Size mediated climate-growth relationships in Pinus halepensis and Pinus pinea

De Luis, Martin (author), Novak, Klemen (author), Čufar, Katarina (author), Raventós Bonvehi, Jose (author)

Functional processes in trees undergo changes as the tree size increases, which may affect the response of trees to environmental factors. We tested tree-ring response to climate in four groups of trees, including large and small Pinus halepensis and Pinus pinea trees using cluster, principal component (PC) and dendroclimatological analysis. The trees were of the same age and growing on a plantation in the semiarid coastal area of southern Spain. Cluster and PC analyses showed a clear separation into four groups of trees. Autocorrelation and mean sensitivity showed significant differences between the two size classes. PCA recognised four representative principal components where PC1 represented the tree-ring-climate variability common to both species and sizes, whereas PC2, PC3 and PC4 represented a species-specific and size-dependent response of trees to climate. The differences between the two size classes were greater than those between the two species. The results suggest that future tree-ring studies should include trees stratified by size. Only this would make it possible to produce unbiased predictions on the consequences of climate change and to devise suitable mitigation strategies for preserving Mediterranean forest ecosystems.

• Language: English
• Keywords: tree size, dendrochronology, tree-rings, Aleppo pine, climate-growth response, Mediterranean
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Year: 2009
• Number of pages: Str. 1065-1073
• Numbering: Vol. 23, no. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-36434
• UDC: 630*55
• ISSN on article: 0931-1890
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1741961
• Publication date in RUL: 10.07.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Trees
• Shortened title: Trees
• Publisher: Springer International, Springer
• ISSN: 0931-1890
• COBISS.SI-ID: 27449344