Nutrient regime modulates drought response patterns of three temperate tree species

Schmied, Gerhard; Hilmers, Torben; Mellert, Karl-Heinz; Uhl, Enno; Buness, Vincent; Ambs, Dominik; Steckel, Mathias; Biber, Peter; Šeho, Muhidin; Hoffmann, Yves-Daniel; Pretzsch, Hans

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161601

Cited by 33 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 139 publications

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“…We observed that climate change projections will sharply increase the probability of drought damage for Norway spruce south of 60° N if management is not adapted to drought risk. Schmied et al (2023) similarly observed that Norway spruce is suffering a long-term decline in resilience in central Europe, indicating a higher vulnerability to future droughts. However, the projection that Scots pine will see less area affected by drought damage, regardless of climate change scenario, was unexpected.…”

Section: Drought Damage Risk Predictors and Future Forecastingmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Current and future drought vulnerability for three dominant boreal tree species

Aldea,

Dahlgren,

Holmström

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and severity of droughts, possibly causing sudden and elevated tree mortality. Better understanding and predictions of boreal forest responses to climate change are needed to efficiently adapt forest management. We used tree‐ring width chronologies from the Swedish National Forest Inventory, sampled between 2010 and 2018, and a random forest machine‐learning algorithm to identify the tree, stand, and site variables that determine drought damage risk, and to predict their future spatial–temporal evolution. The dataset consisted of 16,455 cores of Norway spruce, Scots pine, and birch trees from all over Sweden. The risk of drought damage was calculated as the probability of growth anomaly occurrence caused by past drought events during 1960–2010. We used the block cross‐validation method to compute model predictions for drought damage risk under current climate and climate predicted for 2040–2070 under the RCP.2.6, RCP.4.5, and RCP.8.5 emission scenarios. We found local climatic variables to be the most important predictors, although stand competition also affects drought damage risk. Norway spruce is currently the most susceptible species to drought in southern Sweden. This species currently faces high vulnerability in 28% of the country and future increases in spring temperatures would greatly increase this area to almost half of the total area of Sweden. Warmer annual temperatures will also increase the current forested area where birch suffers from drought, especially in northern and central Sweden. In contrast, for Scots pine, drought damage coincided with cold winter and early‐spring temperatures. Consequently, the current area with high drought damage risk would decrease in a future warmer climate for Scots pine. We suggest active selection of tree species, promoting the right species mixtures and thinning to reduce tree competition as promising strategies for adapting boreal forests to future droughts.

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Section: Drought Damage Risk Predictors and Future Forecastingmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Schmied et al. (2023) similarly observed that Norway spruce is suffering a long‐term decline in resilience in central Europe, indicating a higher vulnerability to future droughts. However, the projection that Scots pine will see less area affected by drought damage, regardless of climate change scenario, was unexpected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future drought vulnerability for three dominant boreal tree species

Aldea,

Dahlgren,

Holmström

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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“…While our reported growth reduction by 36.8 % lines up with the finding of an earlier study by Thom et al, 2023, that reported a 41.3% reduction during the 2018-2020 drought, it should be kept in mind that our reductions are biologically even higher, because we expect an ontogenetic increase(Pretzsch, 2020). While a generally favourable nutrient supply can alleviate drought impacts on trees (Schmied et al, 2023), our initial anticipation of less pronounced growth reductions, based on the consideration of the soil characteristics at the site (Altermann et al, 2005) – particularly its high fertility and favourable water relations (see Methods) – did not align with the observed outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Forest growth resistance and resilience to the 2018-2020 drought depend on tree diversity and mycorrhizal type

Sachsenmaier,

Schnabel,

Dietrich

et al. 2024

Preprint

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1. The frequency of consecutive drought years is predicted to increase due to climate change. These droughts have strong negative impacts on forest ecosystems. Mixing tree species is proposed to increase the drought resistance and resilience of tree communities. However, this promising diversity effect has not yet been investigated under extreme drought conditions and in the context of complementary mycorrhizal associations and their potential role in enhancing water uptake. 2. Here, we investigate whether tree diversity promotes growth resistance and resilience to extreme drought and whether drought responses are modulated by mycorrhizal associations. We used inventory data (2015 - 2021) of a young tree diversity experiment in Germany, manipulating tree species richness (1, 2, 4 species) and mycorrhizal type (communities containing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) or ectomycorrhizal (EM) tree species, or both). For all tree communities, we calculated basal area increment (BAI) in the periods before, during, and after the drought and used the concepts of resistance and resilience to quantify growth responses to drought. 3. We found strong growth declines during the extreme 2018-2020 drought for most of the tree communities. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find that tree species richness per se can buffer the negative impacts of extreme drought on tree growth. However, while for EM communities, drought resistance, and resilience decreased with tree species richness, they increased for AM communities and communities comprising both mycorrhizal types. We highlight that among various tree species mixtures, only those with mixed mycorrhizal types outperformed their respective monocultures during and after drought. Further, under extreme drought, the community tends to segregate into 'winner' and 'loser' tree species in terms of diversity, indicating a potential intensification of competition. 4. While we cannot disentangle the underlying mechanisms, or clarify the role of mycorrhiza during drought, our findings suggest that mixtures of mycorrhizal types within tree communities could help safeguard forests against increasing drought frequency. 5. Synthesis: Drought resistance and resilience of tree communities depend on tree diversity and mycorrhizal association types. Mixing tree species with diverse mycorrhizal types holds promise for forest restoration in the face of climate change.

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“…The key to the better performance of the beech trees in the Sonian forest is probably its soil. The rich loamy soil on this site is of exceptionally high quality for beech and can store high amounts of water to buffer the effects of droughts (Klesse, Wohlgemuth, et al, 2022;Schmied et al, 2023). Future studies could look into specific micro-site soil properties of individual trees to determine if this can be correlated with individual tree performance or mortality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heading for a fall: The fate of old wind-thrown beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) is detectable in their growth pattern

Verschuren,

De Mil,

De Frenne

et al. 2023

Science of The Total Environment

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Nutrient regime modulates drought response patterns of three temperate tree species

Cited by 33 publications

References 139 publications

Current and future drought vulnerability for three dominant boreal tree species

Current and future drought vulnerability for three dominant boreal tree species

Forest growth resistance and resilience to the 2018-2020 drought depend on tree diversity and mycorrhizal type

Heading for a fall: The fate of old wind-thrown beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) is detectable in their growth pattern

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