Dendrometer and intra-annual tree growth: What kind of information can be inferred?

Abstract

Dendrometer measurements provide time series composed of the rhythm of water storage fluctuations over the year and seasonal tree growth. For slow-growing trees however, difficulties have been found in the identification of crucial events such as growth onset, stem growth period and cessation, rendering it necessary to define what can be measured and at which time scale. The time scale mean the time interval (from one day to one month) at which stem radius variation is extracted. In this study, two latewood cells were produced in August at both altitudes, the variability in stem radius changes was higher than the amount of growth in terms of cell-wood production. For slow-growing species of a cold environment, an understanding of the growth period, assessed with several time scales, is necessary when using time series of stem radius variation to perform growth and climate relationships. The period used for growth and climate analysis should correspond only with the main period of stem growth.

Dendrochronology in the dry tropics: the Ethiopian case

“…Such studies should be combined with the collection and routine examination of parallel meteorological and hydrological measurements, and with mechanistic modelling of tree growth (Vaganov et al 2010). Quantitative observations of tree growth, cambial activity, tree physiology and phenology can be made by dendrometer measurements (Couralet et al 2010;Deslauriers et al 2007), cambial sampling (Rossi et al 2006) and pinning (Verheyden et al 2004b), quantitative wood-anatomical analysis (De Luis et al 2007;Fonti et al 2009), growth experiments (Heinrich and Banks 2006), phenological measurements (Lavender 1991;Leblanc et al 2005) and comparative assessment of rooting depth.…”

Environmental correlates of stem radius change in the endangered Fitzroya cupressoides forests of southern Chile

“…172 The approximate location of the three major physiographic units in the area is shown (Coastal 179 minimum to the next morning maximum. Stem radius increment (ΔR or phase 3) corresponds tothe portion of the expansion phase from the time the stem radius surpasses the morning 234 maximum until the following maximum, and has been considered as an estimate of growth 235 (Deslauriers et al, 2003, Deslauriers et al, 2007a. When the previous cycle maximum was 236 reached a positive stem radius change (ΔR +) was calculated.…”

Environmental Factors Effect on Stem Radial Variations of Picea crassifolia in Qilian Mountains, Northwestern China

“…It can provide long-term and continuous measurements of stem radial variation with high temporal resolution (e.g., minutes to hours) without aggressive sampling [18,19]. Because of its advantages, in the past decade it has been widely used with different tree species to describe the relationship between stem radial variations and environmental factors [20][21][22][23][24]. Various insights into tree growth can be obtained by using high-resolution dendrometers, including the understanding of short-term growth responses to changing environmental conditions [18].…”