Site- and species-specific responses of forest growth to climate across the European continent

Babst, Flurin; Poulter, Benjamin; Trouet, Valérie; Tan, Kun; Neuwirth, Burkhard; Wilson, Rob; Carrer, Marco; Grabner, Michael; Tegel, Willy; Levanič, Tom; Panayotov, Momchil; Urbinati, Carlo; Bouriaud, Olivier; Ciais, Philippe; Frank, David

doi:10.1111/geb.12023

Cited by 341 publications

(349 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…2a), but is also positively correlated with GP ( Supplementary Figs 4 and 5), indicating a co-effect of water limitation on interannual NDVI variability. This is consistent with the hypothesis that plant productivity in temperate ecosystems is subject to soil moisture limitation during summer 5,17,18 . Further, we find that much of the temperate region is experiencing an enhancement of its negative R NDVI-GT (Fig.…”

Section: Satellite Observationsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The area with significant positive R NPP-GP , when estimated by the models, is about twice that diagnosed from satellite observations (6%) (Supplementary Figs 10 and 11). Such an overestimation of the positive sensitivity of vegetation productivity to precipitation change by models has been noted in recent studies 18,19 . Now looking at trends over the last 30 years, the geographic patterns of the R NPP-GT trend is broadly similar to that of R NDVI-GT trend (Fig.…”

Section: Satellite Observationmentioning

confidence: 73%

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Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity

et al. 2014

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Satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a proxy of vegetation productivity, is known to be correlated with temperature in northern ecosystems. This relationship, however, may change over time following alternations in other environmental factors. Here we show that above 30°N, the strength of the relationship between the interannual variability of growing season NDVI and temperature (partial correlation coefficient R NDVI-GT ) declined substantially between 1982 and 2011. This decrease in R NDVI-GT is mainly observed in temperate and arctic ecosystems, and is also partly reproduced by process-based ecosystem model results. In the temperate ecosystem, the decrease in R NDVI-GT coincides with an increase in drought. In the arctic ecosystem, it may be related to a nonlinear response of photosynthesis to temperature, increase of hot extreme days and shrub expansion over grass-dominated tundra. Our results caution the use of results from interannual time scales to constrain the decadal response of plants to ongoing warming.

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Section: Satellite Observationsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Satellite Observationmentioning

confidence: 73%

Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity

et al. 2014

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“…Climatic restrictions tend to strengthen growth-climate relationships, resulting in enhanced common ringwidth signals (i.e., more synchronous tree growth). Thus, regional bioclimatic patterns can be delineated by identifying groups of trees whose growth is synchronously driven by certain climatic constraints (10,11). Previous synthesis studies have provided evidence for globally coherent multispecies responses to climate change in natural systems, including forests, with a focus on the role of increasingly warmer temperatures (12,13).…”

Section: Mediterranean Forestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forests synchronize their growth in contrasting Eurasian regions in response to climate warming

Shestakova

Gutiérrez

Kirdyanov

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

150

137

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Forests play a key role in the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems. One of the main uncertainties in global change predictions lies in how the spatiotemporal dynamics of forest productivity will be affected by climate warming. Here we show an increasing influence of climate on the spatial variability of tree growth during the last 120 y, ultimately leading to unprecedented temporal coherence in ring-width records over wide geographical scales (spatial synchrony). Synchrony in growth patterns across cold-constrained (central Siberia) and droughtconstrained (Spain) Eurasian conifer forests have peaked in the early 21st century at subcontinental scales (∼1,000 km). Such enhanced synchrony is similar to that observed in trees co-occurring within a stand. In boreal forests, the combined effects of recent warming and increasing intensity of climate extremes are enhancing synchrony through an earlier start of wood formation and a stronger impact of year-to-year fluctuations of growing-season temperatures on growth. In Mediterranean forests, the impact of warming on synchrony is related mainly to an advanced onset of growth and the strengthening of droughtinduced growth limitations. Spatial patterns of enhanced synchrony represent early warning signals of climate change impacts on forest ecosystems at subcontinental scales. U nderstanding how climate change affects forests across multiple spatiotemporal scales is important for anticipating its impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Increases in atmospheric CO 2 concentration and shifts in phenology (1-3) could favor tree growth by enhancing photosynthesis and extending the effective growing period, respectively (4). Conversely, recent warming could increase respiration rates and, together with increasing heat and drought stresses, exert negative impacts on forest productivity (5, 6). Given the uncertainty as to what extent enhanced carbon uptake could be offset by the detrimental effects of warming on tree performance, the actual consequences of climate change on forest carbon cycling remain under debate. Notably, climate change has a stronger impact on forests constrained by climatic stressors, such as suboptimal temperatures or water shortage (7). As high-resolution repositories of biological responses to the environment, dendrochronological archives can be used to monitor this impact (8).The concept of spatial synchrony in tree growth refers to the extent of coincident changes in ring-width patterns among geographically disjunct tree populations (9). Climatic restrictions tend to strengthen growth-climate relationships, resulting in enhanced common ringwidth signals (i.e., more synchronous tree growth). Thus, regional bioclimatic patterns can be delineated by identifying groups of trees whose growth is synchronously driven by certain climatic constraints (10, 11). Previous synthesis studies have provided evidence for globally coherent multispecies responses to climate change in natural systems, including forests, with a focus on the role of increasingly warmer tempe...

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“…As was shown in our study, gridded CRU TS, a freely available climatic series, was sufficient for cross-dating and has already been used in many dendroclimatological studies in other European regions (e.g. Babst et al, 2013;Büntgen et al, 2007Büntgen et al, , 2009Büntgen et al, , 2013. The instrumental time series is used to control the subjective decisions of the researcher.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Tree-ring widths have globally been used for investigating the impact of environmental factors on tree-growth dynamics such as the rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration (Gedalof and Berg, 2010) and rapid changes in SO 2 and NO x air pollution (Bošeľa et al, 2014a) but also for climate reconstructions (Popa and Kern, 2009;Büntgen et al, 2011) and testing vegetation models (Babst et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-dating tree-ring series of living European beech by isochronic weather records

et al. 2016

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Abstract:The main objective of the study is to facilitate cross-dating of sensitive tree-ring series from living European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees in the absence of a regional chronology. The main idea lies in the preliminary dating of marker rings or ring patterns visually identified on the wood (before the ring-width measurements), which is independently validated through a moving correlation between a tentative reference chronology and instrumental climate records (after the ringwidth measurements). Following the detection of low moving correlations, potentially misdated segments or series are re-examined and a new tentative reference chronology is constructed. The process is repeated as long as a higher correlation with climate is obtainable. The applicability of this method was investigated on three difficult-to-date sets of tree-ring series of beech trees which were growing at temperature-or precipitation-sensitive locations in under-canopy or canopy positions. A good ability of the combined method for the cross-dating was practiced on datasets almost impossible to crossdate by commonly used approaches. Highlighting the actual correlation of ring widths with climate in tree-ring series makes the cross-dating process more independent from human decisions, so the combined cross-dating has the potential to improve the reliability of various dendrochronological studies.

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Site- and species-specific responses of forest growth to climate across the European continent

Abstract: Aim To evaluate the climate sensitivity of model-based forest productivity estimates using a continental-scale tree-ring network

Cited by 341 publications

References 56 publications

Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity

Evidence for a weakening relationship between interannual temperature variability and northern vegetation activity

Forests synchronize their growth in contrasting Eurasian regions in response to climate warming

Cross-dating tree-ring series of living European beech by isochronic weather records

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