Divergent responses to climate factors in the radial growth of Larix sibirica in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, northwest China

Jiao, Liang; Jiang, Yuan; Zhang, Wentao; Wang, Mingchang; Zhang, Lingnan; Zhao, Shoudong

doi:10.1007/s00468-015-1248-6

Cited by 40 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…This is consistent with the change in temperature ( Figure 3) and SPEI trends of the study area and intensified spring droughts in the central Himalaya during recent decades [115]. Thus, increased drought might have caused the divergence in growth-climate relationships as observed in other studies [53,143,144], with Abies spectabilis trees showing growth plasticity towards the changing environment as other coniferous species do (e.g., [46,48,133,145]). Obviously, this potential adaptation contributed to the rather low responsiveness of the Rolwaling treeline to climate warming [73], and may be crucial for its future sensitivity to climate change.…”

Section: Changing Long-term Tree Growth-climate Relationships (The Ensupporting

confidence: 90%

Climate Change-Induced Shift of Tree Growth Sensitivity at a Central Himalayan Treeline Ecotone

Schwab

Kaczka

Janecka

et al. 2018

Forests

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Himalayan treelines are exposed to above average climate change impact, resulting in complex tree growth-climate relationships for Himalayan Silver Fir (Abies spectabilis (D. Don) Spach) at central Himalayan treelines. The majority of recent studies detected current tree growth sensitivity to dry conditions during pre-monsoon seasons. The aim of this study was to analyze growth-climate relationships for more than a century for a treeline ecotone in east-central Nepal and to test for Blue Intensity (BI; used as a surrogate of maximum late wood density) as climate proxy. We determined the relationships of Abies spectabilis radial tree growth and BI to climate by correlating both to temperature, precipitation and drought index data. The results showed a significantly unstable dendroclimatic signal over time. Climate warming-induced moisture deficits during pre-monsoon seasons became a major factor limiting radial tree growth during recent decades. Earlier in time, the dendroclimatic signal was weaker, predominantly reflecting a positive relationship of tree growth and summer temperature. Compared to radial tree growth, BI showed a different but strong climate signal. Temporally unstable correlations may be attributed to increasing effects of above-average rates of climate warming. An extended network of Himalayan tree-ring sites is needed to further analyze cause-effect relationships and to solve this attribution problem.

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Section: Changing Long-term Tree Growth-climate Relationships (The Ensupporting

confidence: 90%

Climate Change-Induced Shift of Tree Growth Sensitivity at a Central Himalayan Treeline Ecotone

Schwab

Kaczka

Janecka

et al. 2018

Forests

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“…Thus, the positive response to precipitation and the negative response to temperature, strengthened in the radial growth of the Schrenk spruce of our study, reflect the enhancement of temperature-induced drought stress over recent decades. Furthermore, similar divergent responses to climatic factors in the radial growth of Larix sibirica have also found in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains of Northwest China [75], although the distance between this region and our study area is almost 1000 km.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

On the ‘Divergence Problem’ in the Alatau Mountains, Central Asia: A Study of the Responses of Schrenk Spruce Tree-Ring Width to Climate under the Recent Warming and Wetting Trend

et al. 2019

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The divergence problem, which manifests as an unstable response relationship between tree-ring growth and climatic factors under the background of global warming, poses a challenge to both the traditional theory of dendroclimatology and the reliability of climatic reconstructions based on tree-ring data. Although Schrenk spruce, as the dominant tree species in the Tianshan Mountains, is frequently applied in the dendrochronological studies, the understanding of the divergence problem of this tree species is still limited. This study conducted correlation analysis between climatic factors and tree-ring width chronologies from 51 living and healthy specimens of Schrenk spruce at sites of high and low elevation in the Alatau Mountains to determine the stability of the response. The results revealed that the tree-ring width of the spruce specimens was correlated positively with precipitation and correlated negatively with temperature. Although the variations of the two tree-ring chronologies were similar, the radial growth of the spruce at the low elevation was found more sensitive to climatic factors. Furthermore, the sensitivity of tree growth to climate demonstrated an obvious increase after an abrupt change of climate under the background of the recent warming and wetting trend. Increased drought stress, calculated based on climatic data, was regarded as the main reason for this phenomenon. The results supply the gap of the stability of climatic response of tree growth in Central Asia to some extent.

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“…The negative AC1 values could confirm that the radial growth of Schrenk spruce was easily affected by climate conditions in the previous year ( Table 1). The high temperature in the previous growing seasons could not only increase the evaporation of soil moisture, reduce the preservation of soil available water, increase the tree evapotranspiration, and reduce the accumulation of tree photosynthetic nutrition but also lead to effects on the initiation and vitality of tree cambium cells with increasing drought stress and reductions in tree health [66]. Similar responses of radial growth to climate factors were found in Schrenk spruce from different age-class trees (60-90a, 90-120a and 120-150a) in western and central Tianshan Mountains [67].…”

Section: Age-effect On Tree Growth-climate Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Effect Radial Growth Responses of Picea schrenkiana to Climate Change in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China

Jiao

Jiang

Wang

et al. 2017

Forests

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Abstract:The climate changed from warm-dry to warm-wet during the 1960s in northwest China. However, the effects of climate change on the response of radial growth from different age-class trees have been unclear. We assessed the age-effect radial growth responses in three age-classes (ml-old: ≥200 years, ml-middle: 100-200 years and ml-young: <100 years) of Schrenk spruce (Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey.) in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. The primary conclusions were as follows: the developed chronologies of the three age-class trees contained significant climate information and exhibited high similarity as shown by calculating the statistical parameter characteristics and Gleichlaufigkeit index. The three age-class trees were consistent for annual variation trends of radial growth under climate change, showing similar fluctuations, tree-ring width chronology trends, time trends of cumulative radial growth, and basal area increment. In addition, the old and middle trees were found to be more sensitive to climate variability by analyzing Pearson correlations between radial growth from three age-class trees and climate factors. As a result, the drought caused by reduced total precipitation and higher mean temperature was a limiting factor of tree radial growth, and the trees with ages of up to 100 years were more suitable for studies on the growth-climate relationships. Thus, the studies on age-effect radial growth responses of Schrenk spruce can help not only in understanding the adaptive strategies of different-age trees to climate change, but also provide an accurate basis for climate reconstruction.

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Divergent responses to climate factors in the radial growth of Larix sibirica in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, northwest China

Cited by 40 publications

References 69 publications

Climate Change-Induced Shift of Tree Growth Sensitivity at a Central Himalayan Treeline Ecotone

Climate Change-Induced Shift of Tree Growth Sensitivity at a Central Himalayan Treeline Ecotone

On the ‘Divergence Problem’ in the Alatau Mountains, Central Asia: A Study of the Responses of Schrenk Spruce Tree-Ring Width to Climate under the Recent Warming and Wetting Trend

Age-Effect Radial Growth Responses of Picea schrenkiana to Climate Change in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains, Northwest China

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