scholarly journals Climate-Driven Differences in Growth Performance of Cohabitant Fir and Birch in a Subalpine Forest in Dhorpatan Nepal

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1137
Author(s):  
Raju Bista ◽  
Parveen K. Chhetri ◽  
Jeremy S. Johnson ◽  
Ashish Sinha ◽  
Krishna B. Shrestha

Himalayan Silver Fir (Abies spectabilis) and Himalayan Birch (Betula utilis) are tree species often found coexisting in sub-alpine forests of the Nepal Himalayas. To assess species-specific growth performances of these species, tree-ring samples were collected from the subalpine forest in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Nepal. Standard ring width chronologies of both species were correlated with climatic variables in both static and running windows. Differential and contrasting temporal responses of radial growth of these species to climate were found. Warmer and drier springs appeared to limit birch radial growth. Whereas radial growth of fir showed weakened climate sensitivity. Moving correlation analyses revealed divergent influences of spring climate on both fir and birch. Significant warming that occurred in the 1970s coincided with growth declines in birch and an increase in fir, as indicated by basal area increment. In summary, recent warming has been unfavorable for birch, and favorable to fir radial growth.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Jelena Subotić ◽  
Vojislav Dukić ◽  
Tatjana Popov ◽  
Goran Trbić ◽  
Zoran Maunaga ◽  
...  

Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) is the most common conifer species in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper describes the development of a silver fir master tree-ring chronology from Kozara National Park and analyzes the influence of the climate conditions on tree-ring widths. The knowledge concerning the effect of climate on cambium activity and, as a result, on tree growth is of great importance for silviculture, which is particularly complex in terms of deterioration of health condition. Four sites were selected for sampling at Kozara National Park. At each sampling site, 15 dominant trees were drilled with Pressler’s increment borer at breast height. The development of chronology included three steps: i) cross-dating of a series of tree-ring width and checking of their quality using the COFECHA program, ii) data standardization in the ARSTAN program, and iii) master chronology development. Correlation analysis was performed in order to determine the links between tree-ring width and climate (primarily temperature and precipitation). In the 88-year-long master chronology, pointer years analysis identified five positive and nine negative years. Correlation analysis revealed that precipitation had stronger and more significant impact on silver fir radial growth, particularly at the beginning of the growing season, in April and May (r=0.175 and r=0.318, respectively), and in the crucial July−September period (r in the range of 0.143−0.222). The highest negative correlation coefficient with temperature was determined for September of the previous year (r=-0.282) and then for summer months (July and August) of the current year (r=-0.184 and r=-0.272, respectively). In addition, statistically significant correlation between radial growth and the Forestry Aridity Index was determined (r=-0.390). The results of tree-ring width climate analysis obtained in this study are in accordance with other studies carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the surrounding area.


2013 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Szymon Bijak

Abstract I present dendroclimatological analysis of coniferous tree species growing under the same environmental conditions in the WULS-SGGW Forest Experimental Station in Rogów (51°49' N, 19°53' E, ca. 190 m a.s.l). The study focuses on silver fir, European larch, Scots pine and Douglas fir. For each species, tree-ring width and annual sensitivity chronologies were developed for the period 1931-2010. Analysed species show considerable similarity of their radial increment course (GLK up to 67%, the t-value of 3,5-9,5). The relationship obtained for of the influence of climate conditions on radial growth of these species is typical of the relationships reported from other locations in lowland Poland. Late winter and early spring temperature, especially during February-March, is the main factor affecting tree-ring formation. The general relationship demonstrates that this seasonal thermal limitation operates at an inter-regional and interspecific level in determining the growth of coniferous tree species in Poland. Whereas, the dependence of these species on precipitation is much less significant.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 1795-1807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvin Toromani ◽  
Mitat Sanxhaku ◽  
Edmond Pasho

This paper deals with the response of silver fir ( Abies alba Mill.) growth to climate, mainly drought, presenting data from southern Kosovo, for which only little information is available. Two cores from 55 dominant trees were extracted at two sites representing the limits of the natural distribution of silver fir. We built 80- and 112-year-long chronologies for each site. Comparison of both ring width chronologies showed that they were diverse. Pointer year analysis indicated that high spring temperatures and ample rainfall (1082 mm) influenced positively silver fir growth (wide ring), while low spring temperatures and scarce precipitation had an inverse effect. Bootstrapped response functions confirmed that April and May temperatures of the current growth year influenced positively silver fir growth at the low-elevation site, while the July precipitation of the previous growth year had a negative influence. At the high-elevation site, warm previous December temperatures had a positive influence on silver fir growth. Drought indices indicated two periods (1953–1961 and 1994–2001) with moderate drought. Correlation analysis between silver fir radial growth and drought indices revealed that the impact of drought on radial growth was significant at the time scale of 1.5 months during the summer months.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Tamalika Chakraborty ◽  
Albert Reif ◽  
Andreas Matzarakis ◽  
Somidh Saha

