A Technical Perspective in Modern Tree-ring Research - How to Overcome Dendroecological and Wood Anatomical Challenges

Abstract

Dendroecological research uses information stored in tree rings to understand how single trees and even entire forest ecosystems responded to environmental changes and to finally reconstruct such changes. This is done by analyzing growth variations back in time and correlating various plant-specific parameters to (for example) temperature records. Integrating wood anatomical parameters in these analyses would strengthen reconstructions, even down to intra-annual resolution. We therefore present a protocol on how to sample, prepare, and analyze wooden specimen for common macroscopic analyses, but also for subsequent microscopic analyses. Furthermore we introduce a potential solution for analyzing digital images generated from common small and large specimens to support time-series analyses. The protocol presents the basic steps as they currently can be used. Beyond this, there is an ongoing need for the improvement of existing techniques, and development of new techniques, to record and quantify past and ongoing environmental processes. Traditional wood anatomical research needs to be expanded to include ecological information to this field of research. This would support dendro-scientists who intend to analyze new parameters and develop new methodologies to understand the short and long term effects of specific environmental factors on the anatomy of woody plants.

Arctic shrub growth trajectories differ across soil moisture levels

“…Thin sections were cut to 15 μm with a microtome and stained with a safranin and astra‐blue mixture to enhance optical contrast, following Gärtner et al. (). Ring widths along two radii per disk were measured using CooRecorder (Larsson, ).…”

Insensitivity of Tree-Ring Growth to Temperature and Precipitation Sharpens the Puzzle of Enhanced Pre-Eruption NDVI on Mt. Etna (Italy)

“…From each tree, two 0.5 cm diameter cores were taken orthogonally with respect to each other using a corer with a three-threaded auger by Haglof (Haglof Inc., Sweden), wrapped in paper and transported to the laboratory. All samples were mounted on wooden supports and cut using a microtome at an angle of roughly 30° to the radial axis of the tree to prevent core breakage [44]. For later comparisons, three ring-width chronologies, located close to Mt.…”

Anatomical characteristics of xylem in tree rings and its relationship with environments

“…是树轮解剖学研究中最传统的方法 (Fonti et al, 2010;Gärtner et al, 2014), 具有分辨率高、清晰度 好、切片便于携带保存且能制成连续切片等优点 (Fonti et al, 2010), 适用于小至细胞壁厚度、纹孔大 小及木纤维厚度等亚细胞特征的量化。 传统切片(微 生长芯)制备太过复杂, 严重制约了树轮解剖学的 发展 (Gärtner et al, 2014(Gärtner et al, , 2015 等。去趋势方法不同, 去趋势效果往往也不一样 Peters et al, 2015), 但无论采用 哪种方法都会在剔除干扰信号的同时, 损失部分低 频或高频的气候信号 (Peters et al, 2015), 例如Liang 等 (2013) Carrer et al, 2015;Peters et al, 2015), 故选用去趋 势函数对木质部解剖特征序列进行去趋势与标准化 时应谨慎 Peters et al, 2015)。另 Liang et al, 2013;Pritzkow et al, 2014;Carrer et al, 2015)。实际研究中尽可能多 Gea-Izquierdo et al, 2012;Gričar et al, 2013;Liang et al, 2013;Venegas-González et al, 2015 Suzuki et al, 1996;Schmitt et al, 2000), Gruber et al, 2010;Eilmann et al, 2011;Vaganov et al, 2011) , 如在不利 的水分条件下, 欧洲赤松细胞伸长与细胞壁加厚阶 段持续时间明显缩短, 木质部细胞活动提早结束约 4周, 致使窄轮发生 (Gruber et al, 2010); 而在灌溉 条件下, 欧洲赤松早晚材转变时间比干旱条件下推 迟2-4周, 细胞停止活动推迟约5周, 径向增量明显 高于干旱条件下的欧洲赤松 (Eilmann et al, 2011)。 针叶树管胞与阔叶树导管对水分环境响应策略一 样, 也遵循水力效率性和安全性的权衡(Zimrnennann, 1983Sperry et al, 2006)。 温度可通过影响多种生理过程直接或间接影响 木质部管胞特征(图3) (Vaganov et al, 2006(Vaganov et al, , 2011Novak et al, 2013); 其中最直接的影响就是通过控 制形成层活动调整树木的生长周期。生长季开始时, 外界环境温度的略微波动将导致形成层活动开始时 间发生明显改变 (Leikola, 1969) 树脂道与气候变化关系的研究相对较少 (Rigling et al, 2003;Wimmer & Grabner, 1997。Wimmer 和Grabner ( (Campelo et al, 2010;Liang et al, 2013;...…”