Dendroclimotological research of scots pine in stand of the Left-bank Forest-steppe of Ukraine

Abstract

Purpose of this research was to detect influence of climatic change on pine radial increment in stand in the Left-bank Forest-steppe of Ukraine as example 100-years-old stand at State Enterprise 'Kharkiv forest scientific research station’. Methods. Dendrochronological. Method of correlation function and multiple regressions (response function) were used to analyze the influence of climatic factors on tree radial increment. For this purpose computer program RESPO was used. Results. Tree ring series were built and were used for correlation analysis between climatic factors and pine radial increment for two periods: 1960-1988 and 1988-2016.Years of minimum (1933, 1942, 1956, 1972, 1976, 1976, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2006 та 2012) and maximum (1933, 1942, 1956, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1979, 1979, 1987, 1992, 2002 та 2012) of radial increment were detected. Depressions of pine radial increment were as a result of negative weather conditions: low and high winter and early-spring temperature, droughts during vegetation period. Maximums of radial increments were depended on favorable weather conditions for pine radial growth. Correlation and Response analysis for two periods showed that increase of temperature and precipitation, excluding winter precipitation, changed response of forest ecosystems to climatic change: if in first period (1960-1988) radial increment limited by April temperature and together July temperature positively influenced on radial growth, in second period (1988-2016) June temperature negatively infuenced on radial increment. Slight increase precipitation during vegetation period could not soften impact if high temperature during vegetatation period on tree radial increment. Conclusions. At comparison 1960-1988 and 1988-2016 it was detected that during first period positive influence of summer temperature on radial growth was distinctive and for second period one started to limit increment (negative influence) were detected. Slight increase of precipitation for vegetation period in second period significantly didn’t influence on pine radial growth. In second period increase of winter temperature and number of thaws negatively influenced on soil moisture, decreased of tree ring widths.

Scots pine stands in the Left-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine

“…The climate of the Left Bank Forest-Steppe is moderately continental (Lipinskyi et al 2003). During last decades the climate in the region is changing, especially the temperature regime, as it was shown by our current study as well as by other researchers (Koval 2017;Koval et al 2017;Nazarenko and Pasternak 2016), which makes conditions less favorable for forests (Buksha et al 2021), especially for Scots pine.…”