Do High-Elevation Northern Red Oak Tree-Rings Share a Common Climate-Driven Growth Signal?

Crawford, Christopher

doi:10.1657/1938-4246-44.1.26

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…For example, Le Blanc & Terrell () found that < 10% of their Quercus sites showed a negative radial growth response to spring P , while the remaining sites showed no response. A study of six Q. rubra sites in the southern Appalachians indicated that changes in radial growth were related to seasonal covariance of temperature and precipitation (Crawford, ); higher spring precipitation delays soil warming and tree physiological activity. We found a strong positive radial growth response of the ring‐porous group to spring solar radiation and negative trends to spring P , which suggests that Quercus experiences energy limitation when spring P is particularly high.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest tree growth response to hydroclimate variability in the southern Appalachians

Elliott

Miniat

Pederson

et al. 2015

Global Change Biology

105

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Climate change will affect tree species growth and distribution; however, under the same climatic conditions species may differ in their response according to site conditions. We evaluated the climate-driven patterns of growth for six dominant deciduous tree species in the southern Appalachians. We categorized species into two functional groups based on their stomatal regulation and xylem architecture: isohydric, diffuse porous and anisohydric, ring porous. We hypothesized that within the same climatic regime: (i) species-specific differences in growth will be conditional on topographically mediated soil moisture availability; (ii) in extreme drought years, functional groups will have markedly different growth responses; and (iii) multiple hydroclimate variables will have direct and indirect effects on growth for each functional group. We used standardized tree-ring chronologies to examine growth of diffuse-porous (Acer, Liriodendron, and Betula) and ring-porous (Quercus) species vs. on-site climatic data from 1935 to 2003. Quercus species growing on upslope sites had higher basal area increment (BAI) than Quercus species growing on mesic, cove sites; whereas, Acer and Liriodendron had lower BAI on upslope compared to cove sites. Diffuse-porous species were more sensitive to climate than ring porous, especially during extreme drought years. Across functional groups, radial growth was more sensitive to precipitation distribution, such as small storms and dry spell length (DSL), rather than the total amount of precipitation. Based on structural equation modeling, diffuse-porous species on upslope sites were the most sensitive to multiple hydroclimate variables (r(2) = 0.46), while ring-porous species on upslope sites were the least sensitive (r(2) = 0.32). Spring precipitation, vapor pressure deficit, and summer storms had direct effects on summer AET/P, and summer AET/P, growing season small storms and DSL partially explained growth. Decreasing numbers of small storms and extending the days between rainfall events will result in significant growth reduction, even in regions with relatively high total annual rainfall.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest tree growth response to hydroclimate variability in the southern Appalachians

Elliott

Miniat

Pederson

et al. 2015

Global Change Biology

105

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“…However, research on past climate changes based on the use of proxies are of great importance in other regions, too. Therefore, substantial efforts have been undertaken recently to improve our understanding of climate-tree growth relationships and, as a result, obtaining better dendroclimatic estimates of past weather conditions at sites under non-limiting conditions, characterized by a mixed dendroclimatic signal, also from anthropogenically transformed ecosystems (e.g., Garcıá-Suárez et al 2009;Gea-Izquierdo et al 2011;Wettstein et al 2011;Crawford 2012). Contemporary research trends in dendroclimatology focused on the issues such as application of the multiple species with a different ecological spectrum in order to cover the greatest range of climatic variability (e.g., Garcıá-Suárez et al 2009;Trindade et al 2011), thinking of the tree-ring as an archive containing several potential proxy records of climate (total and partial ring width, density variables, microanatomical measurements, ratios of stable isotopes and the extreme values of the above) (e.g., Fritts et al 1991;Tardif and Conciatori 2006;Battipaglia et al 2010;Chen et al 2010;Hughes et al 2011), development of the methodology for climate reconstruction models (e.g., Esper et al 2005;Guiot et al 2009;Helama et al 2009;von Storch et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An attempt to dendroclimatic reconstruction of winter temperature based on multispecies tree-ring widths and extreme years chronologies (example of Upper Silesia, Southern Poland)

