Higher climate warming sensitivity of Siberian larch in small than large forest islands in the fragmented Mongolian forest steppe

Khansaritoreh, Elmira; Dulamsuren, Choimaa; Klinge, Michael; Ariunbaatar, Tumurbaatar; Bat‐Enerel, Banzragch; Ganbaatar, Batsaikhan; Ganbaatar, Kherlenchimeg; Saindovdon, Davaadorj; Yeruult, Yolk; Tsogtbaatar, Jamsran; Tuya, Daramragchaa; Leuschner, Christoph; Hauck, Markus

doi:10.1111/gcb.13750

Cited by 40 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In addition, a lack of shrub recruitment was also observed in response to abnormal warming during recent years in polar dry biomes (Boulanger-Lapointe et al 2014, B€ untgen et al 2015. In several drought-prone treeline sites worldwide, low tree recruitment has also been observed in recent decades (Cuevas 2002, Camarero and Guti errez 2004, Dulamsuren et al 2010, Khansaritoreh et al 2017, Xu et al 2017. Drought stress may be even more intense at shrublines, where rocky and shallow sandy soils amplify evaporation and soil moisture loss under warming climate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Liang

Wang

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Alpine biomes are climate change hotspots, and treeline dynamics in particular have received much attention as visible evidence of climate‐induced shifts in species distributions. Comparatively little is known, however, about the effects of climate change on alpine shrubline dynamics. Here, we reconstruct decadally resolved shrub recruitment history (age structure) through the combination of field surveys and dendroecology methods at the world's highest juniper (Juniperus pingii var. wilsonii) shrublines on the south‐central Tibetan Plateau. A total of 1,899 shrubs were surveyed at 12 plots located in four regions along an east‐to‐west declining precipitation gradient. We detected synchronous recruitment with 9 out of 12 plots showing a gradual increase from 1600 to 1900, a peak at 1900–1940, and a subsequent decrease from the 1930s onward. Shrub recruitment was significantly and positively correlated with reconstructed summer temperature from 1600 to 1940, whereas it was negatively associated with temperature in recent decades (1930–2000). Recruitment was also positively correlated with precipitation, except in the 1780–1830 period, when a trend toward wetter climate conditions began. Warming‐induced drought limitation has likely reduced the recruitment potential of alpine juniper shrubs in recent decades. Ongoing warming without a simultaneous increase in precipitation is expected to further impair recruitment at the world's highest juniper shrublines and alter the dynamics and competitive balance between woody plant species throughout these alpine biomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Liang

Wang

et al. 2019

Ecology

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“…Based on these relationships they projected better future forest conditions for Mongolia until 2100. In opposition to these findings, Bayartaa et al (2007) reported that climate scenarios would indicate a significant decrease in forest area and its total biomass for Mongolia until the middle of the 21st Century, which is in accordance with the recent trends from dendrochronological data from Mongolia (Dulamsuren et al, 2010a(Dulamsuren et al, , b, 2014Khansaritoreh et al, 2017). Lu et al (2014) investigated the applicability of different remote sensing-based biomass estimation approaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Climate effects on vegetation vitality at the treeline of boreal forests of Mongolia

