Growing‐season frost is a better predictor of tree growth than mean annual temperature in boreal mixedwood forest plantations

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 6537-6554
Author(s):  
Benjamin Marquis ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Martin Simard ◽  
Francine Tremblay
Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1015
Author(s):  
Xuan Wu ◽  
Liang Jiao ◽  
Dashi Du ◽  
Changliang Qi ◽  
Ruhong Xue

It is important to explore the responses of radial tree growth in different regions to understand growth patterns and to enhance forest management and protection with climate change. We constructed tree ring width chronologies of Picea crassifolia from different regions of the Qilian Mountains of northwest China. We used Pearson correlation and moving correlation to analyze the main climate factors limiting radial growth of trees and the temporal stability of the growth–climate relationship, while spatial correlation is the result of further testing the first two terms in space. The conclusions were as follows: (1) Radial growth had different trends, showing an increasing followed by a decreasing trend in the central region, a continuously increasing trend in the eastern region, and a gradually decreasing trend in the isolated mountain. (2) Radial tree growth in the central region and isolated mountains was constrained by drought stress, and tree growth in the central region was significantly negatively correlated with growing season temperature. Isolated mountains showed a significant negative correlation with mean minimum of growing season and a significant positive correlation with total precipitation. (3) Temporal dynamic responses of radial growth in the central region to the temperatures and SPEI (the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index) in the growing season were unstable, the isolated mountains to total precipitation was unstable, and that to SPEI was stable. The results of this study suggest that scientific management and maintenance plans of the forest ecosystem should be developed according to the response and growth patterns of the Qinghai spruce to climate change in different regions of the Qilian Mountains.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milagros Rodriguez-Caton ◽  
Laia Andreu-Hayles ◽  
Mariano S Morales ◽  
Valérie Daux ◽  
Duncan A Christie ◽  
...  

Abstract Tree growth is generally considered to be temperature-limited at upper elevation treelines. Yet, climate factors controlling tree growth at semiarid treelines are poorly understood. We explored the influence of climate on stem growth and stable isotopes for Polyepis tarapacana, the world’s highest elevation tree-species found only in the South American Altiplano. We developed tree-ring width index (RWI), oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) chronologies for the last 60 years at four P. tarapacana stands located above 4,400 meters in elevation, along a 500-km latitude-aridity gradient. Total annual precipitation decreased from 300 to 200 mm from the northern to the southern sites. We used RWI as a proxy of wood formation (carbon sink) and isotopic tree-ring signatures as proxies of leaf-level gas exchange processes (carbon source). We found distinct climatic conditions regulating carbon-sink processes along the gradient. Current-growing season temperature regulated RWI at wetter-northern sites, while prior-growing season precipitation determined RWI at arid-southern sites. This suggests that the relative importance of temperature to precipitation in regulating tree growth is driven by site-water availability. In contrast, warm and dry growing-seasons resulted in enriched tree-ring δ13C and δ18O at all study sites, suggesting that similar climate conditions control carbon-source processes. Site-level δ13C and δ18O chronologies were significantly and positively related at all sites, with the strongest relationships among the southern-drier stands. This indicates an overall regulation of intercellular carbon dioxide via stomatal conductance for the entire P. tarapacana network, with greater stomatal control when aridity increases. The manuscript also highlights a coupling and decoupling of physiological processes at leaf level versus wood formation depending on their respectively uniform and distinct sensitivity to climate. This study contributes to better understand and predict the response of high-elevation Polylepis woodlands to rapid climate changes and projected drying in the Altiplano.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Saunders ◽  
Ruchita Ingle ◽  
Shane Regan

