Climate sensitivity and resistance under pure- and mixed-stand scenarios in Lower Austria evaluated with distributed lag models and penalized regression splines for tree-ring time series

Penalized regression splines and distributed lag models were used to evaluate the effects of species mixing on productivity and climate-related resistance via tree-ring width measurements from sample cores. Data were collected in Lower Austria from sample plots arranged in a triplet design. Triplets were established for sessile oak [Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.] and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.], and European beech and European larch (Larix decidua Mill.). Mixing shortened the temporal range of time-lagged climate effects for beech, spruce, and larch, but only slightly changed the effects for oak and pine. Beech and spruce as well as beech and larch exhibited contrasting climate responses, which were consequently reversed by mixing. Single-tree productivity was reduced by between − 15% and − 28% in both the mixed oak–pine and beech–spruce stands but only slightly reduced in the mixed beech–larch stands. Measures of climate sensitivity and resistance were derived by model predictions of conditional expectations for simulated climate sequences. The relative climate sensitivity was, respectively, reduced by between − 16 and − 39 percentage points in both the beech–spruce and beech–larch mixed stands. The relative climate sensitivity of pine increased through mixing, but remained unaffected for oak. Mixing increased the resistance in both the beech–larch and the beech–spruce mixed stand. In the mixed oak–pine stand, resistance of pine was decreased and remained unchanged for oak.