Impact of Climate Change and Adaptive Genetic Potential of Norway Spruce at the South–eastern Range of Species Distribution

Mihai, Georgeta; Teodosiu, Marius; Bîrsan, Marius-Victor; Alexandru, Alin-Madalin; Mirancea, Ionel; Apostol, Ecaterina Nicoleta; Garbacea, Paula; Ioniţă, L.

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108040

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…In Romania, local provenances are, generally, less performing than some provenances from other regions [65]. Furthermore, a significant site effect was detected, suggesting that phenotypic plasticity rather than local adaptation explains phenotypic differences among provenances [66][67][68]. Similar results were also observed in other geographical regions of Europe [69][70][71].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Climate Change in the Provenance Regions of Romania over the Last 70 Years: Implications for Forest Management

Mihai

Alexandru

Niţă³

et al. 2022

Forests

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The recent climate change scenarios show significant increases in temperature and extreme drought events in Southern and Eastern Europe by the end of the 21st century, which will have a serious impact on forest growth and adaptation, and important consequences for forest management. The system of provenance regions, according to the OECD Scheme and EU Directive, was thought to encourage the use of the local seed sources, under the concept ‘local is the best’. However, climate is changing faster than some species or populations can adapt or migrate, which raises some uncertainties with respect to the future performance of local populations. In Romania, as in other countries, the delimitation of provenance regions is based on geographical, ecological and vegetation criteria. The aim of this study is to evaluate: (1) the climate change that has occurred at the level of the provenance regions; (2) which regions will be most vulnerable to climate change; (3) which forest types will be the most vulnerable in a certain region; and (4) changes in the climatic envelope of forest species. Several climatic parameters and an ecoclimatic indices have been calculated and analyzed at the level of provenance regions, subregions and ecological sectors (forest types) in Romania, during the period 1951–2020. The results highlight a general shift towards warmer and drier conditions in the last 30 years, the mean annual temperature increasing with 0.3–1.1 °C across the provenance subregions. The De Martonne aridity index for the vegetation season shows that 86% of the ecological sectors fell into the arid and semiarid categories, which indicates a very high degree of vulnerability for forest species. On the Lang rainfall index, forest steppe climatic conditions occurred in all pure or mixed pedunculate oak forests, thermophile oak species, meadow forests, poplar and willow, Turkey oak and Hungarian oak forests. The Ellenberg coefficient highlights that the warming process is more evident along the altitude and the degree of vulnerability increase at lower altitude or at the edge of species distribution. The climate envelopes of many forest species have already shifted to another ecosystem’s climate. This paper presents the importance of re-delineation the provenance regions for the production and deployment of forest reproductive materials according to the climate change occurred in the last decades, as a fundamental tool for an adaptive forest management.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Climate Change in the Provenance Regions of Romania over the Last 70 Years: Implications for Forest Management

Mihai

Alexandru

Niţă³

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…Considering that drought events will become more frequent and intense in the near future, the strategies to cope with climate change have to prepare forests by increasing the adaptive capacity of tree populations [35]. Recent research shows that selecting and transferring forest reproductive material adapted to the new environmental conditions of the planting site could increase genetic diversity in those areas and could facilitate the adaptation of forest species [36][37][38]. Therefore, assessment of intraspecific genetic variation and identifying populations expected to be best adapted to the future climate conditions is essential for increasing forest productivity and adaptability in the context of climate changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific Growth Response to Drought of Abies alba in the Southeastern Carpathians

