[en] To characterize growth partitioning within the tree and its responses to climate, we studied 8 dominant beech trees (Fagus sylvatica L.) of a pure, even-aged 98-year-old stand in Belgium. We sampled 10 disks along the stem from breast height to treetop and examined the inter-annual patterns of, and discrepancies between, ring-area and volume increments by performing detailed stem analysis and dendroecological investigations. Although the common inter-annual variation among all increment series was high, we observed increasing growth variability and climate sensitivity with height, leading to notable bole-crown discrepancies. Both the common inter-annual variation and bole-crown discrepancies were mainly driven by summer heat waves and related droughts of the previous year, and spring droughts of the current year. Despite these discrepancies, the radial growth at breast height can be considered a good estimate of the tree volume increment but not for the purpose of focusing on climatic effects of isolated years. Extreme climatic conditions increase the risk of inaccurate estimations. The results of the present study are discussed in relation to tree ecophysiology hypotheses.
Research center :
Forest Resources Management, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Latte, Nicolas ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Lebourgeois, François
Claessens, Hugues ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Language :
English
Title :
Growth partitioning within beech trees (Fagus sylvatica L.) varies in response to summer heat waves and related droughts
ASCE-EWRI (2005) The ASCE Standardized Reference Evapotranspiration Equation. Environment and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Standardization of Reference Evapotranspiration Task Committee Final Report. http://www.kimberly.uidaho.edu/water/asceewri/ascestzdetmain2005.pdf. Accessed 01 Feb 2015
Barbaroux C, Bréda N, Dufrêne E (2003) Distribution of above-ground and below-ground carbohydrate reserves in adult trees of two contrasting broad-leaved species (Quercus petraea and Fagus sylvatica). New Phytol 157:605–615
Bascietto M, Scarascia-Mugnozza G (2004) A collection of functions to determine annual tree carbon increment via stem-analysis. Ann For Sci 61:597–602
Becker P, Meinzer FC, Wullschleger SD (2000) Hydraulic limitation of tree height: a critique. Funct Ecol 14(1):4–11. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2435.2000.00397.x
Biondi F, Qeadan F (2008) Inequality in paleorecords. Ecology 89(4):1056–1067. doi:10.1890/07-0783.1
Bouriaud O, Bréda N, Dupouey JL, Granier A (2005a) Is ring width a reliable proxy for stem-biomass increment? A case study in European beech. Can J For Res 35:2920–2933. doi:10.1139/x05-202
Bouriaud O, Leban JM, Bert D, Deleuze C (2005b) Intra-annual variations in climate influence growth and wood density of Norway spruce. Tree Physiol 25:651–660
Bunn AG (2008) A dendrochronology program library in R (dplR). Dendrochronologia 26:115–124. doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2008.01.002
Campioli M, Verbeeck H, Van den Bossche J, Wu J, Ibrom A, D’Andrea E, Matteucci G, Samson R, Steppe K, Granier A (2013) Can decision rules simulate carbon allocation for years with contrasting and extreme weather conditions? A case study for three temperate beech forests. Ecol Model 263:42–55
Carnicer J, Barbeta A, Sperlich D, Coll M, Penuelas J (2013) Contrasting trait syndromes in angiosperms and conifers are associated with different responses of tree growth to temperature on a large scale. Front Plant Sci 4:409. doi:10.3389/fpls.2013.00409
Ceschia É, Damesin C, Lebaube S, Pontailler JY, Dufrêne É (2002) Spatial and seasonal variations in stem respiration of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica). Ann For Sci 59:801–812
Chhin S, Wang GG (2005) The effect of sampling height on dendroclimatic analysis. Dendrochronologia 23:47–55. doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2005.07.003
Chhin S, Hogg EH, Lieffers VJ, Huang S (2010) Growth-climate relationships vary with height along the stem in lodgepole pine. Tree Physiol 30:335–345. doi:10.1093/treephys/tpp120
Cook ER, Kairiukstis LA (1990) Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
Corona P, Romagnoli M, Torrini L (1995) Stem annual increments as ecobiological indicators in Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.). Trees 10(1):13–19. doi:10.1007/bf00197774
