Tree Neighbourhood Diversity Has Negligible Effects on Drought Resilience of European Beech, Silver Fir and Norway Spruce

Gillerot, Loïc; Forrester, David I.; Bottero, Alessandra; Rigling, Andreas; Lévesque, Mathieu

doi:10.1007/s10021-020-00501-y

Cited by 38 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…While the main climate driver at high elevations is often temperature, at lower elevations moisture availability is in general more important (Babst et al, 2013). Under drought conditions, species interactions in spruce-fir-beech mountain forests does not seem to increase growth resistance and resilience (Gillerot et al, 2020), which could explain the increasing interspecific Syn det at lower elevations. Accordingly, Pretzsch et al, (2018) did not find any mixing effect in spruce and beech response to extreme drought events at low elevation sites.…”

Section: Climate Warming Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of elevation-dependent climate warming on intra- and inter-specific growth synchrony in mixed mountain forests

Rı́o

Vergarechea

Hilmers

et al. 2021

Forest Ecology and Management

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Spruce-fir-beech mixed forests cover a large area in European mountain regions, with high ecological and socioeconomic importance. As elevation-zone systems they are highly affected by climate change, which is modifying species growth patterns and productivity shifts among species. The extent to which associated tree species can access resources and grow asynchronously may affect their resistance and persistence under climate change. Intra-specific synchrony in annual tree growth is a good indicator of species specific dependence on environmental conditions variability. However, little attention has been paid to explore the role of the inter-specific growth asynchrony in the adaptation of mixed forests to climate change. Here we used a database of 1790 treering series collected from 28 experimental plots in spruce-fir-beech mixed forests across Europe to explore how spatio-temporal patterns of the intra-and inter-specific growth synchrony relate to climate variation during the past century. We further examined whether synchrony in growth response to inter-annual environmental fluctuations depended on site conditions. We found that the inter-specific growth synchrony was always lower than the intra-specific synchrony, for both high (inter-annual fluctuations) and low frequency (mid-to long-term)

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Section: Climate Warming Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of elevation-dependent climate warming on intra- and inter-specific growth synchrony in mixed mountain forests

Rı́o

Vergarechea

Hilmers

et al. 2021

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…(2015), and subsequent studies have reinforced this finding (e.g. Pretzsch et al, 2018; Gillerot et al ., 2020). Although lower recovery and resilience of larger trees have also been observed (Gillerot et al ., 2020), results were mixed (Merlin et al ., 2015), and a recent physiological model suggests that large trees destined to die following drought may still exhibit high recovery and resilience (Trugman et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pretzsch et al, 2018; Gillerot et al ., 2020). Although lower recovery and resilience of larger trees have also been observed (Gillerot et al ., 2020), results were mixed (Merlin et al ., 2015), and a recent physiological model suggests that large trees destined to die following drought may still exhibit high recovery and resilience (Trugman et al ., 2018). Thus, in general we have much more limited understanding of how and why drought resilience scales with tree size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest

et al. 2020

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As climate change drives increased drought in many forested regions, mechanistic understanding of the factors conferring drought tolerance in trees is increasingly important. The dendrochronological record provides a window through which we can understand how tree size and traits shape growth responses to droughts.We analyzed tree-ring records for 12 species in a broadleaf deciduous forest in Virginia (USA) to test hypotheses for how tree height, microenvironment characteristics, and species' traits shaped drought responses across the three strongest regional droughts over a 60-yr period.Drought tolerance (resistance, recovery, and resilience) decreased with tree height, which was strongly correlated with exposure to higher solar radiation and evaporative demand. The potentially greater rooting volume of larger trees did not confer a resistance advantage, but marginally increased recovery and resilience, in sites with low topographic wetness index. Drought tolerance was greater among species whose leaves lost turgor (wilted) at more negative water potentials and experienced less shrinkage upon desiccation.The tree-ring record reveals that tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits influenced growth responses during and after significant droughts in the meteorological record. As climate change-induced droughts intensify, tall trees with drought-sensitive leaves will be most vulnerable to immediate and longer-term growth reductions.

