Dendrochronology of Norway spruce ( Picea abies (L.) Karst.) from two range centres in lowland Poland (original) (raw)
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Forest Research Papers, 2015
The purpose of this study was to determine the growth variability of four provenances of Picea abies on experimental plots in the Wyszków Forest District, central Poland. The experiment was established as a system of random blocks with four repetitions per block. We selected 48 trees from each provenance and the increment cores were colected from sample trees. Standard measurements of the width of annual increments were performed using the WinDendro software. Raw data was then indexed and subject to dendroclimatic analyses based on the average monthly temperatures and precipitation of the period from 1969 to 2012. Furthermore, the COFECHA software was used to check the consistency of the data and to determine the pointer years. High data consistency as well as growth variability of particular provenances in response to climatic conditions was observed. The results obtained here will allow for an improved selection of populations best suited for growing in the climate of central Poland
Norway spruce trees grown outside their natural range were intensively studied in terms of their adaptability to increased late winter temperature. A total of 708 cores of Norway spruce were taken from 35 sites throughout northwestern and western Poland at sites outside or at the margin of its natural range. Clustering reveals that research sites are grouped geographically. The mean ring widths, however, are similar among the three regions. The relationships between tree growth and temperature together with precipitation are comparable to those in lower elevations in Central and Eastern Europe and southern latitudes in Scandinavia. In total, 18% of the single correlations for all months were significant at p < 0.05. The generally positive precipitation effect was found for all months except January. Temperature had mixed effects on ring width. Higher temperatures in late winter and early spring increased ring width (13% of all significant correlations). High summer temperatures in both the previous and the current year, on the other hand, generally had a negative impact on tree-ring width during the growing season. On most of the sites, the observed long-term trend for increasing temperatures in February and March had no significant negative influence on tree growth. Also the effect of extreme weather events was taken into account. In 1994 and 1995 the wider rings were mostly observed in humid sites from southwestern Poland. In selected time spans, growth recovery following extreme weather events is particularly strong.
Trees, 2006
Ring-width chronologies of Picea abies (L.) Karst. from ten sites in the Tatra Mountains, Poland, were developed to explore growth/climate responses in stands along an altitudinal gradient ranging from 839 to 1468 m a.s.l. There were positive relationships between current-year radial growth and mean monthly temperatures in March, April, June and July, but with increasing elevation, the strength of this correlation declined for March-April and increased for June-July temperatures. The mean monthly temperature in Communicated by R. Häsler
Geochronometria, 2012
The research was conducted in selected 80-to 110-year-old spruce stands in the southeastern part of the Českomoravská Upland at altitudes from 350 m a.s.l. to 465 m a.s.l. The regional standard tree-ring chronology shows very low increments for years 1974 . After 1992 there is a sharp rise in increments with a climax in 1997. Afterwards, increments gradually decrease, reaching minima in 2003 and 2008. The years with low increments were also confirmed by the analysis of negative pointer years when over 80% of the analysed trees responded by a sharp decrease in increment, mainly in years 1976 and 1992. We can usually find values of monthly precipitation or monthly temperature average which can explain or help explain these falls in the radial growth.
Adaptation of Norway spruce populations in Europe: a case study from northern Poland§
New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science, 2017
Background: The productive potential of European species of forest tree assumes particular importance in the context of populations adapting to accelerating climatic change. Genotype-environment interaction (G × E) was studied to determine Picea abies (L.) H.Karst. (Norway spruce) inter-population variation, characterising their adaptability to the growing conditions in northeastern Poland. The data were analysed from 22 populations evaluated in four experimental sites based on 5-year height. To identify best-adapted as well as specifically adapted populations, GGE biplots were performed. Findings: Analysis of multi-environment trial (MET) data revealed significant differences between four experimental sites, as well as interactions between populations and sites. However, it proved possible to identify specifically adapted populations achieving high values for the trait at specific sites only, although some performed relatively well across several sites. Conclusions: The productive potential of the Norway spruce populations in northeastern Poland is associated with specific adaptation of given populations to growth conditions at the experimental sites. However, in the set of populations studied can also be found some capable of average but stable growth in all experimental sites.
