Climate change affects forestry growth
27 Apr 2016 by Evoluted New Media
A link between tree growth and climate change has been established by Russian and Spanish scientists.
A link between tree growth and climate change has been established by Russian and Spanish scientists.
The tree-ring width patterns of diverse conifer species in Russia and Spain were measured and researchers discovered there was an increase of spatial synchrony of ring with patterns in both countries.
Mar Génova, a researcher from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid said that the aim was to see if this phenomenon was local or rather extended over large regions at subcontinent scale. To test for this the extremely cold continental taiga of Siberia and the comparatively warm and dry Mediterranean montane forests were chosen, she said.
Almost 100 growth ring chronologies from six different species of conifer were used. New methods of calculating ring width sequences allowed the researchers to see the ‘increasing influence’ of climate on the variability of tree growth over the last 120 years.
As the researchers can see this occurring in two different locations in the world, they believe this pattern can also be observed in trees that co-occur in a stand – a group of biologically similar trees.
The synchronous growth of forests across the globe is a worldwide phenomenon but the effects of global warming can be seen in different ways, say the researchers. In Spain, this manifests as increased drought stress at the end of spring and in Siberia, a greater effect of yearly fluctuations of summer temperatures. It is also linked to an earlier start of wood formation, proven to be caused by a warmer climate.
It is hoped the synchrony increase can be used to create climatic thresholds to enable tree survival and also to anticipate regional and local forest decay events.
The study was published in PNAS.
