Evaluation of Whole Tree Growth Increment Derived from Tree-Ring Series for Use in Assessments of Changes in Forest Productivity across Various Spatial Scales

The climate of Nepal has changed rapidly over the recent decades, but most instrumental records of weather and hydrology only extend back to the 1980s. Tree rings can provide a longer perspective on recent environmental changes, and since the early 2000s, a new round of field initiatives by international researchers and Nepali scientists have more than doubled the size of the country’s tree-ring network. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the current tree-ring width network for Nepal, and use this network to estimate changes in forest growth nation-wide during the last four centuries. Ring-width chronologies in Nepal have been developed from 11 tree species, and half of the records span at least 290 years. The Nepal tree-ring width network provides a robust estimate of annual forest growth over roughly the last four centuries, but prior to this point, our mean ring-width composite fluctuates wildly due to low sample replication. Over the last four centuries, two major events are prominent in the all-Nepal composite: (i) a prolonged and widespread growth suppression during the early 1800s; and (ii) heightened growth during the most recent decade. The early 19th century decline in tree growth coincides with two major Indonesian eruptions, and suggests that short-term disturbances related to climate extremes can exert a lasting influence on the vigor of Nepal’s forests. Growth increases since AD 2000 are mainly apparent in high-elevation fir, which may be a consequence of the observed trend towards warmer temperatures, particularly during winter. This synthesis effort should be useful to establish baselines for tree-ring data in Nepal and provide a broader context to evaluate the sensitivity or behavior of this proxy in the central Himalayas.

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Different climate sensitivity for radial growth, but uniform for tree-ring stable isotopes along an aridity gradient in Polylepis tarapacana, the world’s highest elevation tree-species

Tree Physiology ◽

10.1093/treephys/tpab021 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Milagros Rodriguez-Caton ◽

Laia Andreu-Hayles ◽

Mariano S Morales ◽

Valérie Daux ◽

Duncan A Christie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stable Isotopes ◽

Carbon Source ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

Growing Season ◽

Wood Formation ◽

Aridity Gradient ◽

Leaf Level ◽

Δ13c And Δ18o

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.

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Dry-season climate drives interannual variability in tropical tree growth

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14895 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pieter Zuidema ◽

Flurin Babst ◽

Peter Groenendijk ◽

Valerie Trouet

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Woody Biomass ◽

Dry Season ◽

Tropical Tree ◽

Biomass Growth ◽

Wet Season ◽

Tropical Vegetation ◽

Tropical Tree Growth ◽

Climate Responses

Tropical and subtropical ecosystems are primarily responsible for the large inter-annual variability (IAV) in the global carbon land sink. The response of tropical vegetation productivity to climatic variation likely drives this IAV, but the climate sensitivity of key productivity components are poorly understood. Tree-ring analysis can help fill this knowledge gap by estimating IAV in woody biomass growth, the major carbon accumulation process in tropical vegetation.&#160;Here, we evaluate the climate responses of woody biomass growth throughout the global tropics. Using an unprecedented compilation of tropical tree-ring data, we test hypotheses that (1) precipitation (P) and maximum temperature (Tmax) have opposite and additive effects on annual tree growth, (2) these climate responses amplify with increasing aridity and (3) wet-season climate is a more important driver of growth than dry-season climate.&#160;We established a network of 347 tree-ring width chronologies compiled from (sub-)tropical latitudes, representing 99 tree species on five continents and obtained from contributors (n=112) and the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB; n=235). Our network is climatologically representative for 66% of the pantropical land area with woody vegetation.&#160;To test hypotheses we re-developed standardized ring-width index (RWI) chronologies and assessed climate responses using SOM cluster analysis (monthly P and Tmax) and multiple regression analysis (seasonal P and Tmax). Our results were consistent with hypothesis 1: effects of monthly or seasonal P and Tmax on tree growth were indeed additive and opposite, suggesting water availability to be the primary driver of tropical tree growth. In accordance with hypothesis 2, these climate responses were stronger at sites with lower mean annual precipitation or a larger annual water deficit. However, our results contrast those expected under hypothesis 3. Three of the four clusters show a dominant role of dry-season climate on annual tree growth and regression analyses confirmed this strong dry-season role.&#160;The strong dry-season effect on tropical tree growth seemingly contrasts the general notion that tropical vegetation productivity peaks during the wet season but is consistent with studies showing that climatologically benign dry seasons increase reserve storage and xylem growth. We posit that dry-season climate constrains the magnitude of woody biomass growth that takes place during the following wet season, and thus contributes to IAV in tree growth.&#160;By providing field-based insights on climate sensitivity of tropical vegetation productivity, our study contributes to the major task in Earth system science of quantifying, understanding, and predicting the IAV of the carbon land sink.

