scholarly journals Response of Four Tree Species to Changing Climate in a Moisture-Limited Area of South Siberia

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena A. Babushkina ◽  
Dina F. Zhirnova ◽  
Liliana V. Belokopytova ◽  
Ivan I. Tychkov ◽  
Eugene A. Vaganov ◽  
...  

The response of vegetation to climate change is of special interest in regions where rapid warming is coupled with moisture deficit. This raises the question of the limits in plants’ acclimation ability and the consequent shifts of the vegetation cover. Radial growth dynamics and climatic response were studied in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.), and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.) in the forest-steppe, and for Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila L.) in the steppe of South Siberia, as indicators of vegetation state and dynamics. Climate–growth relationships were analyzed by the following two approaches: (1) correlations between tree-ring width chronologies and short-term moving climatic series, and (2) optimization of the parameters of the Vaganov–Shashkin tree growth simulation model to assess the ecophysiological characteristics of species. Regional warming was accompanied by a slower increase of the average moisture deficit, but not in the severity of droughts. In the forest-steppe, the trees demonstrated stable growth and responded to the May–July climate. In the steppe, elm was limited by moisture deficit in May–beginning of June, during the peak water deficit. The forest-steppe stands were apparently acclimated successfully to the current climatic trends. It seems that elm was able to counter the water deficit, likely through its capacity to regulate transpiration by the stomatal morphology and xylem structure, using most of the stem as a water reservoir; earlier onset; and high growth rate, and these physiological traits may provide advantages to this species, leading to its expansion in steppes.

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Elena A. Babushkina ◽  
Dina F. Zhirnova ◽  
Liliana V. Belokopytova ◽  
Nivedita Mehrotra ◽  
Santosh K. Shah ◽  
...  

Improvement of dendrochronological crops yield reconstruction by separate application of earlywood and latewood width chronologies succeeded in rain-fed semiarid region. (1) Background: Tree-ring width chronologies have been successfully applied for crops yield reconstruction models. We propose application of separated earlywood and latewood width chronologies as possible predictors improving the fitness of reconstruction models. (2) Methods: The generalized yield series of main crops (spring wheat, spring barley, oats) were investigated in rain-fed and irrigated areas in semiarid steppes of South Siberia. Chronologies of earlywood, latewood, and total ring width of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) growing in forest-steppe in the middle of the study area were tested as predictors of yield reconstruction models. (3) Results: In the rain-fed territory, separation of earlywood and latewood allowed increasing variation of yield explained by reconstruction model from 17.4 to 20.5%, whereas total climatic-driven component of variation was 41.5%. However, both tree-ring based models explained only 7.7% of yield variation in the irrigated territory (climate inclusion increased it to 34.8%). Low temperature sensitivity of larch growth was the main limitation of the model. A 240-year (1780–2019) history of crop failures and yield variation dynamics were estimated from the actual data and the best reconstruction model. (4) Conclusions: Presently in the study region, breeding of the environment-resistant crops varieties compensates the increase of temperature in the yield dynamics, preventing severe harvest losses. Tree-ring based reconstructions may help to understand and forecast response of the crops to the climatic variability, and also the probability of crop failures, particularly in the rain-fed territories.


2021 ◽  
Vol 193 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Erasmi ◽  
Michael Klinge ◽  
Choimaa Dulamsuren ◽  
Florian Schneider ◽  
Markus Hauck

AbstractThe monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of vegetation productivity is important in the context of carbon sequestration by terrestrial ecosystems from the atmosphere. The accessibility of the full archive of medium-resolution earth observation data for multiple decades dramatically improved the potential of remote sensing to support global climate change and terrestrial carbon cycle studies. We investigated a dense time series of multi-sensor Landsat Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data at the southern fringe of the boreal forests in the Mongolian forest-steppe with regard to the ability to capture the annual variability in radial stemwood increment and thus forest productivity. Forest productivity was assessed from dendrochronological series of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) from 15 plots in forest patches of different ages and stand sizes. The results revealed a strong correlation between the maximum growing season NDVI of forest sites and tree ring width over an observation period of 20 years. This relationship was independent of the forest stand size and of the landscape’s forest-to-grassland ratio. We conclude from the consistent findings of our case study that the maximum growing season NDVI can be used for retrospective modelling of forest productivity over larger areas. The usefulness of grassland NDVI as a proxy for forest NDVI to monitor forest productivity in semi-arid areas could only partially be confirmed. Spatial and temporal inconsistencies between forest and grassland NDVI are a consequence of different physiological and ecological vegetation properties. Due to coarse spatial resolution of available satellite data, previous studies were not able to account for small-scaled land-cover patches like fragmented forest in the forest-steppe. Landsat satellite-time series were able to separate those effects and thus may contribute to a better understanding of the impact of global climate change on natural ecosystems.


