Long‐term forest resilience to climate change indicated by mortality, regeneration, and growth in semiarid southern <scp>S</scp>iberia

Xu, Chongyang; Liu, Hongyan; Anenkhonov, Oleg A.; Korolyuk, Andrey Yu.; Санданов, Д. В.; Balsanova, L. D.; Naidanov, Bulat B.; Wu, Xiuchen

doi:10.1111/gcb.13582

Cited by 58 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…, Xu et al. ). 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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“…, Xu et al. ). 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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“…Local topographic features such as aspect in semi-arid Mongolia create a unique set of conditions during the seasonal transition (MET 2016;Xu et al 2016), notably at the beginning and end of the vegetation period. The degree of solar radiation determined by these landscape features likely has a stronger influence during this period than during the summer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-growth relationships and pointer year analysis of a Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) chronology from the Mongolian mountain forest steppe compared to white birch (Betula platyphylla Sukaczev)

et al. 2017

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Background: Forest area, stand quality and growth of Siberian larch in Mongolia have decreased significantly over recent decades. This forest decline is frequently attributed to factors such as unregulated logging, increased ecological disturbances (primarily fire) and climate change. In this study, we analyzed climate-growth response and pointer years for Siberian larch observed in the Altansumber forest research area in the Mongolian mountain forest steppe zone. We compare our results with previously published results of white birch from the same area. Methods: We built a reference chronology from wood core samples taken from 30 trees in three neighboring larch stands. Climate-growth relationships were analyzed monthly and seasonally over the period 1962-2009 using climate data from the Eroo weather station. Pointer year analysis covered the same time frame. Results: Our analysis of the larch chronology showed that precipitation during autumn of the previous year and directly before the growing season of the current year was the most decisive factor determining tree-ring growth. Regional pointer year analysis further indicated that a humid summer and autumn followed by a warm spring support current-year tree-ring growth in these larch stands. Our findings were comparable to a white birch study in the same area. The larch trees, however, showed stronger growth performance and were more tolerant of higher temperatures, notably in spring during peak fire season.Conclusions: Water availability is the decisive factor for larch growth in the mountain forest steppe zone. The chronologies showed no climatic indication of insect infestations. Differences in climate-growth relationships of birch and larch trees during peak fire season may to some degree be explained by their respective means of protecting themselves against low-intensity surface fires (e.g. thick bark of larch). These fire events occur regularly in the region and are influenced by climatic factors. Our analysis and comparison of climate tree-growth relationships may be valuable for developing climate-and disturbance-resilient forestry practices in Mongolian mountain forest ecosystems.

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“…In recent years, drought has been more frequent, more severe, and longer [7,8]. It has affected forest ecosystems to varying degrees [6,9,10], and has threatened forest health and affected ecosystem services, so it is important to manage forests efficiently through informed decision-making that reliably evaluates and predicts the effects of drought on forest growth [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stock Volume Dependency of Forest Drought Responses in Yunnan, China

Luo

Zhou

et al. 2018

Forests

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Abstract:Revealing forest drought response characteristics and the potential impact factors is quite an important scientific issue against the background of global climate change, which is the foundation to reliably evaluate and predict the effects of future drought. Due to the high spatial heterogeneity of forest properties such as biomass, forest age, and height, and the distinct differences in drought stress in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration, current studies still contain many uncertainties. In this research, we used the forests in Yunnan Province in Southwest China as an example and aimed to reveal the potential impacts of forest properties (i.e., stock volume) on drought response characteristics. Specifically, we divided the forest into five groups of stock volume density values and then analyzed their drought response differences. To depict forest response to drought intensity, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was chosen as the explanatory variable, and the change in remote sensing-based enhanced vegetation index (deficit of MODIS-EVI, dEVI) was chosen as the response variable of drought stress. Given that the SPEI has different time scales, we first analyzed the statistical dependency of SPEIs with different time scales (1 to 36 months) to the response variable (i.e., dEVI). The optimal time scale of SPEI (SPEI opt ) to interpret the maximum variation of dEVI (R-square) was then chosen to build the ultimate statistical models for the five groups of stock volume density. The main findings were as follows: (1) the impacts of drought showed hysteresis and cumulative effects, and the length of the hysteresis increased with stock volume densities; (2) forests with high stock volume densities required more soil water and were therefore more sensitive to the changes in water deficit; (3) compared with the optimal time scale of SPEI (SPEI opt ), the SPEI with the commonly used time scale (e.g., 1, 6, and 12 months) could not well reflect the impacts of drought on forests and the simulation error of dEVI increased with stock volume densities; and (4) forests with higher stock volume densities were likely to experience a greater risk of degradation following higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5). As a result, both the time scale of the meteorological drought index and the spatial difference in forest stock volumes should be considered when evaluating forest drought responses at regional and global scales.

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Long‐term forest resilience to climate change indicated by mortality, regeneration, and growth in semiarid southern Siberia

Cited by 58 publications

References 56 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-growth relationships and pointer year analysis of a Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) chronology from the Mongolian mountain forest steppe compared to white birch (Betula platyphylla Sukaczev)

Stock Volume Dependency of Forest Drought Responses in Yunnan, China

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