Radial growth of Qilian juniper on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau and potential climate associations

There is controversy regarding the limiting climatic factor for tree radial growth at the alpine treeline on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we collected 594 increment cores from 331 trees, grouped within four altitude belts spanning the range 3550 to 4020 m.a.s.l. on a single hills...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-11, Vol.8 (11), p.e79362-e79362
Main Authors: Qin, Chun, Yang, Bao, Melvin, Thomas M, Fan, Zexin, Zhao, Yan, Briffa, Keith R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alpine environments
Altitude
Analysis
Climate
Climate change
Climate variations
Climatic variations
Cores
Dendrochronology
Drought
Droughts
Ecosystem
Engineering research
Environmental science
Growth patterns
Juniperus - growth & development
Precipitation
Precipitation (Meteorology)
Precipitation variability
Rainfall
Researchers
Sabina przewalskii
Studies
Temperature
Temperature changes
Tibet
Time series
Treeline
Trees
Trees - growth & development
Wind
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There is controversy regarding the limiting climatic factor for tree radial growth at the alpine treeline on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we collected 594 increment cores from 331 trees, grouped within four altitude belts spanning the range 3550 to 4020 m.a.s.l. on a single hillside. We have developed four equivalent ring-width chronologies and shown that there are no significant differences in their growth-climate responses during 1956 to 2011 or in their longer-term growth patterns during the period AD 1110-2011. The main climate influence on radial growth is shown to be precipitation variability. Missing ring analysis shows that tree radial growth at the uppermost treeline location is more sensitive to climate variation than that at other elevations, and poor tree radial growth is particularly linked to the occurrence of serious drought events. Hence water limitation, rather than temperature stress, plays the pivotal role in controlling the radial growth of Sabina przewalskii Kom. at the treeline in this region. This finding contradicts any generalisation that tree-ring chronologies from high-elevation treeline environments are mostly indicators of temperature changes.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0079362