scholarly journals Weak Apical Control of Swiss Stone Pine (Pinus cembra L.) May Serve as a Protection Against Environmental Stress Above Treeline in the Central European Alps

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oberhuber ◽  
Geisler ◽  
Bernich ◽  
Wieser
Keyword(s):  
Growth Form ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Central European ◽  
Apical Control ◽  
Branching Points ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine ◽  
Lateral Branches

At the treeline in the Central European Alps, adverse climate conditions impair tree growth and cause krummholz formation of Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.). Multi-stemmed trees (tree clusters) are frequently found in the treeline ecotone and are generally thought to originate from seed caches (multiple genets) of the European nutcracker (N. caryocatactes) or due to repeated damage of the leader shoot by browsing or mechanical stress (single genet). Additionally, lack of apical control can lead to upward bending of lateral branches, which may obscure single-genet origin if the lower branching points are overgrown by vegetation and the humus layer. The multi-stemmed growth form may serve as a means of protection against extreme environmental stress during winter, especially at wind-exposed sites, because leeward shoots are protected from, e.g. ice particle abrasion and winter desiccation. The aims of this study therefore were to analyze in an extensive field survey: (i) whether weak apical control may serve as a protection against winter stress; and (ii) to what extent the multi-stemmed growth form of P. cembra in the krummholz zone is originating from a single genet or multiple genets. To accomplish this, the growth habit of P. cembra saplings was determined in areas showing extensive needle damage caused by winter stress. Multi-stemmed saplings were assigned to single and multiple genets based on determination of existing branching points below the soil surface. The findings revealed that upward bending of lateral branches could protect saplings against winter stress factors, and, although multi-stemmed P. cembra trees were primarily found to originate from multiple genets (most likely seed caches), about 38% of tree clusters originated from upward bending of (partially) buried branches. The results suggest that weak apical control of P. cembra in the sapling stage might be an adaptation to increase survival rate under severe climate conditions prevailing above treeline during winter.

scholarly journals Growth Trends of Coniferous Species along Elevational Transects in the Central European Alps Indicate Decreasing Sensitivity to Climate Warming

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Oberhuber ◽  
Ursula Bendler ◽  
Vanessa Gamper ◽  
Jacob Geier ◽  
Anna Hölzl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Warming ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Growth Response ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Central European ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine

Tree growth at high elevation in the Central European Alps (CEA) is strongly limited by low temperature during the growing season. We developed a tree ring series of co-occurring conifers (Swiss stone pine, Norway spruce, European larch) along elevational transects stretching from the subalpine zone to the krummholz limit (1630–2290 m asl; n = 503 trees) and evaluated whether trends in basal area increment (BAI) are in line with two phases of climate warming, which occurred from 1915–1953 and from 1975–2015. Unexpectedly, results revealed that at subalpine sites (i) intensified climate warming in recent decades did not lead to a corresponding increase in BAI and (ii) increase in summer temperature since 1915 primarily favored growth of larch and spruce, although Swiss stone pine dominates at high elevations in the Eastern CEA, and therefore was expected to mainly benefit from climate warming. At treeline, BAI increases in all species were above the level expected based on determined age trend, whereas at the krummholz limit only deciduous larch showed a minor growth increase. We explain missing adequate growth response to recent climate warming by strengthened competition for resources (nutrients, light, water) in increasingly denser stands at subalpine sites, and by frost desiccation injuries of evergreen tree species at the krummholz limit. To conclude, accurate forecasts of tree growth response to climate warming at high elevation must consider changes in stand density as well as species-specific sensitivity to climate variables beyond the growing season.

scholarly journals Ecological and genetic aspects of distribution of the marginal populations of Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in Ukrainian Carpathians

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-246
Author(s):  
Vasyl Mohytych ◽  
Marcin Klisz ◽  
Roman Yatsyk ◽  
Yuriy Hayda ◽  
Mariana Sishchuk
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Protection ◽  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Marginal Populations ◽  
Eastern Carpathians ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
Conservation Activity ◽  
High Elevations

Abstract Current distributions of Swiss stone pine mostly cover the mountain regions of Europe (Alps and Carpathians). Easternmost distribution of this species is located in western Ukraine. Due to environmental fragmentation in Eastern Carpathians and competition with Norway spruce and other species, marginal populations of Swiss stone pine create isolated island, where other species are not able to cope with harsh conditions. Still, Pinus cembra L. play an important role for soil-formation and soil-protection in high elevations. The evidence of recent reduction in the area of Swiss stone pine raises the question whether the introduction of this species at lower altitudes can be successful? According to the studies conducted on reciprocal transplant experiments, Swiss stone pine population from higher elevation are able to profit in low elevation sites. Thus, parallelly with gene conservation activity, the possibilities of assisted migration should be recognized for this species.

scholarly journals Zur Rückkehr der Arve (Pinus cembra L.) in die Südalpen der Schweiz | The return of the Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in the southern Alps of Switzerland

2004 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
Walter Keller
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Southern Alps ◽  
Forest History ◽  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Subalpine Zone ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine

The ecology and spread of the stone pine in the subalpine zone of southern Switzerland are discussed with reference to both vegetation relevés with Pinus cembra L. from Vergeletto valley(Canton Ticino) and forest history and botany publications. The ecograms and lists of tree species given in the recent literature are often contradictory, so that it is difficult to use them with confidence. This means that only verifiable and published relevés and analyses based on them may serve as a basis to evaluate the implementation and check the results of forest management in Switzerland.

scholarly journals An Ornamental Swiss Stone Pine (Pinus cembra) in Wisconsin is a Host of the Shoot Blight Pathogen Diplodia pinea

Plant Disease ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 93 (8) ◽  
pp. 845-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. W. Oblinger ◽  
D. R. Smith ◽  
G. R. Stanosz
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Tissue ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Initial Symptom ◽  
Stem Segment ◽  
Commonwealth Mycological Institute ◽  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Diplodia Pinea ◽  
Shoot Blight ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine

Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) is a slow-growing, hardy tree native to high-mountain regions of Europe from the Alps to the Carpathians. It also is planted as an ornamental in North America. Shoot blight and branch dieback were observed in the fall of 2008 on a single, 25- to 30-year-old Swiss stone pine growing on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. This tree is located between two mature Austrian pines (P. nigra) that exhibit symptoms of Diplodia blight and show signs of the conifer pathogen Diplodia pinea. Approximately 20% of the Swiss stone pine shoots were affected with needles and stems killed before full elongation. Symptom development appeared to have progressed from tips into older portions of branches with several years' growth often heavily resinous and necrotic. Five samples each of needles, stems, and cones bearing erumpent, black pycnidia were collected for microscopic examination. Each sample yielded conidia consistent with those of D. pinea (2). Using tannic acid agar (TAA) (1) on which autoclaved pine needles were placed to induce sporulation, this fungus was cultured from all 15 samples. The identity of the pathogen was confirmed as D. pinea with species-specific PCR primers (4) that allow differentiation from the similar fungus D. scrobiculata. Single-conidial isolate 09-03 from the affected Swiss stone pine was used to inoculate potted seedlings of this species in a greenhouse. Growing shoots of 12 seedlings were wounded by removing a needle fascicle and then were inoculated by placing on the wound a 5-mm-diameter plug cut from an actively growing colony on water agar (WA). Noncolonized WA plugs were placed on five wounded control seedlings, and five nonwounded control seedlings were used. Seedlings were covered with plastic bags to maintain high humidity for 2 weeks and then the bags were removed. The initial symptom, present 1 week after inoculation, was chlorosis of the bases of current-year needles near the point of inoculation. Affected needles became necrotic and pycnidia were visible on some by 10 days after inoculation. Needle chlorosis, necrosis, and dark discoloration of vascular tissue had developed on 11 of 12 inoculated seedlings by 6 weeks after inoculation, but not on wounded or nonwounded control seedlings. At that time, one or more symptomatic needles and a stem segment from each inoculated seedling and comparable material from control seedlings were surface disinfested and placed on TAA. The pathogen was cultured from needles of 10 of 12 inoculated seedlings and from stems of all inoculated seedlings. The fungus was not cultured from needles of control seedlings, but was cultured from stems of 2 of 10 control seedlings, one wounded and one nonwounded. D. pinea often severely damages species in the Pinus subgenus Diploxylon (two- and three-needle pines), but it is much less frequently reported as a cause of damage to hosts in the subgenus Haploxylon (five-needle pines), which includes Swiss stone pine. Although an unidentified Diplodia species was listed among fungi cultured from a healthy shoot of P. cembra (3), to our knowledge this is the first report of D. pinea as a pathogen of Swiss stone pine. References: (1) J. T. Blodgett et al. For. Pathol. 33:395, 2003. (2) E. Punithalingam and J. M. Waterston. No. 273 in: Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey, England, 1970. (3) G. R. Schnell. Eur. J. For. Pathol. 17:19, 1987. (4) D. R. Smith and G. R. Stanosz. Plant Dis. 90:307, 2006.

Arolle et climat océanique: l'importance des facteurs micro-stationnels | Swiss stone pine and oceanic climate: the importance of microsites

2006 ◽  
Vol 157 (6) ◽  
pp. 196-207
Author(s):  
Jacques Doutaz ◽  
Harald Bugmann ◽  
Hans-Ulrich Frey
Keyword(s):  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
The North ◽  
North Side ◽  
Oceanic Climate ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine ◽  
The Alps

Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) is a species that typically grows in continental areas. Nevertheless it can also be found in a few oceanic areas on the north side of the Alps, such as in the Forêt du Lapé (Commune of Charmey, FR). In this forest the majority of the Swiss stone pines are located on large boulders,particularly on the margins of the summit of the boulders, i.e. in those parts where the snow melts the earliest in spring. The micro-relief seems to be a very important factor, because it tends to reproduce continental conditions even if the mesoclimate is oceanic. This microscale continentality – involved by the micro-relief – could be an explanation for the presence of Swiss stone pine in the oceanic parts of the Alps.

The mycobiota of discoloured needles of the Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) in the Tatra Mountains (Poland)

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 2614-2621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Pusz ◽  
Anna Baturo-Cieśniewska ◽  
Tomasz Zwijacz-Kozica
Keyword(s):  
Tatra Mountains ◽  
Pinus Cembra ◽  
Stone Pine ◽  
Swiss Stone Pine ◽  
The Tatra Mountains
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