Differentiating between the Adverse Effects of Nutrient-Limitation and Direct-Cold-Limitation on Tree Growth at High Altitudes

Kabeya, Daisuke

doi:10.1657/1938-4246-42.4.430

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Environmental stress, such as an altitudinal decrease in temperature, can reduce tree growth, although gas exchange studies show no evidence of photosynthetic restriction in treeline trees, and higher NSC accumulation at high altitudes (Tranquillini ; Terashima et al . ; Kabeya ). Li et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variations of mobile carbohydrates in Abies fargesii at the upper tree limits

Dang

Zhang

et al. 2014

Plant Biol J

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Low temperatures are associated high-altitude treelines, but the functional mechanism of treeline formation remains controversial. The relative contributions of carbon limitation (source activity) and growth limitation (sink activity) require more tests across taxa and regions. We examined temporal variations of mobile carbon supply in different tissues of Abies fargesii across treeline ecotones on north- and south-facing slopes of the Qinling Mountains, China. Non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations in tissues along the altitudinal gradient on both slopes changed significantly in the early and late growing season, but not in the mid-growing season, indicating the season-dependent carbon supply status. Late in the growing season on both slopes, trees at the upper limits had the highest NSC concentrations and total soluble sugars and lowest starch concentrations compared to trees at the lower elevations. NSC concentrations tended to increase in needles and branches throughout the growing season with increasing elevation on both slopes, but declined in roots and stems. NSC concentrations across sampling dates also indicated increases in needles and branches, and decreases in roots and stem with increasing elevation. Overall altitudinal trends of NSC in A. fargesii revealed no depletion of mobile carbon reserves at upper elevation limits, suggesting limitation of sink activity dominates tree life across treeline ecotones in both north- and south-facing slopes. Carbon reserves in storage tissues (especially roots) in the late growing season might also play an important role in winter survival and early growth in spring at upper elevations on both slopes, which define the uppermost limit of A. fargesii.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variations of mobile carbohydrates in Abies fargesii at the upper tree limits

Dang

Zhang

et al. 2014

Plant Biol J

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“…In recent years, an increasing number of studies have investigated the response of treeline seedlings to changing environmental factors such as soil temperature, soil moisture, soil nutrients, light conditions, herbivory, and competition/facilitation (e.g. Maher and Germino, 2006;Anschlag et al, 2008;Batllori et al, 2009;Hofgaard et al, 2009;Kabeya, 2010;Munier et al, 2010); some studies have also explicitly addressed the relative importance of multiple factors (Barbeito et al, 2012;Zurbriggen et al, 2013).…”

Section: Seed-based Regenerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Himalayan treelines respond to recent climate change? An evaluation of sensitivity indicators

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Climate warming is expected to induce treelines to advance to higher elevations. Empirical studies in diverse mountain ranges, however, give evidence of both advancing alpine treelines and rather insignificant responses. The inconsistency of findings suggests distinct differences in the sensitivity of global treelines to recent climate change. It is still unclear where Himalayan treeline ecotones are located along the response gradient from rapid dynamics to apparently complete inertia. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding sensitivity and response of Himalayan treelines to climate warming, based on extensive field observations, published results in the widely scattered literature, and novel data from ongoing research of the present authors.Several sensitivity indicators such as treeline type, treeline form, seed-based regeneration, and growth patterns are evaluated. Since most Himalayan treelines are anthropogenically depressed, observed advances are largely the result of land use change. Near-natural treelines are usually krummholz treelines, which are relatively unresponsive to climate change. Nevertheless, intense recruitment of treeline trees suggests a great potential for future treeline advance. Competitive abilities of seedlings within krummholz thickets and dwarf scrub heaths will be a major source of variation in treeline dynamics. Tree growth-climate relationships show mature treeline trees to be responsive to temperature change, in particular in winter and pre-monsoon seasons. High pre-monsoon temperature trends will most likely drive tree growth performance in the western and central Himalaya. Ecological niche modelling suggests that bioclimatic conditions for a range expansion of treeline trees will be created during coming decades.

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“…Seedlings, moreover, respond differently to environmental drivers compared to upright trees in later stages of development because they are less coupled to atmospheric conditions than upright trees (Wilson et al 1987) and often have different sensitivities to environmental factors (Hofgaard et al 2009;Bansal and Germino 2010). Numerous studies have investigated how seedlings of treeline species respond to changes in a variety of environmental factors, such as soil temperature (e.g., Domisch et al 2002;Peng and Dang 2003;Juntunen and Neuvonen 2006), exposure to light (e.g., Johnson and Smith 2005), nitrogen availability (e.g., Sveinbjörnsson et al 1992;Kabeya 2010), drought (e.g., Hättenschwiler and Körner 1995), competition and facilitation (e.g., Moir et al 1999;Germino et al 2002;Batllori et al 2009;Venn et al 2009), and herbivory (e.g., Myster 2009). While interactions between several of these factors have been studied before (e.g., Domisch et al 2002;Myster 2009;Munier et al 2010), there are only few studies on the relative importance of multiple factors (e.g., Kabeya 2010;Barbeito et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous studies have investigated how seedlings of treeline species respond to changes in a variety of environmental factors, such as soil temperature (e.g., Domisch et al 2002;Peng and Dang 2003;Juntunen and Neuvonen 2006), exposure to light (e.g., Johnson and Smith 2005), nitrogen availability (e.g., Sveinbjörnsson et al 1992;Kabeya 2010), drought (e.g., Hättenschwiler and Körner 1995), competition and facilitation (e.g., Moir et al 1999;Germino et al 2002;Batllori et al 2009;Venn et al 2009), and herbivory (e.g., Myster 2009). While interactions between several of these factors have been studied before (e.g., Domisch et al 2002;Myster 2009;Munier et al 2010), there are only few studies on the relative importance of multiple factors (e.g., Kabeya 2010;Barbeito et al 2012). In the present study, we measured proxies for four of these important factors-soil temperature, light conditions, water use efficiency, and nitrogen availability-and evaluated their relative importance for seedling performance of seven tree species at and above the current treeline.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of germinating tree seedlings below and above treeline in the Swiss Alps

Zurbriggen

Hättenschwiler²,

Frei³

et al. 2013

Plant Ecol

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The germination and early survival of tree seedlings is a critical process for the understanding of treeline dynamics with ongoing climate change. Here we analyzed the performance of 0-4 year-old seedlings of seven tree species at three sites above and below the current altitudinal treeline in the Swiss Central Alps near Davos. Starting from sown seeds, we monitored the seedling performance as proportions of living seedlings, seedling shoot height growth, and biomass allocation over 4 years to examine changes along an elevational gradient. We evaluated the relative importance of the environmental factors soil temperature, light conditions, water use efficiency, and nitrogen availability on seedling performance.

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Differentiating between the Adverse Effects of Nutrient-Limitation and Direct-Cold-Limitation on Tree Growth at High Altitudes

Cited by 13 publications

References 56 publications

Temporal variations of mobile carbohydrates in Abies fargesii at the upper tree limits

Temporal variations of mobile carbohydrates in Abies fargesii at the upper tree limits

Do Himalayan treelines respond to recent climate change? An evaluation of sensitivity indicators

Performance of germinating tree seedlings below and above treeline in the Swiss Alps

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