Fir (Abies spp.) stand biomass additive model for Eurasia sensitive to winter temperature and annual precipitation

Abstract

Climate change, especially modified courses of temperature and precipitation, has a significant impact on forest functioning and productivity. Moreover, some alterations in tree biomass allocation (e.g. root to shoot ratio, foliage to wood parts) might be expected in these changing ecological conditions. Therefore, we attempted to model fir stand biomass (t ha−1) along the trans-Eurasian hydrothermal gradients using the data from 272 forest stands. The model outputs suggested that all biomass components, except for the crown mass, change in a common pattern, but in different ratios. Specifically, in the range of mean January temperature and precipitation of −30°C to +10°C and 300 to 900 mm, fir stand biomass increases with both increasing temperature and precipitation. Under an assumed increase of January temperature by 1°C, biomass of roots and of all components of the aboveground biomass of fir stands increased (under the assumption that the precipitation level did not change). Similarly, an assumed increase in precipitation by 100 mm resulted in the increased biomass of roots and of all aboveground components. We conclude that fir seems to be a perspective taxon from the point of its productive properties in the ongoing process of climate change.

Forest stand biomass of Picea spp.: an additive model that may be related to climate and civilisational changes

“…The third type of the investigated regularity was shown by the example of fir (Abies spp.) stands of Eurasia: our modelling suggested that the biomass of all components grows as precipitation total increases from 300 to 900 mm, as well as due to the increase in the mean January temperature from -30°C to +10°C (Usoltsev et al, 2019a). The finding is consistent with the increase in relative radial increment of boreal forests in Canada if both mean annual temperature and annual precipitation increase (Miao and Li, 2011).…”

Interspecific variation in growth and tree water status of conifers under water-limited conditions

“…Our results support reports presenting A. alba more resilient to climate change than other conifers of temperate forests (Bouriaud and Popa, 2009;Latreille et al, 2017) and an adaptive species to changing conditions (Bošeľa et al, 2018) including adverse events such as drought (Vitali, 2017). Since its productivity does not seem to be affected by increasing temperature (Bošeľa et al, 2018;Usoltsev et al, 2019), A. alba is often considered as a prospective species under climate change (Lindner et al, 2008). In another study of the 2003 drought event, P. abies cell production stopped in August to September of the drought year, while A. alba was active until October (Gričar and Čufar, 2008).…”

Forest stand biomass and NPP models sensitive to winter temperature and annual precipitation for Betula spp. in Eurasia

“…3) and NPP ( Fig. 4) structure on temperature and precipitation corresponds to the principle by Liebig-Shelford: since the minimum values of biomass and NPP occur in regions with minimum precipitation (200 mm) and minimum temperature (-40°C), these two factors are limiting in relation to biomass and NPP, and the same phenomenon is typical for firs (Usoltsev et al, 2019b). Table 2.…”