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“…The course of individual tree growth has been well analysed for mono-specific stands ( Kozlowski, 1962 ; Zeide, 1993 ) and also for rich structured selection forests where trees can remain for a long period in the understorey ( Magin, 1959 ; Mitscherlich, 1970 ; Hilmers et al , 2019 ). Recent studies showed that tree mixing of species often ( Brooks et al , 2002 ; Pretzsch et al , 2013 ) but not always ( Grossiord, 2020 ; Gillerot et al , 2020 ) facilitates tree growth in drought years, and that the mixing effects depend on the species identity and combination ( Pardos et al , 2021 ). However, how mixing modifies tree growth in the long term has been hardly addressed yet ( Pretzsch and Schütze, 2009 ; Thurm et al , 2017 ; Pretzsch et al , 2021 ); this is probably due to the rarity of long-term observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree species mixing can increase stand productivity, density and growth efficiency and attenuate the trade-off between density and growth throughout the whole rotation

Pretzsch

Schütze

2021

Annals of Botany

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Background and Aims Many recent studies emphasize that mixed species is a promising silvicultural option for sustainable ecosystem management under uncertain and risky future environmental conditions. However, compared with monocultures, knowledge of mixed stands is still rather fragmentary. This comprehensive study analysed the most common Central European tree species combinations to determine the extent to which mono-layered species mixing (i) can increase stand productivity and stem diameter growth, (ii) increase stand density or growth efficiency, and (iii) reduce competition and attenuate the relationship between stand density and stem diameter growth compared with mono-specific stands. Methods The study was based on 63 long-term experimental plots in Germany with repeated spatially explicit stand inventories. They covered mono-specific and mixed species stands of Norway spruce (Picea abies), silver fir (Abies alba), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), sessile oak (Quercus petraea), European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), and sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus). Based on the spatially explicit measurement, we quantified for each tree the intra- or inter-specific neighbourhood, local stand density, and growth. We applied mixed models to analyse how inter-specific neighbourhoods modify stand productivity, stand density, growth efficiency, individual tree growth, and the tradeoff between individual tree growth and stand productivity. Key results We found stand productivity gains of 7 %–53 % of mixed vs. mono-specific stands continuing over the entire rotation. All mixtures achieved a 3-36 % higher leaf area index, LAI, until advanced stand age. Stem diameter growth increased by up to 31 % in mixed stands. The growth efficiency of the leaf area was up to 31 % higher, except in mixtures of sessile oak and European beech. The tradeoff between stem diameter growth and stand productivity was attenuated by the mixture. Conclusions The increased productivity was mainly based on a density increase in the case of Norway spruce/silver fir/European beech and sessile oak/European beech and it was based on a more efficient resource use given the same stand density in the case of Scots pine/European beech and European ash/sycamore maple. In the other species assemblages the increased productivity based on a combination of density and efficiency increase. We hypothesise that the density effect may be site-invariant and mainly depends on the structural species complementarity. The efficiency increase of growth may depend on the growth limiting factor that is remedied by mixture and thus be co-determined by the site conditions. For forest management, the results indicate increased stand and tree size growth by species mixing. For the common mixtures examined in this study applies that thinning for the acceleration of stem growth requires less density reduction and causes less stand growth losses than in monocultures. We show the consequences of our findings for silvicultural prescriptions for mixed-species stands.

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Tree Neighbourhood Diversity Has Negligible Effects on Drought Resilience of European Beech, Silver Fir and Norway Spruce

Cited by 38 publications

References 101 publications

Effects of elevation-dependent climate warming on intra- and inter-specific growth synchrony in mixed mountain forests

Effects of elevation-dependent climate warming on intra- and inter-specific growth synchrony in mixed mountain forests

Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest

Tree species mixing can increase stand productivity, density and growth efficiency and attenuate the trade-off between density and growth throughout the whole rotation

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