coordinated allocation of resources to tissue growth, which might increase its competitive advantage over other shrub species under a rapidly changing Arctic climate.
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Știrbu MI, Roibu CC, Carrer M, Mursa A, Unterholzner L, Prendin AL. Contrasting Climate Sensitivity of Pinus cembra Tree-Ring Traits in the Carpathians. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:855003. [PMID: 35755705 PMCID: PMC9228034 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.855003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
High-elevation ecosystems are one of the most sensitive to climate change. The analysis of growth and xylem structure of trees from marginal populations, especially the ones growing at the treeline, could provide early-warning signs to better understand species-specific responses to future climate conditions. In this study, we combined classical dendrochronology with wood density and anatomical measurements to investigate the climate sensitivity of Pinus cembra L., a typical European high-elevation tree species distributed in isolated patches in the Carpathians. Samples were collected from the Retezat Mountains, South-Western Romania. We analyzed ring width (TRW), maximum density (MXD), xylem anatomical traits [cell number per ring (CNo), cell density (CD), conduit area (CA), and cell wall thickness (CWT)] time series, split into ring sectors and assessed the relationships with monthly and daily climate records over the last century (1901-2015). The analysis showed a strong dependency of TRW on CNo and MXD on CWT. Summer temperature positively correlated with MXD and CWT [monthly correlation (r) were 0.65 and 0.48 respectively] from the early to late wood but not TRW (r = 0.22). CA positively correlated with water availability (r = 0.37) and negatively correlated with temperature (r = -0.39). This study improves our general understanding of the climate-growth relationships of a European high-elevation tree species and the results could be considered for forecasting population dynamics on projected changes in climate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marian-Ionuț Știrbu
- Forest Biometrics Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry, ‘Stefan cel Mare’ University of Suceava, Suceava, Romania
| | - Cătălin-Constantin Roibu
- Forest Biometrics Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry, ‘Stefan cel Mare’ University of Suceava, Suceava, Romania
| | - Marco Carrer
- Department of Land Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy
| | - Andrei Mursa
- Forest Biometrics Laboratory, Faculty of Forestry, ‘Stefan cel Mare’ University of Suceava, Suceava, Romania
| | - Lucrezia Unterholzner
- Department of Land Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy
| | - Angela Luisa Prendin
- Department of Land Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy
- Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
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Pampuch T, Anadon-Rosell A, Trouillier M, Lange J, Wilmking M. Direct and Indirect Effects of Environmental Limitations on White Spruce Xylem Anatomy at Treeline. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:748055. [PMID: 34759941 PMCID: PMC8573320 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.748055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Treeline ecosystems are of great scientific interest to study the effects of limiting environmental conditions on tree growth. However, tree growth is multidimensional, with complex interactions between height and radial growth. In this study, we aimed to disentangle effects of height and climate on xylem anatomy of white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] at three treeline sites in Alaska; i.e., one warm and drought-limited, and two cold, temperature-limited. To analyze general growth differences between trees from different sites, we used data on annual ring width, diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree height. A representative subset of the samples was used to investigate xylem anatomical traits. We then used linear mixed-effects models to estimate the effects of height and climatic variables on our study traits. Our study showed that xylem anatomical traits in white spruce can be directly and indirectly controlled by environmental conditions: hydraulic-related traits seem to be mainly influenced by tree height, especially in the earlywood. Thus, they are indirectly driven by environmental conditions, through the environment's effects on tree height. Traits related to mechanical support show a direct response to environmental conditions, mainly temperature, especially in the latewood. These results highlight the importance of assessing tree growth in a multidimensional way by considering both direct and indirect effects of environmental forcing to better understand the complexity of tree growth responses to the environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timo Pampuch
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Alba Anadon-Rosell
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- CREAF – Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mario Trouillier
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Jelena Lange
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czechia
| | - Martin Wilmking
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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The Role of Aging and Wind in Inducing Death and/or Growth Reduction in Korean Fir (Abies Koreana Wilson) on Mt. Halla, Korea. ATMOSPHERE 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos12091135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of strong winds and aging in the death and/or decline in the growth of Korean fir on Mt. Halla in Korea. Bangeoreum (BA-S), Jindalrebat (JD-E), and Youngsil (YS-W) on the southern, eastern, and western slopes of Mt. Halla (ca. 1600 and 1700 m a.s.l.) were selected for the study. The site chronologies were established using more than 10 living Korean firs at each site. Additionally, to date the years and seasons of death of standing/fallen dead Korean firs, 15/15, 14/15, and 10/10 trees were selected at BA-S, JD-E, and YS-W, respectively. After adjusting the age with the period of growth up to the sampling point, the oldest Korean fir found among the living trees was 114 years old at JD-E and the oldest fir among the dead trees was 131 years old at JD-E. Besides this, most of the trees at BA-S and JD-E were found to have died between 2008 and 2015, and at irregular intervals between 1976 and 2013 at YS-W. Also, the maximum number of trees, that is, 62.7% died between spring and summer, followed by 20.9% between summer and autumn, and 16.4% between autumn of the current year and spring of the following year. Abrupt growth reductions occurred at BA-S and JD-E, and have become more significant in recent years, whereas at YS-W, the abrupt growth reduction and recovery occur in a cyclic order. The intensity and frequency of the typhoons increased from 2012, and this trend was in-line with the increased number of abrupt growth reductions at BA-S and JD-E. Therefore, the typhoons of 2012 are considered as the most likely influencing factor in death and/or growth reduction in Korean firs. In contrast, the decline in the growth of the Korean firs located on the windward slope (YS-W) showed a relationship with winds stronger than 25–33 m/s.
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Gebregeorgis EG, Boniecka J, Pia̧tkowski M, Robertson I, Rathgeber CBK. SabaTracheid 1.0: A Novel Program for Quantitative Analysis of Conifer Wood Anatomy - A Demonstration on African Juniper From the Blue Nile Basin. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:595258. [PMID: 33815433 PMCID: PMC8013728 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.595258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2020] [Accepted: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Knowledge about past climates, especially at a seasonal time scale, is important as it allows informed decisions to be made to mitigate future climate change. However, globally, and especially in semi-arid Tropics, instrumental climatic data are scarce. A dendroclimatic approach may fill this gap, but tropical dendrochronological data are rare and do not yet provide fine resolution intra-annual information about past climates. Unlike in the Tropics, in the Mediterranean, temperate, alpine, and arctic regions, dendroanatomy and quantitative wood anatomy (QWA) are progressing fast attaining an intra-annual resolution, which allows a better understanding of seasonal climate dynamics and climate-growth relationships. The existing dendroanatomical and QWA methods aren't suitable for tropical trees because they do not consider the high variation in tree ring width and the frequent occurrence of micro-rings containing only a few tracheids per radial file. The available tracheid analysis programs generally fail to provide multiple sectors for micro-rings and they are unable to compute most of the useful dendroanatomical parameters at fine temporal resolutions. Here, we present a program (SabaTracheid) that addresses the three main standard tasks that are necessary for QWA and dendroanatomy before running a climate analysis: (1) tracheidogram standardization, (2) sectoring, and (3) computing QWA and dendroanatomical variables. SabaTracheid is demonstrated on African Juniper (Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl), but it is potentially able to provide fine-resolution QWA and dendroanatomic data that could be used for dendroanatomical studies in all regions of the world. SabaTracheid is a freeware that quickly and accurately standardizes tracheidograms, divides tree rings into multiple regular sectors, computes useful dendroanatomic and QWA variables for the whole tree rings, early- and latewood portions, and each sector separately. This program is particularly adapted to deal with high inter-annual growth variations observed in tropical trees so that it assures the provision of complete sectoral QWA and dendroanatomical data for micro-rings as well. We demonstrate SabaTracheid using a dataset of 30 Juniperus procera tree rings from the Blue Nile basin, in Ethiopia. SabaTracheid's ability to provide fine resolution QWA and dendroanatomic data will help the discipline develop in tropical as well as in the Mediterranean and temperate regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eyob Gebrehiwot Gebregeorgis
- Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Justyna Boniecka
- Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland
| | - Marcin Pia̧tkowski
- Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland
| | - Iain Robertson
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom
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Pampuch T, Anadon-Rosell A, Zacharias M, von Arx G, Wilmking M. Xylem Anatomical Variability in White Spruce at Treeline Is Largely Driven by Spatial Clustering. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2020; 11:581378. [PMID: 33193527 PMCID: PMC7609655 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.581378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/30/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The ecological function of boreal forests is challenged by drastically changing climate conditions. Although an increasing number of studies are investigating how climate change is influencing growth and distribution of boreal tree species, there is a lack of studies examining the potential of these species to genetically adapt or phenotypically adjust. Here, we sampled clonally and non-clonally growing white spruce trees (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss) to investigate spatial and genetic effects on tree ring width and on six xylem anatomical traits representing growth, water transport, mechanical support, and wood density. We compared different methods for estimating broad sense heritability (H2) of each trait and we evaluated the effects of spatial grouping and genetic grouping on the xylem anatomical traits with linear models. We found that the three different methods used to estimate H2 were quite robust, showing overall consistent patterns, while our analyses were unsuccessful at fully separating genetic from spatial effects. By evaluating the effect size, we found a significant effect of genetic grouping in latewood density and earlywood hydraulic diameter. However, evaluating model performances showed that spatial grouping was a better predictor than genetic grouping for variance in earlywood density, earlywood hydraulic diameter and growth. For cell wall thickness neither spatial nor genetic grouping was significant. Our findings imply that (1) the variance in the investigated xylem anatomical traits and growth is mainly influenced by spatial clustering (most probably caused by microhabitat conditions), which (2) makes it rather difficult to estimate the heritability of these traits in naturally grown trees in situ. Yet, (3) latewood density and earlywood hydraulic diameter qualified for further analysis on the genetic background of xylem traits and (4) cell wall thickness seems a useful trait to investigate large-scale climatic effects, decoupled from microclimatic, edaphic and genetic influences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timo Pampuch
- Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics Working Group, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Alba Anadon-Rosell
- Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics Working Group, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Melanie Zacharias
- General and Special Botany Working Group, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Georg von Arx
- Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Martin Wilmking
- Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics Working Group, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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Wilmking M, van der Maaten-Theunissen M, van der Maaten E, Scharnweber T, Buras A, Biermann C, Gurskaya M, Hallinger M, Lange J, Shetti R, Smiljanic M, Trouillier M. Global assessment of relationships between climate and tree growth. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:3212-3220. [PMID: 32124523 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 02/20/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Tree-ring records provide global high-resolution information on tree-species responses to global change, forest carbon and water dynamics, and past climate variability and extremes. The underlying assumption is a stationary (time-stable), quasi-linear relationship between tree growth and environment, which however conflicts with basic ecological and evolutionary theory. Indeed, our global assessment of the relevant tree-ring literature demonstrates non-stationarity in the majority of tested cases, not limited to specific proxies, environmental parameters, regions or species. Non-stationarity likely represents the general nature of the relationship between tree-growth proxies and environment. Studies assuming stationarity however score two times more citations influencing other fields of science and the science-policy interface. To reconcile ecological reality with the application of tree-ring proxies for climate or environmental estimates, we provide a clarification of the stationarity concept, propose a simple confidence framework for the re-evaluation of existing studies and recommend the use of a new statistical tool to detect non-stationarity in tree-ring proxies. Our contribution is meant to stimulate and facilitate discussion in light of our results to help increase confidence in tree-ring-based climate and environmental estimates for science, the public and policymakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Wilmking
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | | | - Ernst van der Maaten
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Tobias Scharnweber
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Allan Buras
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Christine Biermann
- Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
| | - Marina Gurskaya
- Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Martin Hallinger
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Jelena Lange
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Rohan Shetti
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Marko Smiljanic
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Mario Trouillier
- Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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