Dagnelie P, Palm R, Rondeux J, Thill A (2013) Tables de cubage des arbres et des peuplements forestiers. Presses agronomiques de Gembloux, Gembloux
DeLucia EH, Maherali H, Carey EV (2000) Climate-driven changes in biomass allocation in pines. Glob Change Biol 6:587–593
Drobyshev I, Övergaard R, Saygin I, Niklasson M, Hickler T, Karlsson M, Sykes MT (2010) Masting behaviour and dendrochronology of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in southern Sweden. For Ecol Manag 259(11):2160–2171
Dyckmans J, Flessa H, Polle A, Beese F (2000) The effect of elevated [CO2] on uptake and allocation of 13C and 15N in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) during leafing. Plant Biol 2(1):113–120
Gehring E, Pezzatti GB, Krebs P, Mazzoleni S, Conedera M (2015) On the applicability of the pipe model theory on the chestnut tree (Castanea sativa Mill.). Trees Struct Funct. doi:10.1007/s00468-014-1093-z
Genet H, Bréda N, Dufrêne E (2009) Age-related variation in carbon allocation at tree and stand scales in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and sessile oak [Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.] using a chronosequence approach. Tree Physiol 30:177–192
Geßler A, Keitel C, Kreuzwieser J, Matyssek R, Seiler W, Rennenberg H (2007) Potential risks for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in a changing climate. Trees Struct Funct 21(1):1–11. doi:10.1007/s00468-006-0107-x
Hacket-Pain AJ, Friend AD, Lageard JGA, Thomas PA (2015) The influence of masting phenomenon on growth–climate relationships in trees: explaining the influence of previous summers’ climate on ring width. Tree Physiol. doi:10.1093/treephys/tpv007
Härdtle W, Niemeyer T, Assmann T, Baiboks S, Fichtner A, Friedrich U, Lang AC, Neuwirth B, Pfister L, Ries C, Schuldt A, Simon N, von Oheimb G (2013) Long-term trends in tree-ring width and isotope signatures (δ13C, δ15N) of Fagus sylvatica L. on soils with contrasting water supply. Ecosystems 16(8):1413–1428
Hoch G, Siegwolf RTW, Keel SG, Körner C, Han Q (2013) Fruit production in three masting tree species does not rely on stored carbon reserves. Oecologia 171(3):653–662
Hogg EH, Brandt JP, Kochtubajda B (2005) Factors affecting interannual variation in growth of western Canadian aspen forests during 1951–2000. Can J For Res 35:610–622. doi:10.1139/x04-211
IPCC (2012) Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation. In: Field CB, Barros V, Stocker TF, Qin D, Dokken DJ, Ebi KL et al (eds) A special report of Working Groups I and II of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
IRM - Institut Royal Météorologique (2000) Les évènements météorologiques marquants depuis le début du 20ème siècle. http://www.meteo.be/meteo/view/fr/1078912-Evenements+marquants+depuis+1901.html. Accessed 01 Feb 2015
Kerhoulas LP, Kane JM (2012) Sensitivity of ring growth and carbon allocation to climatic variation vary within ponderosa pine trees. Tree Physiol 32:14–23
Kint V, Aertsen W, Campioli M, Vansteenkiste D, Delcloo A, Muys B (2012) Radial growth change of temperate tree species in response to altered regional climate and air quality in the period 1901–2008. Clim Change 115:343–363. doi:10.1007/s10584-012-0465-x
Latte N, Lebourgeois F, Claessens H (2015) Increased tree-growth synchronization of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in response to climate change in northwestern Europe. Dendrochronologia 33:69–77. doi:10.1016/j.dendro.2015.01.002
Lê Cao KA, González I, Déjean S (2009) IntegrOmics: an R package to unravel relationships between two omics datasets. Bioinformatics 25:2855–2856. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btp515
Le Goff N, Granier A, Ottorini JM, Peiffer M (2004) Biomass increment and carbon balance of ash (Fraxinus excelsior) trees in an experimental stand in northeastern France. Ann For Sci 61:577–588
Lebaube S, Le Goff NL, Ottorini JM, Granier A (2000) Carbon balance and tree growth in a Fagus sylvatica stand. Ann For Sci 57:49–61
Lebourgeois F, Bréda N, Ulrich E, Granier A (2005) Climate-tree-growth relationships of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in the French Permanent Plot Network (RENECOFOR). Trees Struct Funct 19:385–401
