Climate Response of Larch and Birch Forests across an Elevational Transect and Hemisphere-Wide Comparisons, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Far East

Abstract

Kamchatka's forests span across the peninsula's diverse topography and provide a wide range of physiographic and elevational settings that can be used to investigate how forests are responding to climate change and to anticipate future response. Birch (Betula ermanii Cham.) and larch (Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen) were sampled at eight new sites and together with previous collections were compared with monthly temperature and precipitation records to identify their climate response. Comparisons show that tree-ring widths in both species are primarily influenced by May through August temperatures of the current growth year, and that there is a general increase in temperature sensitivity with altitude. The ring-width data for each species were also combined into regional chronologies. The resulting composite larch chronology shows a strong resemblance to a Northern Hemisphere (NH) tree-ring based temperature reconstruction with the larch series tracking NH temperatures closely through the past 300 years. The composite birch ring-width series more closely reflects the Pacific regional coastal late summer temperatures. These new data improve our understanding of the response of forests to climate and show the low frequency warming noted in other, more continental records from high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Also evident in the ring-width record is that the larch and birch forests continue to track the strong warming of interior Kamchatka.

Site- and Species-Specific Influences on Sub-Alpine Conifer Growth in Mt. Rainier National Park, USA

“…This is consistent with previous studies at this site [36,37] and other sites for three of the four sub-alpine species in the Pacific Northwest [17,18,31]. Similarly, over a range of elevations at two different regions on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia, two co-occuring conifer species tested had the same most influential climatic driver: summer (May-August) temperature [30].…”

“…For two climatically different sub-alpine regions, Nakawatase and Peterson reported that tree growth in the wetter region was limited by growing degree days, whereas in the drier region soil moisture limited growth [29]. In contrast, Deck et al found that co-occuring conifers across two regions responded to the same most influential variable [30]. Peterson and Peterson also reported consistency between the identities of the influential climate variables across locations with different aspect, and that species identity has a greater influence on climate sensitivity than site [31].…”

Differences and similarities in radial growth of Betula species to climate change

“…Temperature also has a significant influence on growth in the Zhangguangcai Mountains. On the relatively cold Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, growth is mainly affected by summer (May to August) temperatures (Deck et al 2017). Some surveys have also found that temperature is a major factor in B. platyphylla growth at high altitudes (Lyu et al 2020;Li et al 2022).…”