Intra- and Inter-Annual Growth Patterns of a Mixed Pine-Oak Forest under Mediterranean Climate

Temperature and precipitation variability throughout the year control the intra-annual dynamics of tree-ring formation. Physiological adaptation of trees to climate change is among the key issues to better understand and predict future forest performance and composition. In this study, we investigat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forests 2021-12, Vol.12 (12), p.1746
Main Authors: Martínez-Sancho, Elisabet, Gutiérrez, Emilia, Valeriano, Cristina, Ribas, Montse, Popkova, Margarita I., Shishov, Vladimir V., Dorado-Liñán, Isabel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimation
Acclimatization
Adaptation
Climate change
Climatic conditions
Coexistence
Drought
Flowers & plants
Growing season
Growth patterns
Morphology
Oak
Phenology
Physiology
Pine
Pine trees
Pinus sylvestris
Precipitation
Rain
Summer
Tree rings
Trees
Water availability
Water shortages
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:Temperature and precipitation variability throughout the year control the intra-annual dynamics of tree-ring formation. Physiological adaptation of trees to climate change is among the key issues to better understand and predict future forest performance and composition. In this study, we investigated the species’ coexistence and performance of Scots pine and pubescent oak growing in a mixed sub-Mediterranean forest in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. We assessed intra-annual cumulative growth patterns derived from band dendrometers during four consecutive growing seasons and long-term changes in basal area increment for the period 1950–2014. Our results revealed that Scots pine followed an intra-annual bimodal growth pattern. Scots pine growth was mainly limited by water availability at intra-annual, interannual and decadal time scales, which resulted in a negative long-term growth trend. Conversely, oak displayed a unimodal growth pattern, which was less climatically constrained. A significant increase in basal area of oak denotes an overall better potential acclimation to prevailing climatic conditions at the expenses of a higher risk of physiological failure during extreme climate events.
ISSN:1999-4907
1999-4907
DOI:10.3390/f12121746