Frost Rings Formed in 14-m Tall Red Pine

Abstract

In codominant and suppressed trees in two red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) plantations in Simcoe County, Ontario, frost rings had formed at the start of most annual rings in the two internodes below the current leader until the trees were nearly 14-m tall. None occurred in the current shoot growth or below the sixth internode. They seldom formed when the stem radius (inside bark) exceeded 2 cm.Dans deux plantations de pin rouge (Pinus resinosa Ait.) du comte de Simcoe in Ontario, on a releve sur des tiges codominantes et opprimees des fentes annulaires dues au gel dans le bois initial de la plupart des cernes de croissance situes dans les deux entre-noeuds les plus proches de la fleche teminale des arbres de moins de 14 metres. Rien de semblable n'apparait sur la pousse de I'annee ou au dessous du sixieme entre-noeud. Ces fentes annulaires dues au gel surviennent lorsque le rayon de la tige est superieur a 2 cm (sous 6cosce).

Frost Rings and White Earlywood Rings in Picea Mariana trees from the boreal plains, Central Canada

“…finding that FR occurred in stems smaller than 5 cm in diameter with a bark thickness below 3 mm and up to a maximum of 7 m height. the greater occurrence of FR in small diameter and thin bark wood has also been observed in other studies (Rhoads 1923;Fayle 1981;Payette et al 2010). In contrast to Gurskaya and Shiyatov (2006) the distribution of FR in our samples occurred up to 16 m in the stem and are in line with earlier observations made by Fayle (1981) in red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.).…”

“…the greater occurrence of FR in small diameter and thin bark wood has also been observed in other studies (Rhoads 1923;Fayle 1981;Payette et al 2010). In contrast to Gurskaya and Shiyatov (2006) the distribution of FR in our samples occurred up to 16 m in the stem and are in line with earlier observations made by Fayle (1981) in red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.). Frost rings not visible at the macroscopic scale were also discovered during thin sectioning of trees indicating that macroscopic assessment of FR underestimates their frequency and perhaps the severity of the frost events themselves.…”

“…the objectives of this study were 1) to determine the distribution of FR and WER in black spruce trees following stem analysis; 2) to characterize and compare WER to control rings using tree-ring measurements and tracheid dimensions, and 3) to investigate potential causes leading to WER formation. We expected that FR would mainly be observed in the youngest portion of the stem with damage occurring progressively higher from the base to the crown as the tree matures (Glerum & Farrar 1966;Fayle 1981;Gurskaya & Shiyatov 2006). By comparison, we hypothesized that WER would be distributed uniformly along the stem and that they would be characterized by tracheids with reduced wall thickness or reduced earlywood density compared to control rings (Polge & Garros 1971;Sutton & Tardif 2005).…”

“…Frost rings (FR) are a tree-ring anomaly caused by freezing of xylem tissue during the growing season and appears in the annual ring as a layer of crushed xylem and bent rays (Kaennel & Schweingruber 1995;Schweingruber 2007). Though these rings can occur synchronously over large areas, their presence is highly dependent on the height of the tree, circumference of the stem, thickness of the bark and cambial age (Rhoads 1923;Fayle 1981;Gurskaya & Shiyatov 2006;Payette et al 2010). As a consequence, few long frost ring chronologies have been developed given the difficulties related to collecting representative wood samples as tree-ring sampling is often restricted to the first 1-2 metres of the stem (Gurskaya & Shiyatov 2006;Payette et al 2010).…”