Climatically controlled reproduction drives interannual growth variability in a temperate tree species

Climatically controlled allocation to reproduction is a key mechanism by which climate influences tree growth and may explain lagged correlations between climate and growth. We used continent-wide datasets of tree-ring chronologies and annual reproductive effort in Fagus sylvatica from 1901 to 2015...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hacket-Pain, Andrew, Ascoli, Davide, Vacchiano, Giorgio, Biondi, F., Cavin, L., Conedera, M., Drobyshev, I., Dorado-Liñán, I., Friend, A. D., Grabner, M., Hartl, C., Kreyling, J., Lebourgeois, François, Levanic, T., Menzel, Annette, Van Der Maaten, E., van der Maaten-Theunissen, M., Muffler, L., Motta, Renzo, Roibu, C. C., Popa, I., Scharnweber, T., Weigel, Robert, Wilmking, M., Zang, Christian
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/290710
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/290710
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Dendrochronology
Drought
European beech
Fagus sylvatica
Forest growth
Masting
Path analysis
SEM
Structural equation modelling
Trade-off.
Descripción
Sumario:Climatically controlled allocation to reproduction is a key mechanism by which climate influences tree growth and may explain lagged correlations between climate and growth. We used continent-wide datasets of tree-ring chronologies and annual reproductive effort in Fagus sylvatica from 1901 to 2015 to characterise relationships between climate, reproduction and growth. Results highlight that variable allocation to reproduction is a key factor for growth in this species, and that high reproductive effort (‘mast years’) is associated with stem growth reduction. Additionally, high reproductive effort is associated with previous summer temperature, creating lagged climate effects on growth. Consequently, understanding growth variability in forest ecosystems requires the incorporation of reproduction, which can be highly variable. Our results suggest that future response of growth dynamics to climate change in this species will be strongly influenced by the response of reproduction.