Tree establishment and growth drive treeline advance and change treeline form on Pikes Peak (Colorado) in response to recent anthropogenic warming.

Author(s):  
Miroslav Kummel ◽  
Alison McGarigal ◽  
Michelle T Kummel ◽  
Carol Earnest ◽  
Molly Feiden

Treeline advance is a well-established response of treeline ecotones to climate change. However, the degree to which tree growth and establishment drives treeline movement is widely debated. We used GIS analysis of aerial photographs and dendrochronological analysis of tree growth and age structure to examine treeline dynamics on Pikes Peak (CO). The rate of treeline advance at the site (1938-2017) was 0.235m/year, and it accelerated through time. Several sites have transformed from abrupt to diffuse topology. Regional temperatures significantly increased after the 1890s, particularly in the last half-century. Tree growth was inhibited by late spring snow in the 1935-1985 window and enhanced by growing season temperature in the 1965-2009 window. Tree establishment above treeline appears to have transformed treeline topology and set up the potential for further treeline advance. We conclude that if current climatic trends and system relationships continue, treeline should continue to advance because (1) there are large numbers of seedlings and saplings above the treeline due to continuous significant seedling recruitment and (2) growth of trees in the treeline ecotone is positively related to growing season temperatures, which are increasing. Other limits to the system, such as drought or topographic barriers, may arise in the future.

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1015
Author(s):  
Xuan Wu ◽  
Liang Jiao ◽  
Dashi Du ◽  
Changliang Qi ◽  
Ruhong Xue

It is important to explore the responses of radial tree growth in different regions to understand growth patterns and to enhance forest management and protection with climate change. We constructed tree ring width chronologies of Picea crassifolia from different regions of the Qilian Mountains of northwest China. We used Pearson correlation and moving correlation to analyze the main climate factors limiting radial growth of trees and the temporal stability of the growth–climate relationship, while spatial correlation is the result of further testing the first two terms in space. The conclusions were as follows: (1) Radial growth had different trends, showing an increasing followed by a decreasing trend in the central region, a continuously increasing trend in the eastern region, and a gradually decreasing trend in the isolated mountain. (2) Radial tree growth in the central region and isolated mountains was constrained by drought stress, and tree growth in the central region was significantly negatively correlated with growing season temperature. Isolated mountains showed a significant negative correlation with mean minimum of growing season and a significant positive correlation with total precipitation. (3) Temporal dynamic responses of radial growth in the central region to the temperatures and SPEI (the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index) in the growing season were unstable, the isolated mountains to total precipitation was unstable, and that to SPEI was stable. The results of this study suggest that scientific management and maintenance plans of the forest ecosystem should be developed according to the response and growth patterns of the Qinghai spruce to climate change in different regions of the Qilian Mountains.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milagros Rodriguez-Caton ◽  
Laia Andreu-Hayles ◽  
Mariano S Morales ◽  
Valérie Daux ◽  
Duncan A Christie ◽  
...  

Abstract Tree growth is generally considered to be temperature-limited at upper elevation treelines. Yet, climate factors controlling tree growth at semiarid treelines are poorly understood. We explored the influence of climate on stem growth and stable isotopes for Polyepis tarapacana, the world’s highest elevation tree-species found only in the South American Altiplano. We developed tree-ring width index (RWI), oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) chronologies for the last 60 years at four P. tarapacana stands located above 4,400 meters in elevation, along a 500-km latitude-aridity gradient. Total annual precipitation decreased from 300 to 200 mm from the northern to the southern sites. We used RWI as a proxy of wood formation (carbon sink) and isotopic tree-ring signatures as proxies of leaf-level gas exchange processes (carbon source). We found distinct climatic conditions regulating carbon-sink processes along the gradient. Current-growing season temperature regulated RWI at wetter-northern sites, while prior-growing season precipitation determined RWI at arid-southern sites. This suggests that the relative importance of temperature to precipitation in regulating tree growth is driven by site-water availability. In contrast, warm and dry growing-seasons resulted in enriched tree-ring δ13C and δ18O at all study sites, suggesting that similar climate conditions control carbon-source processes. Site-level δ13C and δ18O chronologies were significantly and positively related at all sites, with the strongest relationships among the southern-drier stands. This indicates an overall regulation of intercellular carbon dioxide via stomatal conductance for the entire P. tarapacana network, with greater stomatal control when aridity increases. The manuscript also highlights a coupling and decoupling of physiological processes at leaf level versus wood formation depending on their respectively uniform and distinct sensitivity to climate. This study contributes to better understand and predict the response of high-elevation Polylepis woodlands to rapid climate changes and projected drying in the Altiplano.


