Climate variations affect the growth period of young Tectona grandis Linn F. in the Amazon

Abstract

Climate change is expected to increase the occurrence of severe droughts in the tropics, and little is known about its influence on tree dynamics. Tree-ring width and remote sensing tools can help understand the impacts of climate change on tree growth. We evaluated the applicability of NDVI to obtain phenological metrics (e.g., start, peak, end, and length of growth season) and explored its relationship with tree-ring width of Tectona grandis (teak). The phenological metrics and tree-ring width were correlated with each other, and with both local (temperature, precipitation, solar insolation, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index -SPEI) and large-scale (El Niño) climatic variables. The length of season and tree-ring width of teak were positively correlated with precipitation and negatively correlated with temperature in the initial months of the growth period. Tree-ring width was negatively correlated with El Niño events. Climate variables and length of season from the prior period were correlated with the tree-ring width of the current growing period. This study demonstrated that rather than directly affecting productivity, climate might also affect the length of the growing season, which would affect tree growth in the next season.

Application of Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy for Predicting Damage Severity in a Diverse Panel of Tectona grandis Caused by Ceratocystis fimbriata

“…According to the Köppen climate classification, the climate in this area is tropical wet–dry [ 8 ]. However, an unfavorable climate can not only negatively impact the productivity of teak plantations, but also affect the growing season and plant growth in the following season [ 9 ].…”