Journal of Forest Science, 2016
The contribution presents the results of a 5-year (2008-2012) dendroecological research in a Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) clone forest (Northern Slovakia). Due to different climatic and soil moisture conditions in the monitored years, different seasonal courses of stem increment formation were observed using band dendrometers with continuous data recording. The lack of precipitation affected growth processes mainly during the growth culmination and at the end of summer. The multiple regression analysis of the impact of individual factors on stem circumference changes on the basis of their partial correlation coefficients revealed that the individual environmental characteristics influenced daily stem radial changes with time lags of one to ten days. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the stem radial reactions to climatic and soil moisture factors were not significantly different between the clones.
Journal of Forest Science
The paper presents the results of a regional analysis of climate change impacts on Norway spruce growth in the north-western part of Slovakia(Orava region). Radial increment was determined from nine X-tree sample plots established in the forests of natural character in the region. The analysis of PTT radial increment was done on tree disks cut from a height of 1.3 m by measurements of four perpendicular directions corresponding to the cardinal points. It was derived from the tree-ring width measured at breast height (1.3 m) while all the basic principles of tree-ring analyses were observed (transport and borehole treatment, measurements with digital positiometer to the nearest 0.01 mm, synchronisation of the tree-ring diagrams). A dendroclimatic model belongs to the category of empirical models based on the statistical evaluation of empirically derived dependences between the time series of tree-ring parameters and the monthly climatic characteristics. This statistical evaluation i...
Trees, 2016
Key message Decadal growth variability of Norway spruce increases with elevation. Recent temperature sensitivity and growth enhancement are limited to trees growing in the zone adjacent to timberline. Abstract Growth trends and climate responses of forest trees along elevational gradients are not fully understood. A deeper insight is, however, fundamental for predicting ecosystem functioning and productivity under future climate change. Supplementary to the effects of elevation and regional provenance on tree growth are sample depth, uneven representation of sample age and varying site conditions. Furthermore, there is only a limited number of studies addressing growth changes along elevational gradients, while at the same time applying tree-ring standardization methods that are sensitive to trend preservation. Here, we introduce 12 novel tree-ring width chronologies of Norway spruce (Picea abies[L.] Karst.) from four elevational belts encompassing montane forests and the local timberline in three regions in East-Central Europe between 15°and 19°E. Each chronology is characterized by sufficient sample replication and a comparable age structure between 1906 and 2010. Tree growth near timberline revealed substantial medium-frequency variability and sharply increasing ring widths since the 1980s. Mediumfrequency growth variability of lower elevation trees was, however, relatively small, and growth rates over the last decade were either stable or even decreased. During the last four decades, Norway spruce from higher elevations exhibited a reduced response to autumn temperatures preceding ring formation. In contrast, trees from the lowermontane zone increased their sensitivity to drought during the same time. Our results emphasize not only different but also instable growth trends and climate responses of forest trees along altitudinal gradients, which should be considered in future forest management strategies. Keywords Climate change Á Mountain forests Á Picea abies Á Radial growth Á Tree rings Á Trend preservation Communicated by G. Piovesan.
2009
Using dendroclimatical methods, we compared the growth response to climate fluctuations of three of the main Romanian Carpathian Mountains coniferous species, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) and silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), growing intermixed in a unique stand. Climate and soil conditions were therefore the same for all the trees studied. The experimental site was chosen to be representative of the south-exposed sites in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains, where pine occurs naturally. In order to investigate the consequences of fluctuations in climate at different temporal scales, we examined both inter-annual and decadal time-steps. An index of soil water deficit was computed to investigate the consequences of drought. Our study reveals that species exhibited different responses to precipitation, temperature or drought. Overall, pine was the most sensitive to precipitation, while spruce showed a higher response to temperature at high frequency for both the current and the previous growing seasons, and to soil water deficit. Fir was the least sensitive species of the comparison. However, for all species, decadal modulations of growth show precipitation as a common and strong driver on the dry south-facing slopes. The results show that Scots pine would be affected more than fir by increased drought frequency and could in the future be replaced on the xeric sites.