Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis), an Evergreen Species in a Semiarid Treeline

Wieser, Gerhard; Brito, Patricia; Lorenzo, José R.; González‐Rodríguez, A.; Morales, D.; Jiménez, María Soledad

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-25688-7_14

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Pinus canariensis is a palaeo-endemic pine species (Pinaceae) of the Canary Islands (Wieser et al 2016) that shows adaptation to a wide range of climatic conditions (López de Heredia et al 2014). Pinus canariensis grows up to 60 m high, has long needles (up to 25 cm) enabling it to comb out water from passing clouds, thick bark (up to 7 cm), which can resist fire, serotinous cones allowing a regeneration after fire and it is one of the very few species of Pinaceae which can resprout from epicormic shoots after severe fire (Climent et al 2004).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, thresholds of climatic seasonality below which year-round growth continuity is induced are not well known. This is mainly because the relationships tend to be species-specific, and result from a complex interaction of climatic conditions, site-specific conditions and timing (Babst et al 2013; Irl et al 2016; Wieser et al 2016). A valuable research opportunity is provided if a single species (a ‘phytometer’) occurs across large gradients of temperature, precipitation and across sites which are assumed to have different climatic seasonality (the degree to which temperature or precipitation amounts change during the course of the year).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A novel dendroecological method finds a non-linear relationship between elevation and seasonal growth continuity on an island with trade wind-influenced water availability

et al. 2018

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Climatic seasonality drives ecosystem processes (e.g. productivity) and influences plant species distribution. However, it is poorly understood how different aspects of seasonality (especially regarding temperature and precipitation) affect growth continuity of trees in climates with low seasonality because seasonality is often only crudely measured. On islands, exceptionally wide elevational species distribution ranges allow the use of tree rings to identify how growth continuity and climate–growth relationships change with elevation. Here, we present a novel dendroecological method to measure stem growth continuity based on annual density fluctuations (ADFs) in tree rings of Pinus canariensis to indicate low climatic seasonality. The species ranges from 300 to >2000 m a.s.l. on the trade wind-influenced island of La Palma (Canary Islands), where we measured three decades of tree-ring data of 100 individuals distributed over 10 sites along the entire elevational range. The successfully implemented ADF approach revealed a major shift of stem growth continuity across the elevational gradient. In a remarkably clear pattern, stem growth continuity (percentage of ADFs) showed a hump-shaped relationship with elevation reaching a maximum at around 1000 m a.s.l. Low- to mid-elevation tree growth was positively correlated with the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI; indicating aridity) and sea surface temperature (indicating trade wind-influenced moderation of water supply), while high-elevation tree growth was positively correlated with winter temperature (indicating a cold-induced dormancy period). We conclude that ADFs are a useful method to measure stem growth continuity in low-seasonality climates. Growth of P. canariensis on the Canary Islands is more frequently interrupted by winter cold at high elevations and by summer drought at low elevations than in the trade wind-influenced mid elevations, where growth sometimes continues throughout the year. Climate change-associated alterations in trade wind cloud formation might cause non-analogue growth limitations for many unique island species.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel dendroecological method finds a non-linear relationship between elevation and seasonal growth continuity on an island with trade wind-influenced water availability

et al. 2018

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“…Moreover, the tolerance of moisture deficiency of tree species differs (e.g., [333]). Seedlings are more sensitive to lack of moisture than deep-rooted mature trees (e.g., [334][335][336][337]) which may be attributed to slow initial growth and great reliance on seed reserves [338].…”

Section: Precipitation and Soil Moisturementioning

confidence: 99%

Treeline Research—From the Roots of the Past to Present Time. A Review

Holtmeier¹,

Broll

2019

Forests

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Elevational and polar treelines have been studied for more than two centuries. The aim of the present article is to highlight in retrospect the scope of treeline research, scientific approaches and hypotheses on treeline causation, its spatial structures and temporal change. Systematic treeline research dates back to the end of the 19th century. The abundance of global, regional, and local studies has provided a complex picture of the great variety and heterogeneity of both altitudinal and polar treelines. Modern treeline research started in the 1930s, with experimental field and laboratory studies on the trees’ physiological response to the treeline environment. During the following decades, researchers’ interest increasingly focused on the altitudinal and polar treeline dynamics to climate warming since the Little Ice Age. Since the 1970s interest in treeline dynamics again increased and has considerably intensified from the 1990s to today. At the same time, remote sensing techniques and GIS application have essentially supported previous analyses of treeline spatial patterns and temporal variation. Simultaneously, the modelling of treeline has been rapidly increasing, often related to the current treeline shift and and its implications for biodiversity, and the ecosystem function and services of high-elevation forests. It appears, that many seemingly ‘new ideas’ already originated many decades ago and just confirm what has been known for a long time. Suggestions for further research are outlined.

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“…This leads two clear average precipitation gradients: (1) west-east among islands, with the western ones much wetter than the eastern (wherein the precipitation hardly exceeds 100 mm year −1 ) and (2) north-south gradient in the western islands driven by topography as the dominant rainy air masses come from the north and are modulated by the relief in the western islands, causing that maximum precipitation is concentrated on the northern slopes. So, the vegetation is abundant in this northern slope, with Pinus canariensis (Rozas et al, 2013;Wieser et al, 2016) and Laurasilva (Laurel forests) (Arozena and Panareda, 2013) forests; meanwhile in the southern slopes and in the eastern islands, due to the aridity, the main landscape is subdesertic. This means that, despite its small size, this archipelago is one of the most biodiverse part of the world (Machado, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting precipitation variability, trends and drivers in the Canary Islands

Sánchez‐Benítez

García‐Herrera

Vicente‐Serrano

2016

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The Canary Islands are characterized by their low availability of water resources and different studies have suggested a decrease of precipitation in the second half of the 20th century. Here, we have used the most complete precipitation data set available in the islands to create a dense high quality and homogeneous database, which was used to determine the spatio‐temporal precipitation patterns in the archipelago and the influence of oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections. We have produced a robust regionalization of the Canary Islands precipitation, with three patterns that characterizing the south of the most montainous islands and El Hierro and La Gomera, the north of the most montainous islands and the easternmost arid islands (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura), respectively. All of them show high interannual variability, with no significant trends, except in a few cases. We highlight the strong influence of weather types and teleconections, modulated by the orography, with the highest influence recorded in the first pattern. It must be stressed that the oceanic teleconnections (in special with the tropical North Atlantic surface temperature) are more important than the North Atlantic Oscillation to explain interannual variability of precipitation.

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Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis), an Evergreen Species in a Semiarid Treeline

Cited by 7 publications

References 80 publications

A novel dendroecological method finds a non-linear relationship between elevation and seasonal growth continuity on an island with trade wind-influenced water availability

A novel dendroecological method finds a non-linear relationship between elevation and seasonal growth continuity on an island with trade wind-influenced water availability

Treeline Research—From the Roots of the Past to Present Time. A Review

Revisiting precipitation variability, trends and drivers in the Canary Islands

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