The influence of climate and drought on urban tree growth in southeast Australia and the implications for future growth under climate change

Nitschke, Craig R.; Nichols, Scott C.; Allen, Kathy; Dobbs, Cynnamon; Livesley, Stephen J.; Baker, Patrick J.; Lynch, Yvonne

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.06.012

Cited by 73 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Tolerance to drought stress is critical to the performance of many urban trees as it is relevant to sites with small soil volumes and those with impermeable surfaces (Hirons & Thomas, 2018; Wang et al., 2019), those subjected to the urban heat island (Orlandini et al., 2017), as well as future climate scenarios, characterized by reduced summer precipitation and increased frequency of heat waves (Naumann et al., 2018; Teskey et al., 2015; Webster et al., 2017). Assessments of species that are currently widespread in urban green infrastructure demonstrate their vulnerability to projected changes in climate (Khan & Conway, 2020; Nitschke et al., 2017). Consequently, selection of species based on hierarchical filters that place key biophysical climate variables ( e.g., drought) as fundamental criteria for selection is likely to substantially improve outcomes for those tasked with establishing the urban forest (Burley et al., 2019; Hirons & Sjöman, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using botanic gardens and arboreta to help identify urban trees for the future

Hirons

Watkins

Baxter

et al. 2020

Plants People Planet

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Diversification of urban forests is essential to enhance their resilience to future biotic threats as well as those posed by a changing climate. Arboreta and botanic gardens host a wide range of plant material that can be evaluated to inform tree selection policy. This study demonstrates that plant functional traits, such as the water potential at leaf turgor loss, can be highly instructive when developing evidence‐based recommendations for urban environments. However, if botanic collections are to fulfill a critical role in understanding plant response to environment, they should not be managed solely as visitor attractions but must have scientific objectives at the forefront of management policy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using botanic gardens and arboreta to help identify urban trees for the future

Hirons

Watkins

Baxter

et al. 2020

Plants People Planet

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“…We designed glasshouse experiments to screen large numbers of plant species (>50 species) in order to identify droughttolerant species for urban plantings in Australian cities, though the drought method we describe can be used in a wide variety of contexts. Drought is common in Australia (Nicholls et al, 1997;Freund et al, 2017) and has been associated with tree decline in urban areas (Nitschke et al, 2017). Unprecedented extreme temperatures are also predicted for many parts of the world, including Australia, within the next 10-30 years (Perkins and Alexander, 2013;Lewis et al, 2017;BoM, 2019), so we tested the efficacy of this method by applying an experimental heatwave in the fifth week of water deficit to better understand how plants will cope with combined drought and heat stress.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple Method for Simulating Drought Effects on Plants

et al. 2020

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Drought is expected to increase in frequency and severity in many regions in the future, so it is important to improve our understanding of how drought affects plant functional traits and ecological interactions. Imposing experimental water deficits is key to gaining this understanding, but has been hindered by logistic difficulties in maintaining consistently low water availability for plants. Here, we describe a simple method for applying soil water deficits to potted plants in glasshouse experiments. We modified an existing method (the "Snow and Tingey system") in order to apply a gradual, moderate water deficit to 50 plant species of different life forms (grasses, vines, shrubs, trees). The method requires less maintenance and manual handling compared to other water deficit methods, so it can be used for extended periods of time and is relatively inexpensive to implement. With only a few modifications, it is possible to easily establish and maintain soil water deficits of differing intensity and duration, as well as to incorporate interacting stress factors. We tested this method by measuring physiological responses to an applied water deficit in a subset of 11 tree/shrub species with a wide range of drought tolerances and water-use strategies. For this subgroup of species, stomatal conductance was 2-17 times lower in droughted plants than controls, although only half of the species (5 out of 11) experienced midday leaf water potentials that exceeded their turgor loss (i.e., wilting) point. Leaf temperatures were up to 8°C higher in droughted plants than controls, indicating that droughted plants are at greater risk of thermal damage, relative to unstressed plants. The largest leaf temperature differences (between droughted and well-watered plants) were in species with high rates of water loss. Rapid osmotic adjustment was observed in leaves of five species when drought stress was combined with an experimental heatwave. These results highlight the potential value of further ecological and physiological experiments utilizing this simple water deficit method to study plant responses to drought stress.

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“…Some stands also had surviving tree ferns and trees indicating that the wildfires may have partially burnt these stands and created conditions that prevented recruitment of tree ferns for a 10–20-year period. The 1926 fire coincided with a period of drought while a period of extended drought (~6 years) followed the 1939 fire in Victoria (see Nitschke et al 2017). High light and warm dry conditions are known to limit recruitment of tree ferns in temperate regions (Brock et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Radiocarbon Dating Informs Tree Fern Population Dynamics and Disturbance History of Temperate Forests in Southeast Australia

et al. 2018

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Tree ferns are slow-growing and long-lived components of temperate forests; however, these characteristics make determining size-age and population dynamics through mensuration approaches problematic while dendroecological approaches cannot be used. In this study, we use radiocarbon (14C) dating of Cyathea australis and Dicksonia antarctica to (1) determine their age-to-size relationships, (2) reconstruct the age distribution of tree fern species, and (3) test if predicted ages align with the ages of the co-occurring tree community and observed disturbance history. We used the best age-size models to reconstruct the population structure of tree ferns sampled in five paired rainforest and old-growth eucalypt stands and compared these to the age structure of co-occurring tree species. The species had similar growth allometry; however, C. australis grew four times faster than D. antarctica. The age class structures of tree ferns were congruent with the associated tree species and reflected known fire history and snowfall events in the region. Tree fern abundance increased with increasing time-since-fire and post canopy disturbance. The study demonstrates that 14C dating of tree ferns provides a means of investigating tree fern demographics and the role of disturbance in shaping their population structure in forests of southeast Australia.

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The influence of climate and drought on urban tree growth in southeast Australia and the implications for future growth under climate change

Cited by 73 publications

References 69 publications

Using botanic gardens and arboreta to help identify urban trees for the future

Using botanic gardens and arboreta to help identify urban trees for the future

A Simple Method for Simulating Drought Effects on Plants

Radiocarbon Dating Informs Tree Fern Population Dynamics and Disturbance History of Temperate Forests in Southeast Australia

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