Mihai

Alexandru

Stoica

et al. 2021

Forests

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The intensity and frequency of drought have increased considerably during the last decades in southeastern Europe, and projected scenarios suggest that southern and central Europe will be affected by more drought events by the end of the 21st century. In this context, assessing the intraspecific genetic variation of forest tree species and identifying populations expected to be best adapted to future climate conditions is essential for increasing forest productivity and adaptability. Using a tree-ring database from 60 populations of 38-year-old silver fir (Abies alba) in five trial sites established across Romania, we studied the variation of growth and wood characteristics, provenance-specific response to drought, and climate-growth relationships during the period 1997–2018. The drought response of provenances was determined by four drought parameters: resistance, recovery, resilience, and relative resilience. Based on the standardized precipitation index, ten years with extreme and severe drought were identified for all trial sites. Considerable differences in radial growth, wood characteristics, and drought response parameters among silver fir provenances have been found. The provenances’ ranking by resistance, recovery, and resilience revealed that a number of provenances from Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, and Czech Republic placed in the top ranks in almost all sites. Additionally, there are provenances that combine high productivity and drought tolerance. The correlations between drought parameters and wood characters are positive, the most significant correlations being obtained between radial growth and resilience. Correlations between drought parameters and wood density were non-significant, indicating that wood density cannot be used as indicator of drought sensitivity. The negative correlations between radial growth and temperature during the growing season and the positive correlations with precipitation suggest that warming and water deficit could have a negative impact on silver fir growth in climatic marginal sites. Silvicultural practices and adaptive management should rely on selection and planting of forest reproductive material with high drought resilience in current and future reforestation programs.

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“…The +2°C and +3°C MAAT isotherms appear to rise statistically significant over 1961–2010 period, suggesting a potential expansion of the areas of climate‐favourable physiologically conditions for the development of forest vegetation (Mihai et al , 2018a, 2018b, 2020) but also a likely decrease in the periglacial processes dynamics at the lower boundary of the periglacial belt. The largest upslope shifts were estimated for the +3°C MAAT in the E Carpathians (225 m/50 years) (Figure 8).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Temperature changes and elevation‐warming relationships in the Carpathian Mountains

Micu

Dumitrescu

Cheval

et al. 2020

Intl Journal of Climatology

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This paper investigates the elevation‐warming relationships across the Carpathian Mountains, using the 0.1° × 0.1° gridded daily air temperature dataset developed within the CARPATCLIM project, in order to understand the spatial patterns of annual and seasonal temperature trends and test the hypothesis of enhanced warming with elevation. Temperature trend and elevation‐warming analyses were conducted over the 50 years of the dataset (1961–2010). The vertical variations of five key isotherms relevant for the development of cold‐climate weathering, presence of permafrost (−2°C, 0°C, +2°C, +3°C) and spread of forest vegetation (July +10°C) were also examined. The Carpathian Mountains are under visible annual and seasonal warming (stronger in the summer and winter), both daytime and nighttime. The warming process shows a great spatial inhomogeneity, but is more pronounced in the lowlands of the region, generally below 1,000–1,200 m. The correlations between elevation and warming rates across the Carpathians have been found both to be positive and negative, while mostly significant at the 5% level. Evidence of enhanced warming with elevation was found to be related to the minimum temperature increase mostly across the NW and SW Carpathians, at both annual and seasonal scales (winter, summer and spring). Less prominent EDW signals have been identified in the NE, E and S Carpathians (summer), as well as in the NE Carpathians (spring). Parts of the detected temperature trends and EDW signals have been considered to be an effect of the changing atmospheric circulation (i.e. westerly intensification especially in the winter), although other mechanisms and processes could be involved (e.g. snow‐albedo feedbacks in the spring). These results could serve as a reference for further investigations of climate warming effects across the Carpathian Mountains region (e.g. ecological and geomorphic), especially in relation to the augmented summer heat stress (e.g. more frequent heatwaves) and milder winters (e.g. less freezing days).

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Impact of Climate Change and Adaptive Genetic Potential of Norway Spruce at the South–eastern Range of Species Distribution

Cited by 19 publications

References 59 publications

Climate Change in the Provenance Regions of Romania over the Last 70 Years: Implications for Forest Management

Climate Change in the Provenance Regions of Romania over the Last 70 Years: Implications for Forest Management

Intraspecific Growth Response to Drought of Abies alba in the Southeastern Carpathians

Temperature changes and elevation‐warming relationships in the Carpathian Mountains

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