<p>Peatland ecosystems are integral to the mitigation of climate change as they represent significant terrestrial carbon sinks. In Ireland, peatlands cover ~20% of the land area but hold up to 75% of the soil organic carbon stock however many of these ecosystems (~85% of the total area) have been degraded due to anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, forestry and extraction for horticulture or energy. Furthermore, the carbon stocks that remain in these systems are vulnerable to inter-annual variation in climate, such as changes in precipitation and temperature, which can alter the hydrological status of these systems leading to changes in key biogeochemical processes and carbon and greenhouse gas exchange.  During 2018 exceptional drought and heatwave conditions were reported across Northwestern Europe, where reductions in precipitation coupled with elevated temperatures were observed. Exceptional inter-annual climatic variability was also observed at Clara bog, a near natural raised bog in the Irish midlands when data from 2018 and 2019 were compared. Precipitation in 2018 was ~300 mm lower than 2019 while the average mean annual temperature was 0.5°C higher. The reduction in precipitation, particularly during the growing season in 2018, consistently lowered the water table where ~150 consecutive days where the water table was >5cm below the surface of the bog were observed at the central ecotope location. The differing hydrological conditions between years resulted in the study area, as determined by the flux footprint of the eddy covariance tower, acting as a net source of carbon of 53.5 g C m<sup>-2</sup> in 2018 and a net sink of 125.2 g C m<sup>-2</sup> in 2019. The differences in the carbon dynamics between years were primarily driven by enhanced ecosystem respiration (R<sub>eco</sub>) and lower rates of Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) in the drier year, where the maximum monthly ratio of GPP:R<sub>eco</sub> during the growing season was 0.96 g C m<sup>-2</sup> month in 2018 and 1.14 g C m<sup>-2</sup> month in 2019. This study highlights both the vulnerability and resilience of these ecosystems to exceptional inter-annual climatic variability and emphasises the need for long-term monitoring networks to enhance our understanding of the impacts of these events when they occur.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2381-2392
Author(s):  
Maierdang Keyimu ◽  
Zongshan Li ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Guohua Liu ◽  
Fanjiang Zeng ◽  
...  

Abstract. Trees record climatic conditions during their growth, and tree rings serve as proxy to reveal the features of the historical climate of a region. In this study, we collected tree-ring cores of hemlock forest (Tsuga forrestii) from the northwestern Yunnan area of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) and created a residual tree-ring width (TRW) chronology. An analysis of the relationship between tree growth and climate revealed that precipitation during the non-growing season (NGS) (from November of the previous year to February of the current year) was the most important constraining factor on the radial tree growth of hemlock forests in this region. In addition, the influence of NGS precipitation on radial tree growth was relatively uniform over time (1956–2005). Accordingly, we reconstructed the NGS precipitation over the period spanning from 1600–2005. The reconstruction accounted for 28.5 % of the actual variance during the common period of 1956–2005. Based on the reconstruction, NGS was extremely dry during the years 1656, 1694, 1703, 1736, 1897, 1907, 1943, 1982 and 1999. In contrast, the NGS was extremely wet during the years 1627, 1638, 1654, 1832, 1834–1835 and 1992. Similar variations of the NGS precipitation reconstruction series and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions of early growing season from surrounding regions indicated the reliability of the present reconstruction. A comparison of the reconstruction with Climate Research Unit (CRU) gridded data revealed that our reconstruction was representative of the NGS precipitation variability of a large region in the SETP. Our study provides the first historical NGS precipitation reconstruction in the SETP which enriches the understanding of the long-term climate variability of this region. The NGS precipitation showed slightly increasing trend during the last decade which might accelerate regional hemlock forest growth.


Author(s):  
Aurora Maria Ranca ◽  
Victoria Artem ◽  
Ionica Dina ◽  
Liliana Parcalabu ◽  
Maria Iliescu ◽  
...  

In five Romanian vineyards, in 2013-2014 period was experimented organic system growing on  grape varieties for wine representative for each area, here are applied organic growing technology in parallel with the conventional (control). White varieties studied are: Chardonnay (Murfatlar and Valea Calugareasca), Sauvignon blanc and Muscat Ottonel(Tarnave), Feteasca regala (Tarnave, Bujoru and Copou-Iasi). Red varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon (Murfatlar and Valea Calugareasca) and Merlot (Bujoru).Concerning evolution of main climatic factors for the years 2013-2014 it is show that the annual average air temperature increase compared with the average of the years 1991-2010; is observed an increasing in mean annual temperature, mean temperature during the growing season and the value of sum of sunshine hours. The water regime was kept constant, registering values close to the annual average, both during the growing season and at entire year. The weeds spectrum is represented both by dicotyledonous as knotweed (Polygonum aviculare), Veronica (Stellaria media), news (Amaranthus retroflexus), bindweed (Convolvurus arvensis) and monocotyledonous as grass thick (Cynodon dactylon).Concerning the phytosanitary status, at Murfatlar were registered problems with oidium attack, with all main disease at Dealu Mare and with downy mildew at Bujoru. In all areas the pest has been found are: grape mouth (Lobesia botrana) and spiders (Tetranichus sp.). Schemes of treatments focused generally on substances bassed on copper and sulfur to combat diseases and for pests have been used pheromonal traps or other certified organic products.The grapes harvest was lower in organic plots with till 25%; their quality being close at both growing variants.


