Changing climatic sensitivity and effects of drought frequency on the radial growth of Fagus sylvatica at the xeric frontiers of Central Europe

Abstract

⎯ The influence of climate on the vitality and growth of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) has become a focus of forest research over the last decade. Beech locally reaches its continental xeric limit in Hungary within its European distribution area, giving a unique opportunity to study the climatic sensitivity of the species, based on tree-ring analysis. A comparison of four geographically and climatically different sites is presented from Hungary, combining data collected on stand level with systematic forest inventory plots. Tree-ring width chronologies covering the past 90-100 years of the lifetime of mature and middle-aged trees and different climatic variables were used to evaluate the growth-climate relationships and recent growth trends of the selected beech stands by multivariate regression analysis. Strong relationships were found between annual radial growth and (mainly water availability related) meteorological variables of the vegetation season, exceeding previous results from elsewhere in Europe. A clear spatiotemporal variability of the growth sensitivity was also revealed, following a (climatic) gradient from the northern to the southwestern parts of the country. In the northern sites, climatic sensitivity was found to be more fluctuating, while southwestern sites facing more continuous effects of changing climatic conditions seem to show weakening correlation over time. Trends of relative basal area increments and climatic sensitivity of growth over the past decades may be due to unfavorable climatic changes, though extreme and recurrent drought events superimposed on the long-term trends seem to have a decisive impact on growth patterns and associated resilience of beech.

Climate warming-induced replacement of mesic beech by thermophilic oak forests will reduce the carbon storage potential in aboveground biomass and soil

“…Here, beech forests are replaced by oak-rich sub-Mediterranean forest communities of the Quercetalia pubescenti-petraeae (thermophilic mixed oak forests) and Carpinetalia betuli (oak-hornbeam forests) orders (Czúcz et al, 2011;Novák et al, 2020). With the recent increase in summer temperatures, VPD and the frequency of heat waves (Barriopedro et al, 2011;Schär et al, 2004), and regionally decreasing summer precipitation (Caloiero et al, 2018;Schönwiese and Janoschitz, 2008) , it is predicted that the climate will become less favourable for beech not only in southern and south-eastern Europe but also in parts of its Central European distribution range (Dolos et al, 2016;Garamszegi et al, 2020;Mette et al, 2013;Walthert et al, 2020). For western Central Europe, an increase in annual mean temperature (MAT) of 1.6-3.8 °C until 2080 has been projected (Zebisch et al, 2005), which should shift the natural border between beech-dominated mesic forests and oakdominated thermophilic forests toward higher elevations and to regions with higher precipitation, as VPD rises with the temperature increase.…”

Different Wood Anatomical and Growth Responses in European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) at Three Forest Sites in Slovenia

“…At the limit of the eastern distribution range, annual increments in beech were positively affected by late spring precipitation and negatively by summer temperatures (Šimůnek et al, 2019). In central and south-central Europe, tree ring width in beech was positively correlated with summer precipitation while more frequent drought-induced extreme climatic events were the main negative influencing factor on growth (Stojanović et al, 2018;Garamszegi et al, 2020). The response of trees to variations in climatic conditions also differed with elevation; in contrast to low elevation sites, higher temperatures during the growing season at high elevation sites had the opposite effect on beech growth (Di Filippo et al, 2007).…”

The Budapest Tree-Ring Laboratory – Status report after 20 years of activity

“…The cross-dated ring-width series provided datasets covering the 1899-2002and 1913-2002 for oak and beech, respectively. The ring-width data of the beech samples were used in a regional assessment of climate-growth sensitivity of the species (Garamszegi et al, 2020), while the ring-width data of the oaks remained unpublished. Exposed roots were used to date gully erosion (Kóródy et al, 2009).…”