1986 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 164-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.H. Thomsen

Glaciological investigations have been carried out in areas proposed for local hydro-power stations in Greenland, A mapping programme was set up, to provide data for mass balance and simulation of run-off, as well as glacier dynamics.Two types of glacier map have been produced, covering the margin of the Inland Ice: detailed photogrammetric maps, based on plotting from vertical aerial photographs and a new type of surface feature map, based on digitally-processed Landsat data. The photogrammetric maps, plotted on a scale of 1:25 000, include surface topography and surface features, such as crevasses, lakes, moraines etc. The surface feature maps, plotted on a scale of 1:100 000, show surface features related to ice and melt-water drainage, as well as subtle, topographic features, related to the subglacial topography.The maps have so far been used for preliminary delineation of drainage areas on the Inland Ice and for planning tracks of radio echo-soundings.


Genetika ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Branka Kresovic ◽  
Vesna Dragicevic ◽  
Bosko Gajic ◽  
Angelina Tapanarova ◽  
Borivoj Pejic

The aim of the present study was to observe the response of maize hybrids under rainfed and irrigation conditions of the soil in order to establish the dependence of yielding potential on the water amounts reaching the soil surface during the growing season. The four-replicate trail was set up according to the randomised complete-block design on chernozem. Pre-watering soil moisture was approximately 70% of field water capacity, and soil moisture was established thermogravimetrically. During the five-year studies, the following differences in yields could be as follows: 12.68 t ha-1 (ZP 341); 12.76 t ha-1 (ZP 434); 13.17 t ha-1 (ZP 578); 14.03 t ha-1 (ZP 684) and 13.75 t ha-1 (ZP 704) under conditions of 440 mm, 440 mm, 424 mm, 457 mm and 466 mm of water, respectively. The hybrid ZP 341, i.e. ZP 578 expressed the highest, i.e. the lowest tolerance in dry relative seasons, respectively. The reduction of the water amount for every 10 mm decreased the yield by 119.4 kg ha-1 (ZP 341), 156.7 kg ha-1 (ZP 434), 172.3 kg ha-1 (ZP 578), 148.9 kg ha-1 (ZP 684) and 151.1 kg ha-1 (ZP 704).


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2381-2392
Author(s):  
Maierdang Keyimu ◽  
Zongshan Li ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Guohua Liu ◽  
Fanjiang Zeng ◽  
...  