Quaternary ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Markova ◽  
Andrey Puzachenko

Small mammal remains obtained from the European localities dated to the Eemian (Mikulino) age have been analyzed for the first time at a regional scale based on the present biogeographical regionalization of Europe. The regional faunas dated to the warm interval in the first part of the Late Pleistocene display notable differences in fauna composition, species richness, and diversity indices. The classification of regional faunal assemblages revealed distinctive features of small mammal faunas in Eastern and Western Europe during the Eemian (=Mikulino, =Ipswichian) Interglacial. Faunas of the Iberian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula, and Sardinia Island appear to deviate from the other regions. In the Eemian Interglacial, the maximum species richness of small mammals (≥40 species) with a relatively high proportion of typical forest species was recorded in Western and Central Europe and in the western part of Eastern Europe. The lowest species richness (5–14 species) was typical of island faunas and of those in the north of Eastern Europe. The data obtained make it possible to reconstruct the distribution of forest biotopes and open habitats (forest-steppe and steppe) in various regions of Europe. Noteworthy is a limited area of forests in the south and in the northeastern part of Europe. In these regions, it seems likely that under conditions of relatively high temperatures characteristic of the Last Interglacial and an insufficient moisture supply there could exist open forest stands or forest-steppe landscapes, as suggested by the presence of species indicative of forest-steppe and steppe north of the forest zone. The results obtained are useful in modeling changes in the mammal faunas as well as environmental changes in entire Europe due to global climatic changes (including the global warming recorded at present).


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 839
Author(s):  
Liang Shi ◽  
Guangxin Li ◽  
Hongyan Liu ◽  
Jeffery P. Dech ◽  
Mei Zhou ◽  
...  

Droughts are a recurrent phenomenon in the semiarid forest-steppe ecotone of Mongolia with negative consequences for tree growth and agricultural management. In order to better cope with the uncertainty of a changing climate, the study of historical drought and its effects on forests could provide useful insights into ecosystem responses to climate variability. Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) is a dominant tree species in Western Mongolia that provides a valuable source of proxy data in the form of annual rings. We used dendrochronological techniques to establish a standard master chronology and analyze the relationship between annual ring widths and climatic factors. Correlation analyses revealed that the strongest associations of tree-ring index (TRI) values for the master chronology to direct climate variables were June temperature (r = −0.36, p < 0.01) and precipitation (r = 0.39, p < 0.01). The master chronology was strongly correlated to Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for June (r = 0.606, p < 0.001), and this variable (PDSIJun) was chosen for reconstruction. A simple linear regression of PDSIJun based on TRI explained 35.4% of the total variance for the period 1965–2016 and based on this model the PDSIJun changes from 1731–2016 were reconstructed. Split–sample calibration–verification tests were conducted to evaluate the quality of the model used for climate reconstruction. In the past 286 years, the number of non-drought years (PDSI > 0) was low, with a frequency of only 14.1% of the total reconstruction years. Extreme drought (PDSIJun < −2.70) occurred frequently in the 19th and early and late 20th centuries. Multi-taper method (MTM) spectra and wavelet analysis showed that the reconstructed PDSI series had high and low frequency periods (2.4–3.3 and 85–92 years). Our findings provide an understanding of the drought history of the semiarid forest-steppe ecotone of western Mongolia.


2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Choimaa Dulamsuren ◽  
Markus Hauck ◽  
Hanns Hubert Leuschner ◽  
Christoph Leuschner

Author(s):  
Vadim Lyalko ◽  
Galyna Zholobak ◽  
Stanislav Dugin ◽  
Oksana Sybirtseva ◽  
Stanislav Golubov ◽  
...  