European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) trees are becoming vulnerable to drought, with a warming climate. Existing studies disagree on how radial growth varies in European beech in response to droughts. We aimed to find the impact of multiple droughts on beech trees’ annual radial growth at their ecological drought limit created by soil water availability in the forest. Besides, we quantified the influence of competition and canopy openness on the mean basal area growth of beech trees. We carried out this study in five near-natural temperate forests in three localities of Germany and Switzerland. We quantified available soil water storage capacity (AWC) in plots laid in the transition zone from oak to beech dominated forests. The plots were classified as ‘dry’ (AWC < 60 mL) and ‘less-dry’ (AWC > 60 mL). We performed dendroecological analyses starting from 1951 in continuous and discontinuous series to study the influence of climatic drought (i.e., precipitation-potential evapotranspiration) on the radial growth of beech trees in dry and less-dry plots. We used observed values for this analysis and did not use interpolated values from interpolated historical records in this study. We selected six drought events to study the resistance, recovery, and resilience of beech trees to drought at a discontinuous level. The radial growth was significantly higher in less-dry plots than dry plots. The increase in drought had reduced tree growth. Frequent climatic drought events resulted in more significant correlations, hence, increased the dependency of tree growth on AWC. We showed that the recovery and resilience to climatic drought were higher in trees in less-dry plots than dry plots, but it was the opposite for resistance. The resistance, recovery, and resilience of the trees were heterogeneous between the events of drought. Mean growth of beech trees (basal area increment) were negatively impacted by neighborhood competition and positively influenced by canopy openness. We emphasized that beech trees growing on soil with low AWC are at higher risk of growth decline. We concluded that changes in soil water conditions even at the microsite level could influence beech trees’ growth in their drought limit under the changing climate. Along with drought, neighborhood competition and lack of light can also reduce beech trees’ growth. This study will enrich the state of knowledge about the ongoing debate on the vulnerability of beech trees to drought in Europe.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 640
Author(s):  
Cristian Gheorghe Sidor ◽  
Radu Vlad ◽  
Ionel Popa ◽  
Anca Semeniuc ◽  
Ecaterina Apostol ◽  
...  

The research aims to evaluate the impact of local industrial pollution on radial growth in affected Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) stands in the Tarnița study area in Suceava. For northeastern Romania, the Tarnița mining operation constituted a hotspot of industrial pollution. The primary processing of non-ferrous ores containing heavy metals in the form of complex sulfides was the main cause of pollution in the Tarnița region from 1968 to 1990. Air pollution of Tarnița induced substantial tree growth reduction from 1978 to 1990, causing a decline in tree health and vitality. Growth decline in stands located over 6 km from the pollution source was weaker or absent. Spruce trees were much less affected by the phenomenon of local pollution than fir trees. We analyzed the dynamics of resilience indices and average radial growth indices and found that the period in which the trees suffered the most from local pollution was between 1978 and 1984. Growth recovery of the intensively polluted stand was observed after the 1990s when the environmental condition improved because of a significant reduction in air pollution.


1957 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. Duff ◽  
Norah J. Nolan

Two measures are needed to describe numerically the activity of the internodal cambium in terms of annual increment. These are "specific wood volume increment", a measure of additive growth and "specific increment of cambial area", a measure of multiplicative growth. The mean area of the internodal cambium is the basis of reference for both since it is the measure of that which is active in growth. The former measure of specific growth is numerically equal to ring width and the manner of its factorial control has already been considered. Data for the latter are new.The geometry of the apical meristem and its products is too complex for the ready computation of specific terminal growth, but it can be shown empirically that internode length is a valid measure of apical activity. Analysis of internodal wood volume growth into its three linear components leads to the conclusion that the determinants in control of wood growth act mainly through their effect upon apical activity and upon specific increment of cambial area.


CERNE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fábio Venturoli ◽  
Augusto César Franco ◽  
Christopher William Fagg

In the Cerrado biome of Brazil, savannas and dry forests are intimately linked and form mosaics. These forests are composed of species of high commercial value, well accepted in the timber market, which causes intensive deforestation on the remaining vegetation. Thus, the management of these forests is an important alternative to reduce deforestation in the remaining vegetation. The objective of this study was to analyze the response of tree species in relation to silvicultural treatments of competition and liana cutting in a semi-deciduous forest in Central Brazil. The results showed that community basal area increased 24% over 4.8 years and the median periodic annual increment in diameter was about 20% higher in plots with silvicultural treatments: 2.9 mm.yr-1 in the control compared to 3.2 mm.yr-1 to 3.6 mm.yr-1 between treatments. This study demonstrated that it is possible to increase the rates of radial growth through silvicultural techniques.


Author(s):  
Yanhua Zhang ◽  
Shengzuo Fang ◽  
Ye Tian ◽  
Linlin Wang ◽  
Yi Lv

AbstractPoplar is raw material for various panel, paper and fiber products. The 12 sample trees of clone Nanlin-895 from four spacings were destructively harvested after thirteen growing seasons to assess the influence of spacing on radial growth and wood properties. Spacing significantly affected tree-ring width and wood basic density (p < 0.05) but not fiber traits. The highest diameter and wood basic density at breast height (1.3 m) was in 6 m × 6 m and 3 m × 8 m spacings, respectively. However, no significant differences in tree-ring width, wood basic density and fiber traits were observed among the four sampling directions in discs taken at 1.3 m for each spacing. Growth rings from the pith and tree heights had significant effects on wood basic density and fiber anatomical characteristics, highlighting obvious temporal-spatial variations. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significantly negative relationship of tree-ring width to wood basic density, fiber length and fiber width, but a significantly positive relationship to hemicellulose. There was no relationship with cellulose and lignin contents. Based on a comprehensive assessment by the TOPSIS method, the 6 m × 6 m spacing is recommended for producing wood fiber at similar sites in the future.


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