1990 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 892-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Patterson ◽  
Glenn Wehtje ◽  
William D. Goff

The effect of irrigation and weed control by various mechanical and chemical means was evaluated over a 4-yr period on newly planted pecans [Carya illinoensis(Wang.) K. Koch]. Weed control effect on tree growth became evident in the second growing season, and became more pronounced after the third and fourth season. After the fourth season, the maximum increase in tree diameter (384%) was achieved with comprehensive, herbicide-based weed control. Mowing provided a 224% increase, which was equivalent to the untreated (229%). Disking and selective chemical control of grass weeds resulted in 339 and 292% increase, respectively. Cumulative increase in tree diameter was 316 and 271% with and without irrigation, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Hu ◽  
Wenlong Zhou ◽  
Xiaonuo Li ◽  
Karl J. Niklas ◽  
Shucun Sun

Climate warming exerts profound effects on plant community composition. However, responses to climate warming are often reported at the community and functional type levels, but not at the species level. To test whether warming-induced changes are consistent among community, functional type, and species levels, we examined the warming-induced changes at different levels in an alpine meadow from 2015 to 2018. The warming was achieved by deploying six (open top) chambers [including three non-warmed chambers and three warmed chambers; 15 × 15 × 2.5 m (height) for each] that resulted in a small increase in mean annual temperature (0.3–0.5°C, varying with years) with a higher increase during the non-growing season (0.4–0.6°C) than in the growing season (0.03–0.47°C). The results show that warming increased plant aboveground biomass but did not change species richness, or Shannon diversity and evenness at the community level. At the functional type level, warming increased the relative abundance of grasses from 3 to 16%, but decreased the relative abundance of forbs from 89 to 79%; relative abundances of sedges and legumes were unchanged. However, for a given functional type, warming could result in contrasting effects on the relative abundance among species, e.g., the abundances of the forb species Geranium pylzowianum, Potentilla anserine, Euphrasia pectinate, and the sedge species Carex atrofusca increased in the warmed (compared to the non-warmed) chambers. More importantly, the difference in species identity between warmed and non-warmed chambers revealed warming-induced species loss. Specifically, four forb species were lost in both types of chambers, one additional forb species (Angelica apaensis) was lost in the non-warmed chambers, and two additional species (one forb species Saussurea stella and one sedge species Blysmus sinocompressus) were lost in the warmed chambers. Consequently, changes at the species level could not be deduced from the results at the community or functional type levels. These data indicate that species-level responses to climate changes must be more intensively studied. This work also highlights the importance of examining species identity (and not only species number) to study changes of community composition in response to climate warming.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 510-518
Author(s):  
Tapani Repo ◽  
Timo Domisch ◽  
Jouni Kilpeläinen ◽  
Sirpa Piirainen ◽  
Raimo Silvennoinen ◽  
...  

Excess water in the rooting zone critically reduces tree growth and may even kill trees; however, the relative importance of damage to roots versus aboveground parts and the time course of damage are not well understood. We studied the dynamics of fine-root growth and mortality of 7-year-old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) saplings affected by a 5-week period of waterlogging (WL) during the growing season. Two out of six WL-exposed saplings survived the treatment. After 1–2 weeks of WL, the mortality of the first-order short roots (usually mycorrhizas) started to increase and the production of these roots started to decrease. WL decreased the longevity of short and long roots. Total root length (especially of fine roots with a diameter < 0.5 mm), specific fine-root length, total root dry mass (including stump), and reverse-flow root hydraulic conductance were lower in WL saplings than in control saplings at the end of the experiment; however, several root traits were similar in control and surviving WL saplings. Because of the high importance of fine roots for tree growth and carbon sequestration, their responses to elevated water tables should be considered in sustainable use and management of boreal peatland forests, for example, by continuous cover forestry and (or) ditch network maintenance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 3462-3471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianliang Zhang ◽  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Loïc D'Orangeville ◽  
Tim T. Rademacher ◽  
Junxia Li ◽  
...  

1963 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Saidak ◽  
W. M. Rutherford

The growth of young apple trees was reduced by application of 24 pounds per acre of either simazine or diuron in a 2-year period. Application of 30 pounds per acre amitrole in the same period had no effect on tree growth, although some slight leaf chlorosis was observed. Adequate weed control for the growing season was obtained with a spring application of amitrole 5 pounds per acre and diuron or simazine 4 pounds per acre. Annual application rates of diuron or simazine should not exceed 6 pounds per acre, in order to avoid injury to young trees.


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