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Associations between climate and earlywood and latewood width in boreal and Mediterranean Scots pine forests

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Abstract

Key Message

Earlywood and latewood widths differently respond to the climate in boreal and Mediterranean Scots pine forests. The response is constrained by allometric relationships.

Abstract

Measurements of earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) width can be used to assess how tree growth responds to the climate in different biomes. Through tree-ring analyses, we quantified and analysed EW and LW width in six Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forests situated in the boreal and Mediterranean biomes. We aimed to answer: (i) how coupled are EW and LW width in Scots pine boreal and Mediterranean European forests, and (ii) how do they respond to climate and atmospheric patterns. Using allometric approaches to assess the EW‒LW coupling and correlations with climate variables and indices we found that EW and LW width in Scots pine responds to different climate variables depending on biome and site. We identified two groups of sites with slow-growing trees producing dense wood with more LW in boreal sites vs. fast-growing trees producing more conductive wood with a higher EW proportion in Mediterranean sites. In these sites, spring-to-summer drought was the main constraint of EW and LW production. In boreal sites, wet springs and warm summers improved EW and LW width, respectively. We also found a high coupling between EW and LW width in cold, dry Mediterranean sites. LW width was very responsive to climate and atmospheric patterns in warm, dry Mediterranean sites. The most consistent response to atmospheric patterns was a negative correlation between EW and the January North Atlantic Oscillation index in Mediterranean sites. Mediterranean Scots pine forests where LW width is not very dependent on EW width are potential sites for using LW variables as proxies of drought during the growing season.

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We used freeware and open-source software.

Abbreviations

AC1:

First-order autocorrelation

ENSO:

El Niño–Southern Oscillation

EW:

Earlywood width or production

LW:

Latewood width or production

MSx:

Mean sensitivity

NAO:

North Atlantic Oscillation index

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PC1 and PC2:

First and second principal components of the PCA

Rbar:

Mean correlation between ring-width series

SD:

Standard deviation

SOI:

Southern Oscillation Index

WeMO:

Western Mediterranean Oscillation index

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Acknowledgements

We thank Parks & Wildlife Finland that helped and provided permits for field sampling in Kitsi forest, Joensuu.

Funding

This study was funded by the projects AGL2012-40035-C03-01, AGL2015-66001-C3-1-R, RTI2018-096884-B-C31 and RTI2018-099315-A-I00 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain), and by the European Project “StarTree—Multipurpose trees and non-wood forest products: a challenge and opportunity” under grant agreement No. 311919. Funding was provided to all authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, Apdo. 202, 50192, Zaragoza, Spain

    J. Julio Camarero

  2. Joint Research Unit CTFC – AGROTECNIO, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Eduardo Collado, Juan Martínez-de-Aragón, Sergio de-Miguel & J. Antonio Bonet

  3. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Eduardo Collado, Sergio de-Miguel & J. Antonio Bonet

  4. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK

    Ulf Büntgen

  5. Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Ulf Büntgen

  6. Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CzechGlobe), 603 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Ulf Büntgen

  7. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 613 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Ulf Büntgen

  8. Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon CITA, Avda. Montañana, 930, 50059, Zaragoza, Spain

    Fernando Martinez-Peña

  9. European Mycological Institute EGTC-EMI, 42003, Soria, Spain

    Fernando Martinez-Peña

  10. Instituto Universitario de Gestión Forestal Sostenible (UVA-INIA), Avda. Madrid, s/n, 34004, Palencia, Spain

    Pablo Martín-Pinto & J. Andrés Oria-de-Rueda

  11. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenierías Agrarias de Palencia (ETSIIA), Universidad de Valladolid (UVA), Avda. Madrid, s/n, 34004, Palencia, Spain

    Pablo Martín-Pinto & J. Andrés Oria-de-Rueda

  12. Biodiversity Unit/Botanical Museum, P.O.B. 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Esteri Ohenoja & Taina Romppanen

  13. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

    Esteri Ohenoja & Taina Romppanen

  14. Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke, Yliopistokatu 6, 80100, Joensuu, Finland

    Kauko Salo

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  1. J. Julio Camarero
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  5. Ulf Büntgen
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  12. J. Antonio Bonet
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Correspondence to J. Julio Camarero.

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Camarero, J.J., Collado, E., Martínez-de-Aragón, J. et al. Associations between climate and earlywood and latewood width in boreal and Mediterranean Scots pine forests. Trees 35, 155–169 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-020-02028-0

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