Lindner M, Maroschek M, Netherer S, Kremer A, Barbati A, Garcia-Gonzalo J, Seidl R, Delzon S, Corona P, Kolström M, Lexer MJ, Marchetti M (2010) Climate change impacts, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability of European forest ecosystems. For Ecol Manag 259(4):698–709. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.09.023
Maxime C, Hendrik D (2011) Effects of climate on diameter growth of co-occurring Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba along an altitudinal gradient. Trees Struct Funct 25:265–276
McLeod A, Xu C (2014) bestglm: Best Subset GLM. R package version 0.34. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=bestglm. Accessed 01 Feb 2014
Mund M, Kutsch WL, Wirth C, Kahl T, Knohl A, Skomarkova MV, Schulze ED (2010) The influence of climate and fructification on the inter-annual variability of stem growth and net primary productivity in an old-growth, mixed beech forest. Tree Physiol 30(6):689–704
Muukkonen P (2007) Generalized allometric volume and biomass equations for some tree species in Europe. Eur J For Res 126:157–166
Neuwirth B, Schweingruber FH, Winiger M (2007) Spatial patterns of central European pointer years from 1901 to 1971. Dendrochronologia 24:79–89
Penninckx V, Meerts P, Herbauts J, Gruber W (1999) Ring width and element concentrations in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) from a periurban forest in central Belgium. For Ecol Manag 113:23–33
Rais A, van de Kuilen J-W, Pretzsch H (2014) Growth reaction patterns of tree height, diameter, and volume of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) under acute drought stress in Southern Germany. Eur J For Res 133(6):1043–1056. doi:10.1007/s10342-014-0821-7
R Core Team (2012) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. http://www.R-project.org/
Regent Instruments Canada Inc (2009). WINDENDRO for tree-ring analysis
Renaud V, Innes JL, Dobbertin M, Rebetez M (2011) Comparison between open-site and below-canopy climatic conditions in Switzerland for different types of forests over 10 years (1998–2007). Theor Appl Climatol 105:119–127
Scharnweber T, Manthey M, Criegee C, Bauwe A, Schröder C, Wilmking M (2011) Drought matters—declining precipitation influences growth of Fagus sylvatica L. and Quercus robur L. in north-eastern Germany. For Ecol Manag 262:947–961. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2011.05.026
Schober R (1995) Ertragstafeln wichtiger Baumarten. JD Sauerländer’s Verlag, Frankfurt am Main
Schweingruber FH (1996) Tree rings and environment. Dendroecology. Haupt Press, Berne
Skomarkova MV, Vaganov EA, Mund M, Knohl A, Linke P, Boerner A, Schulze ED (2006) Inter-annual and seasonal variability of radial growth, wood density and carbon isotope ratios in tree rings of beech (Fagus sylvatica) growing in Germany and Italy. Trees 20(5):571–586
Sohn JA, Kohler M, Gessler A, Bauhus J (2012) Interactions of thinning and stem height on the drought response of radial stem growth and isotopic composition of Norway spruce (Picea abies). Tree Physiol 32:1199–1213
van der Maaten E (2012) Climate sensitivity of radial growth in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) at different aspects in southwestern Germany. Trees Struct Funct 26:777–788
van der Maaten-Theunissen M, Bouriaud O (2012) Climate-growth relationships at different stem heights in silver fir and Norway spruce. Can J For Res 42:958–969. doi:10.1093/jxb/err309
Von Arx G, Dobbertin M, Rebetez M (2012) Spatio-temporal effects of forest canopy on understory microclimate in a long-term experiment in Switzerland. Agric For Meteorol 166–167:144–155
Way DA, Oren R (2010) Differential responses to changes in growth temperature between trees from different functional groups and biomes: a review and synthesis of data. Tree Physiol 30:669–688
Weber P, Bugmann H, Pluess AR, Walthert L, Rigling A (2013) Drought response and changing mean sensitivity of European beech close to the dry distribution limit. Trees Struct Funct 27:171–181
Weissen F, Bronchart L, Piret A (1994) Guide du boisement des stations forestières de Wallonie. Ministère de la Région wallonne, Namur
Zang C, Biondi F (2013) Dendroclimatic calibration in R: the bootRes package for response and correlation function analysis. Dendrochronologia 31:68–74
Zianis D, Muukkonen P, Makipaa R, Mencuccini M (2005) Biomass and stem volume equations for tree species in Europe. Silva Fenn Monogr (4):1–2, 5–63
