Are Scots pine forest edges particularly prone to drought-induced mortality?

Abstract

Climate change is expected to exacerbate the frequency of drought-induced tree mortality world-wide. To better predict the associated change of species composition and forest dynamics on various scales and develop adequate adaptation strategies, more information on the mechanisms driving the often observed patchiness of tree die-back is needed. Although forest-edge effects may play an important role within the given context, only few corresponding studies exist. Here, we investigate the regional die-back of Scots pine in Franconia, Germany, after a hot and dry summer in 2015, thereby emphasizing possible differences in mortality between forest edge and interior. By means of dendroecological investigations and close-range remote sensing, we assess long-term growth performance and current tree vitality along five different forest-edge distance gradients. Our results clearly indicate a differing growth performance between edge and interior trees, associated with a higher vulnerability to drought, increased mortality rates, and lower tree vitality at the forest edge. Prior long-lasting growth decline of dead trees compared to live trees suggests depletion of carbon reserves in course of a long-term drought persisting since the 1990s to be the cause of regional Scots pine die-back. These findings highlight the forest edge as a potential focal point of forest management adaptation strategies in the context of drought-induced mortality.

The Effect of Insect Defoliations and Seed Production on the Dynamics of Radial Growth Synchrony among Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris L. Provenances

“…Thus, it can be concluded that the drought conditions of the summer season are the main climatic driver affecting the radial growth of Scots pine provenances. These results are consistent with recent studies on Scots pine, regardless of the study region (e.g., [86][87][88][89]). An additional climatic factor crucial to initiating growth activity is the temperature of the month preceding the growing season (March, Figure 6A).…”

Higher Winter-Spring Temperature and Winter-Spring/Summer Moisture Availability Increase Scots Pine Growth on Coastal Dune Microsites Around the South Baltic Sea

“…In addition to temperature, moisture availability has also been documented as a growth-limiting factor (RW: Helama and Lindholm, 2003;Vitas, 2004Vitas, , 2006Erlickytė and Vitas, 2008;Drobyshev et al, 2011;Düthorn et al, 2013;Bose et al, 2020;RW and EBI: Seftigen et al, 2020). At the southern distribution margin, plant water availability (RW: Bogino et al, 2009;Buras et al, 2018a), precipitation (RW: Sánchez-Salguero et al, 2015a), and winter, spring, or summer temperatures (RW: Herrero et al, 2013;Sánchez-Salguero et al, 2015a,b) modulate Scots pine growth.…”

Temperature and masting control Norway spruce growth, but with high individual tree variability

“…Furthermore, the cost of reproduction may vary at the individual scale due to differences in stored reserves or access to belowground resources. Individualistic growth responses to climate have previously been investigated using tree rings (Carrer, 2011;Buras et al, 2018), but the potential for these to be driven by individualistic responses to reproduction remains underexplored.…”