Opała

Mendecki

2013

Theor Appl Climatol

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This study aims at investigating pre-instrumental tree-ring based winter thermal conditions from Upper Silesia, southern Poland. The Scots pine, pedunculate oak and sessile oak ring widths and the extreme index were used to reconstruct winter mean temperature back to A.D. 1770. The climate response analysis showed that the pine is the most sensitive to February (0.36) and March (0.41) temperature, the oaks were found to be sensitive to the previous December (0.27) and January (0.23) temperature. It was found out that the combination of temperature sensitive species and an additional extreme index in regression can improve the reconstruction, with an emphasis on more reliable reconstruction of extreme values. The elimination of variance reduction and precise reconstruction of actual values of temperature is possible by scaling. The obtained calibration/verification results suggest that, through the application of the long-term composite chronologies a detailed study of the climate variability in Upper Silesia in past centuries can be provided.

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“…Relationships between radial growth and previous and current July precipitation, coupled with inverse relationships with temperature, indicate that July moisture availability also influenced Q. rubra radial growth at Bluff Mountain. The Q. rubra radial growth and July temperature and precipitation relationships were weaker than in other studies (Cook and Jacoby 1977;Stahle and Hehr 1984;Bortolot et al 2001;D'Arrigo et al 2001;Speer et al 2009;White et al 2011;Crawford 2012).…”

Section: Climate Responsementioning

confidence: 53%

American chestnut (Castanea dentata) to northern red oak (Quercus rubra): forest dynamics of an old-growth forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA

Gevel

Hart

Spond

et al. 2012

Botany

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We analyzed tree species composition and age structure in a rare, old-growth Quercus rubra L. (northern red oak) forest at Bluff Mountain Preserve, North Carolina, to assess potential changes associated with Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) M.E. Barr (chestnut blight), selective logging, livestock grazing, ice storms, wind events, and fire history. We established forest inventory plots to determine the forest composition, vertical structure, and age of the high-elevation Q. rubra dominated forest. We developed the longest Q. rubra dendroecological history (1671–2009) in North America. Several living Q. rubra individuals were more than 250 years old. The frequency, magnitude, and spatial extent of canopy disturbance events were shown in radial growth trends in Q. rubra samples. We also examined Q. rubra climate – radial growth relationships to compare high-elevation Q. rubra climate response patterns with results from lower elevation Quercus dendroclimatological studies. Stand-wide release events corresponded with the loss of Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh. (American chestnut) during the 1930s and frequent ice storms or wind events. Although we observed fire scars on living hardwood trees, we did not find fire scars on the remnant logs. The lack of fire scars on the remnant logs indicates that the observed fires likely occurred during the second half of the 20th century. Quercus rubra were most climatically sensitive to cool March temperatures. Quercus rubra sampled at higher elevations were more sensitive to temperature than lower elevation Quercus spp. trees, which may indicate higher sensitivity to March frosts. Quercus rubra has been a dominant species at Bluff Mountain for the past 300 years; however, our data indicate that the forest will transition to support a much stronger Acer saccharum Marsh. (sugar maple) component during the next 50 years. This study provides a multicentury perspective to guide conservation efforts and forest management in high-elevation Quercus spp. forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

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Do High-Elevation Northern Red Oak Tree-Rings Share a Common Climate-Driven Growth Signal?

Cited by 5 publications

References 45 publications

Forest tree growth response to hydroclimate variability in the southern Appalachians

Forest tree growth response to hydroclimate variability in the southern Appalachians

An attempt to dendroclimatic reconstruction of winter temperature based on multispecies tree-ring widths and extreme years chronologies (example of Upper Silesia, Southern Poland)

American chestnut (Castanea dentata) to northern red oak (Quercus rubra): forest dynamics of an old-growth forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA

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