Operation of the indicators for the reliable regional carbon dioxide content in atmosphere is the important factor for the computer simulation of climatic changes at the appropriate scale. A goal is the experimental study of the processes for carbon dioxide gas exchange (photosynthesis and respiration) of wetland vegetation for the forest-steppe zone in Ukraine under recent climatic changes in order to determine the quantitative indicators for the CO2 removal rate from the atmosphere by this vegetation. For this the CO2 Qubit Systems s151 (Canada) are used to measure СО2 in air end spectroradiometer FieldSpec® 3FR (USA). This system has got the respiratory flow-through camber, where the test plant is placed. The CO2 concentration changes in this chamber are measured by IR gas analyzer for the certain timespan. Data are processed by LabProInterface. The results obtained for the main wetland plants (Carex riparia and Phragmites australis ) during the spring-summer vegetative period show that the growth of their productivity (CO2 removal rate from atmosphere) takes place only under the environmental temperature of 18-22 о С. Also, it is certain that the positive indicator for these systems is their appreciably longer photosynthetic activity period as compared with the different ecosystems due to the cooling effect of soil moisture in their habitat. It should be taking into account when the measures for minimization of regional warming effects are implemented with the maximally contributing to the reclamation and revivification of the wetlands.


Author(s):  
Irina Panyushkina ◽  
David M Meko ◽  
Alexander Shiklomanov ◽  
Richard D Thaxton ◽  
Vladimyr Myglan ◽  
...  

Abstract The Yenisei River is the largest contributor of freshwater and energy fluxes among all rivers draining to the Arctic Ocean. Modeling long-term variability of Eurasian runoff to the Arctic Ocean is complicated by the considerable variability of river discharge in time and space, and the monitoring constraints imposed by a sparse gauged-flow network and paucity of satellite data. We quantify tree growth response to river discharge at the upper reaches of the Yenisei River in Tuva, South Siberia. Two regression models built from eight tree-ring width chronologies of Larix sibirica are applied to reconstruct winter (Nov–Apr) discharge for the period 1784-1997 (214 years), and annual (Oct–Sept) discharge for the period 1701–2000 (300 years). The Nov–Apr model explains 52% of the discharge variance whereas Oct–Sept explains 26% for the calibration intervals 1927–1997 and 1927-2000, respectively. This new hydrological archive doubles the length of the instrumental discharge record at the Kyzyl gauge and resets the temporal background of discharge variability back to 1784. The reconstruction finds a remarkable 80% upsurge in winter flow over the last 25 years, which is unprecedented in the last 214 years. In contrast, annual discharge fluctuated normally for this system, with only a 7% increase over the last 25 years. Water balance modeling with CRU data manifests a significant discrepancy between decadal variability of the gauged flow and climate data after 1960. We discuss the impact on the baseflow rate change of both the accelerating permafrost warming in the discontinuous zone of South Siberia and widespread forest fires. The winter discharge accounts for only one-third of the annual flow, yet the persistent 25-year upsurge is alarming. This trend is likely caused by Arctic Amplification, which can be further magnified by increased winter flow delivering significantly more freshwater to the Kara Sea during the cold season.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 648-663
Author(s):  
A. S. Savelieva ◽  
P. V. German ◽  
I. A. Plats ◽  
L. Yu. Bobrova

The article introduces some information about the expeditionary studies on the archaeological sites located on the banks of the Middle Kiya River valley. The authors believe that the Kiya is one of the main rivers for such important historical and cultural area of South Siberia as the Kiya – Chulym interfluve. The expeditionary studies have been conducted here since the late XIX century; however, professional archaeological studies began as late as in the 1950s. The paper describes the excavations conducted by A. I. Martynov, G. S. Martynova, I. I. Baukhnik, A. M. Kilemzin, A. V. Tsirkin, A. P. Okladnikov, V. I. Molodin, V. V. Bobrov, A. S. Vasyutin, V. N. Zharonkin, P. V. German, A. V. Fribus, and P. G. Sokolov. It focuses on the carefully planned excavations conducted on the banks of the middle forest-steppe part of the Kiya River valley. Seven expeditions discovered eighty previously unknown archaeological sites. While performing the historiographic mapping of archaeological sites, the authors took into account the type of artifact and the type of archaeological study. The authors analyzed the localization of the archeological sites near the villages of Shestakovo and Chumay and the city of Mariinsk published by A. M. Kulemzin and I. I. Baukhnik and compared them with the results of the mapping. They defined the territory as a single Middle-Kiya archaeological microdistrict that includes the archaeological complexes of Shestakovo, Chumay, and Archekas (Mariinsk). The article also includes some preliminary ideas about the types of archaeological studies, as well as typological and chronological description of the monuments.


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