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Ecological forecasting of tree growth: Regional fusion of tree‐ring and forest inventory data to quantify drivers and characterize uncertainty

Global Change Biology ◽

10.1111/gcb.16038 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Kelly A. Heilman ◽

Michael C. Dietze ◽

Alexis A. Arizpe ◽

Jacob Aragon ◽

Andrew Gray ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Forest Inventory ◽

Inventory Data ◽

Ecological Forecasting ◽

Forest Inventory Data

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Effect of climate on tree growth in the Pampa biome of Southeastern South America: First tree-ring chronologies from Uruguay

Dendrochronologia ◽

10.1016/j.dendro.2018.10.004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 113-122 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Christine Lucas ◽

Paulina Puchi ◽

Ludmila Profumo ◽

Alex Ferreira ◽

Ariel Muñoz

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Pampa Biome

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A Dendro-Spatial Analysis in Tree Growth Provides Insights into Forest Productivity

Latin American Dendroecology ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-36930-9_11 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 247-262

Author(s):

Marín Pompa-García ◽

José Manuel Zúñiga-Vásquez ◽

Eduardo Treviño-Garza

Keyword(s):

Spatial Analysis ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Forest Productivity

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Entwicklung klimasensitiver Wachstumsfunktionen für das Szenariomodell «Massimo»

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2015.0389 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 166 (6) ◽

pp. 389-398 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Brigitte Rohner ◽

Esther Thürig

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Tree Species ◽

Climatic Factors ◽

Climate Variables ◽

Individual Tree ◽

Climate Effects ◽

Growth Functions ◽

Tree Ring Data ◽

Scenario Model

Development of climate-dependent growth functions for the scenario model “Massimo” Tree growth is substantially influenced by climatic factors. In the face of climate change, climate effects should therefore be included in estimations of Switzerland's future forest productivity. In order to include climate effects in the growth functions of the “Massimo” model, which is typically applied to project forest resources in Switzerland, we statistically modelled climate effects on tree growth representatively for Switzerland by simultaneously considering further growth-influencing factors. First, we used tree ring data to evaluate how climate variables should be defined. This analyses showed that for modelling multi-year tree growth we should use averages of whole-year variables. Second, we fitted nonlinear mixed-effects models separately for the main tree species to individual-tree growth data from the Swiss National Forest Inventory. In these models, we combined climate variables defined according to the results of the tree ring study with various further variables that characterize sites, stands and individual trees. The quantified effects were generally plausible and explained convincingly the physiological differences between the species. The statistical growth models for the main tree species will now be included in the forest scenario model “Massimo”. This will allow for founded analyses of scenarios which assume changing climatic conditions.

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A 406-year non-growing-season precipitation reconstruction in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Climate of the Past ◽

10.5194/cp-17-2381-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 2381-2392

Author(s):

Maierdang Keyimu ◽

Zongshan Li ◽

Bojie Fu ◽

Guohua Liu ◽

Fanjiang Zeng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Ring Width ◽

Growing Season ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Forest Growth ◽

Drought Severity ◽

Precipitation Reconstruction ◽

Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

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.

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A 200-Year Perspective of Climate Variability and the Response of White Spruce in Interior Alaska

Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response in Long-Term Ecological Research Sites ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195150599.003.0024 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Glenn Patrick Juday ◽

Valerie Barber

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

North America ◽

Climate Variability ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Growth ◽

White Spruce ◽

Boreal Region ◽

The North ◽

Interior Alaska ◽

Summer Temperatures

The two most important life functions that organisms carry out to persist in the environment are reproduction and growth. In this chapter we examine the role of climate and climate variability as controlling factors in the growth of one of the most important and productive of the North American boreal forest tree species, white spruce (Picea glauca [Moench] Voss). Because the relationship between climate and tree growth is so close, tree-ring properties have been used successfully for many years as a proxy to reconstruct past climates. Our recent reconstruction of nineteenth- century summer temperatures at Fairbanks based on white spruce tree-ring characteristics (Barber et al. in press) reveals a fundamental pattern of quasi-decadal climate variability. The values in this reconstruction of nineteenth-century Fairbanks summer temperatures are surprisingly warm compared to values in much of the published paleoclimatic literature for boreal North America. In this chapter we compare our temperature reconstructions with ring-width records in northern and south-central Alaska to see whether tree-growth signals in the nineteenth century in those regions are consistent with tree-ring characteristics in and near Bonanza Creek (BNZ) LTER (25 km southwest of Fairbanks) that suggest warm temperatures during the mid-nineteenth century. We also present a conceptual model of key limiting events in white spruce reproduction and compare it to a 39-year record of seed fall at BNZ. Finally, we derive a radial growth pattern index from white spruce at nine stands across Interior Alaska that matches recent major seed crop events in the BNZ monitoring period, and we identify dates after 1800 when major seed crops of white spruce, which are infrequent, may have been produced. The boreal region is characterized by a broad zone of forest with a continuous distribution across Eurasia and North America, amounting to about 17% of the earth’s land surface area (Bonan et al. 1992). The boreal region is often conceived of as a zone of relatively homogenous climate, but in fact a surprising diversity of climates are present. During the long days of summer, continental interior locations under persistent high-pressure systems experience hot weather that can promote extensive forest fires frequently exceeding 100 kilohectares (K ha). Summer daily maximum temperatures are cooled to a considerable degree in maritime portions of the boreal region affected by air masses that originate over the North Atlantic, North Pacific, or Arctic Oceans.

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From Dendrochronology to Allometry

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11020146 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 146 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Franco Biondi

Keyword(s):

Tree Ring ◽

Tree Rings ◽

Tree Growth ◽

Scientific Inquiry ◽

Population Biology ◽

Wood Formation ◽

Allometric Relationships ◽

Growth Study ◽

Accurate Identification ◽

Ring Analysis

The contribution of tree-ring analysis to other fields of scientific inquiry with overlapping interests, such as forestry and plant population biology, is often hampered by the different parameters and methods that are used for measuring growth. Here I present relatively simple graphical, numerical, and mathematical considerations aimed at bridging these fields, highlighting the value of crossdating. Lack of temporal control prevents accurate identification of factors that drive wood formation, thus crossdating becomes crucial for any type of tree growth study at inter-annual and longer time scales. In particular, exactly dated tree rings, and their measurements, are crucial contributors to the testing and betterment of allometric relationships.

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