et al. 2018

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Abstract. In northern Mongolia, at the southern boundary of the Siberian boreal forest belt, the distribution of steppe and forest is generally linked to climate and topography, making this region highly sensitive to climate change and human impact. Detailed investigations on the limiting parameters of forest and steppe in different biomes provide necessary information for paleoenvironmental reconstruction and prognosis of potential landscape change. In this study, remote sensing data and gridded climate data were analyzed in order to identify main distribution patterns of forest and steppe in Mongolia and to detect environmental factors driving forest development. Forest distribution and vegetation vitality derived from the normalized differentiated vegetation index (NDVI) were investigated for the three types of boreal forest present in Mongolia (taiga, subtaiga and forest-steppe), which cover a total area of 73 818 km 2 . In addition to the forest type areas, the analysis focused on subunits of forest and nonforested areas at the upper and lower treeline, which represent ecological borders between vegetation types. Climate and NDVI data were analyzed for a reference period of 15 years from 1999 to 2013.The presented approach for treeline delineation by identifying representative sites mostly bridges local forest disturbances like fire or tree cutting. Moreover, this procedure provides a valuable tool to distinguish the potential forested area. The upper treeline generally rises from 1800 m above sea level (a.s.l.) in the northeast to 2700 m a.s.l. in the south. The lower treeline locally emerges at 1000 m a.s.l. in the northern taiga and rises southward to 2500 m a.s.l. The latitudinal gradient of both treelines turns into a longitudinal one on the eastern flank of mountain ranges due to higher aridity caused by rain-shadow effects. Less productive trees in terms of NDVI were identified at both the upper and lower treeline in relation to the respective total boreal forest type area. The mean growing season temperature (MGST) of 7.9-8.9 • C and a minimum MGST of 6 • C are limiting parameters at the upper treeline but are negligible for the lower treeline. The minimum of the mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 230-290 mm yr −1 is a limiting parameter at the lower treeline but also at the upper treeline in the forest-steppe ecotone. In general, NDVI and MAP are lower in grassland, and MGST is higher compared to the corresponding boreal forest. One exception occurs at the upper treeline of the subtaiga and taiga, where the alpine vegetation consists of mountain meadow mixed with shrubs. The relation between NDVI and climate data corroborates that more precipitation and higher temperatures generally lead to higher greenness in all ecological subunits. MGST is positively correlated with MAP of the total area of forest-steppe, but this correlation turns negative in the taiga. The limiting factor in the forest-steppe is the relative humidity and in the taiga it is the snow cover distribution. The subtaiga represents a...

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“…Elevation of the selected stands varied between 1809 and 2135 m a.s.l. The distance of the sampled trees to the lower forest line was between 110 and 330 m. Forests of the different size classes were characterized by differences in microclimate and land use intensity (Khansaritoreh et al 2017). Individual forest stands from different size classes were selected randomly based on remote-sensing analysis of forest distribution in the study region.…”

Section: Study Design and Core Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studying the annual stem increment of L. sibirica in forest stands of different size, Khansaritoreh et al (2017) found that the sensitivity of stemwood production to summer drought increased with decreasing stand size, because maximum air temperatures increased and relative humidity decreased with decreasing stand size. This means that anthropogenic forest fragmentation exacerbates the detrimental impact of global warming on tree growth in a region, which is exposed to temperature increases far above the global average (IPCC 2013) and where L. sibirica widely shows growth depressions, failure of regeneration, and increased mortality (Dulamsuren et al 2010;Liu et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydraulic traits and tree-ring width in Larix sibirica Ledeb. as affected by summer drought and forest fragmentation in the Mongolian forest steppe

Khansaritoreh

Schuldt

Dulamsuren

2018

Annals of Forest Science

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& Key message Wood-anatomical traits determining the hydraulic architecture of Larix sibirica in the drought-limited Mongolian forest steppe at the southern fringe of the boreal forest respond to summer drought, but only weakly to variations in microclimate that depend on forest stand size. & Context Siberian larch (L. sibirica Ledeb.) is limited by summer drought and shows increasing mortality rates in the Mongolian forest steppe. The climate sensitivity of stemwood formation increases with decreasing forest stand size. The trees' hydraulic architecture is crucial for drought resistance and thus the capability to deal with climate warming. & Aims We studied whether hydraulic traits were influenced by temporal or forest size-dependent variations in water availability and were related to tree-ring width. & Methods Hydraulic traits (tracheid diameter, tracheid density, potential sapwood area-specific hydraulic conductivity) of earlywood were studied in stemwood series of 30 years (1985-2014) and were related to climate data. Tree-ring width was measured for the same period. Trees were selected in stands of four different size classes with increasing drought exposure with decreasing stand size. & Results Tracheid diameters and hydraulic conductivity decreased with decreasing late summer precipitation of the previous year and were positively correlated with tree-ring width. Forest stand size had only weak effects on hydraulic traits, despite known effects on stemwood increment. & Conclusion Decreasing tracheid diameters and thus hydraulic conductivity are a drought acclimation of L. sibirica in the Mongolian forest steppe. These acclimations occur as a response to drought periods but are little site-dependent with respect to stand size.

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Higher climate warming sensitivity of Siberian larch in small than large forest islands in the fragmented Mongolian forest steppe

Cited by 40 publications

References 61 publications

Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Climate effects on vegetation vitality at the treeline of boreal forests of Mongolia

Hydraulic traits and tree-ring width in Larix sibirica Ledeb. as affected by summer drought and forest fragmentation in the Mongolian forest steppe

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