Abstract. Trees record climatic conditions during their growth, and tree rings serve as proxy to reveal the features of the historical climate of a region. In this study, we collected tree-ring cores of hemlock forest (Tsuga forrestii) from the northwestern Yunnan area of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) and created a residual tree-ring width (TRW) chronology. An analysis of the relationship between tree growth and climate revealed that precipitation during the non-growing season (NGS) (from November of the previous year to February of the current year) was the most important constraining factor on the radial tree growth of hemlock forests in this region. In addition, the influence of NGS precipitation on radial tree growth was relatively uniform over time (1956–2005). Accordingly, we reconstructed the NGS precipitation over the period spanning from 1600–2005. The reconstruction accounted for 28.5 % of the actual variance during the common period of 1956–2005. Based on the reconstruction, NGS was extremely dry during the years 1656, 1694, 1703, 1736, 1897, 1907, 1943, 1982 and 1999. In contrast, the NGS was extremely wet during the years 1627, 1638, 1654, 1832, 1834–1835 and 1992. Similar variations of the NGS precipitation reconstruction series and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions of early growing season from surrounding regions indicated the reliability of the present reconstruction. A comparison of the reconstruction with Climate Research Unit (CRU) gridded data revealed that our reconstruction was representative of the NGS precipitation variability of a large region in the SETP. Our study provides the first historical NGS precipitation reconstruction in the SETP which enriches the understanding of the long-term climate variability of this region. The NGS precipitation showed slightly increasing trend during the last decade which might accelerate regional hemlock forest growth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Steinke ◽  
TWA Braukmann ◽  
L Manerus ◽  
A Woodhouse ◽  
V Elbrecht

AbstractThe Malaise trap has gained popularity for assessing diverse terrestrial arthropod communities because it collects large samples with modest effort. A number of factors that influence collection efficiency, placement being one of them. For instance, when designing larger biotic surveys using arrays of Malaise traps we need to know the optimal distance between individual traps that maximises observable species richness and community composition. We examined the influence of spacing between Malaise traps by metabarcoding samples from two field experiments at a site in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. For one experiment, we used two trap pairs deployed at weekly increasing distance (3m increments from 3 to 27 m). The second experiment involved a total of 10 traps set up in a row at 3m distance intervals for three consecutive weeks.Results show that community similarity of samples decreases over distance between traps. The amount of species shared between trap pairs shows drops considerably at about 15m trap-to-trap distance. This change can be observed across all major taxonomic groups and for two different habitat types (grassland and forest). Large numbers of OTUs found only once within samples cause rather large dissimilarity between distance pairs even at close proximity. This could be caused by a large number of transient species from adjacent habitat which arrive at the trap through passive transport, as well as capture of rare taxa, which end up in different traps by chance.


1986 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 34-36
Author(s):  
Chen Jianming

For use in glaciological research, between 1982 and 1984, we succeeded in surveying and mapping the Mount Gongga Glacier, on a scale of 1:25 000, by means of a combination of terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry. This paper describes the method in detail. In the survey area, we set up an independent, triangulation network, with microwave distance measurement, and two, independent, straight-line traverses, for basic control. Control points were observed by intersection. The terrestrial, photogrammetric baselines were projected and corrected into distances on the. plane of the map. Terrestrial photography accounted for the majority of the photographs of the survey area. Surveying and mapping of planimetrie and topographic features were completed on a stereo-autograph, using plates mainly from terrestrial photogrammetry. Where these data were insufficient, they were supplemented by aerial photography, plotted on a photographic plotting instrument. Orientation points of the aerial photographs were established by terrestrial, photogrammetric analysis and located on the map by an optical, mechanical method. The practical result showed that a combination of terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry, in mapping a high, mountain, glacier area, on a large scale, is more feasible and flexible than other methods and more economical as well.


Plant Ecology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 219 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Bürzle ◽  
Udo Schickhoff ◽  
Niels Schwab ◽  
Lina Marie Wernicke ◽  
Yanina Katharina Müller ◽  
...  

1990 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 892-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Patterson ◽  
Glenn Wehtje ◽  
William D. Goff

The effect of irrigation and weed control by various mechanical and chemical means was evaluated over a 4-yr period on newly planted pecans [Carya illinoensis(Wang.) K. Koch]. Weed control effect on tree growth became evident in the second growing season, and became more pronounced after the third and fourth season. After the fourth season, the maximum increase in tree diameter (384%) was achieved with comprehensive, herbicide-based weed control. Mowing provided a 224% increase, which was equivalent to the untreated (229%). Disking and selective chemical control of grass weeds resulted in 339 and 292% increase, respectively. Cumulative increase in tree diameter was 316 and 271% with and without irrigation, respectively.


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