St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

A combined tree ring and vegetation model assessment of European forest growth sensitivity to interannual climate variability

Thumbnail
View/Open
Klesse_2018_GBC_Interannualclimate_FinalPubVersion.pdf (10.97Mb)
Date
23/08/2018
Author
Klesse, S.
Babst, F.
Lienert, S.
Spahni, R.
Joos, F.
Bouriaud, O.
Carrer, M.
Di Filippo, A.
Poulter, B.
Trotsiuk, V.
Wilson, R.
Frank, D. C.
Keywords
Tree ring
Vegetation model
Climate sensitivity
Net primary productivity
Aboveground biomass increment
Inter-annual variability
SD Forestry
GE Environmental Sciences
DAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
The response of forest growth to climate variability varies along environmental gradients. A growth increase and decrease with warming is usually observed in cold‐humid and warm‐dry regions, respectively. However, it remains poorly known where the sign of these temperature effects switches. Here we introduce a newly developed European tree‐ring network that has been specifically collected to reconstruct forest aboveground biomass increment (ABI). We quantify, how the long‐term (1910‐2009) inter‐annual variability of ABI depends on local mean May‐August temperature and test, if a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) ensemble reflects the resulting patterns. We find that sites at 8°C mean May‐August temperature increase ABI on average by 5.7 ± 1.3 %, whereas sites at 20°C decrease ABI by 3.0±1.8 % m‐2 y‐1 ∆°C‐1. A threshold temperature between beneficial and detrimental effects of warming and the associated increase in water demand on tree growth emerged at 15.9 ± 1.4°C mean May‐August temperature. Because inter‐annual variability increases proportionally with mean growth rate – i.e. the coefficient of variation stays constant – we were able to validate these findings with a much larger tree‐ring dataset that had been established following classic dendrochronological sampling schemes. While the observed climate sensitivity pattern is well reflected in the DGVM ensemble, there is a large spread of threshold temperatures between the individual models. Also, individual models disagree strongly on the magnitude of climate impact at the coldest and warmest locations, suggesting where model improvement is most needed to more accurately predict forest growth and effectively guide silvicultural practices.
Citation
Klesse , S , Babst , F , Lienert , S , Spahni , R , Joos , F , Bouriaud , O , Carrer , M , Di Filippo , A , Poulter , B , Trotsiuk , V , Wilson , R & Frank , D C 2018 , ' A combined tree ring and vegetation model assessment of European forest growth sensitivity to interannual climate variability ' , Global Biogeochemical Cycles , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GB005856
Publication
Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GB005856
ISSN
0886-6236
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018. American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GB005856
Description
FB acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P300P2_154543) and the EU Horizon-2020 project “BACI” (grant 640176). SK, FJ, RS and DCF are supported by the SNF iTREE sinergia project 136295. FJ, SL, and RS acknowledge support by the Swiss National Science Foundation (#200020_172476), OB acknowledges funding from UEFISCDI project PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-07 and VT is supported by the GACR 15-14840S and CIGA 20154316.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/17147

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter