One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality
Climate-induced tree mortality became a global phenomenon during the last century and it is expected to increase in many regions in the future along with a further increase in the frequency of drought and heat events. However, tree mortality at the ecosystem level remains challenging to quantify sin...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Plant Science |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2019.00307/full |
| _version_ | 1817991915681873920 |
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| author | Sophia Etzold Kasia Ziemińska Brigitte Rohner Alessandra Bottero Alessandra Bottero Arun K. Bose Nadine K. Ruehr Andreas Zingg Andreas Rigling Andreas Rigling |
| author_facet | Sophia Etzold Kasia Ziemińska Brigitte Rohner Alessandra Bottero Alessandra Bottero Arun K. Bose Nadine K. Ruehr Andreas Zingg Andreas Rigling Andreas Rigling |
| author_sort | Sophia Etzold |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate-induced tree mortality became a global phenomenon during the last century and it is expected to increase in many regions in the future along with a further increase in the frequency of drought and heat events. However, tree mortality at the ecosystem level remains challenging to quantify since long-term, tree-individual, reliable observations are scarce. Here, we present a unique data set of monitoring records from 276 permanent plots located in 95 forest stands across Switzerland, which include five major European tree species (Norway spruce, Scots pine, silver fir, European beech, and sessile and common oak) and cover a time span of over one century (1898–2013), with inventory periods of 5–10 years. The long-term average annual mortality rate of the investigated forest stands was 1.5%. In general, species-specific annual mortality rates did not consistently increase over the last decades, except for Scots pine forests at lower altitudes, which exhibited a clear increase of mortality since the 1960s. Temporal trends of tree mortality varied also depending on diameter at breast height (DBH), with large trees generally experiencing an increase in mortality, while mortality of small trees tended to decrease. Normalized mortality rates were remarkably similar between species and a modest, but a consistent and steady increasing trend was apparent throughout the study period. Mixed effects models revealed that gradually changing stand parameters (stand basal area and stand age) had the strongest impact on mortality rates, modulated by climate, which had increasing importance during the last decades. Hereby, recent climatic changes had highly variable effects on tree mortality rates, depending on the species in combination with abiotic and biotic stand and site conditions. This suggests that forest species composition and species ranges may change under future climate conditions. Our data set highlights the complexity of forest dynamical processes such as long-term, gradual changes of forest structure, demography and species composition, which together with climate determine mortality rates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T01:19:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5142ccb0d6b9466cb431ee6eeb2accd7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-462X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T01:19:06Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-5142ccb0d6b9466cb431ee6eeb2accd72022-12-22T02:20:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2019-03-011010.3389/fpls.2019.00307436319One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree MortalitySophia Etzold0Kasia Ziemińska1Brigitte Rohner2Alessandra Bottero3Alessandra Bottero4Arun K. Bose5Nadine K. Ruehr6Andreas Zingg7Andreas Rigling8Andreas Rigling9Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwissForestLab, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandInstitute of Meteorology and Climate Research – Atmospheric Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, GermanySwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandInstitute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandClimate-induced tree mortality became a global phenomenon during the last century and it is expected to increase in many regions in the future along with a further increase in the frequency of drought and heat events. However, tree mortality at the ecosystem level remains challenging to quantify since long-term, tree-individual, reliable observations are scarce. Here, we present a unique data set of monitoring records from 276 permanent plots located in 95 forest stands across Switzerland, which include five major European tree species (Norway spruce, Scots pine, silver fir, European beech, and sessile and common oak) and cover a time span of over one century (1898–2013), with inventory periods of 5–10 years. The long-term average annual mortality rate of the investigated forest stands was 1.5%. In general, species-specific annual mortality rates did not consistently increase over the last decades, except for Scots pine forests at lower altitudes, which exhibited a clear increase of mortality since the 1960s. Temporal trends of tree mortality varied also depending on diameter at breast height (DBH), with large trees generally experiencing an increase in mortality, while mortality of small trees tended to decrease. Normalized mortality rates were remarkably similar between species and a modest, but a consistent and steady increasing trend was apparent throughout the study period. Mixed effects models revealed that gradually changing stand parameters (stand basal area and stand age) had the strongest impact on mortality rates, modulated by climate, which had increasing importance during the last decades. Hereby, recent climatic changes had highly variable effects on tree mortality rates, depending on the species in combination with abiotic and biotic stand and site conditions. This suggests that forest species composition and species ranges may change under future climate conditions. Our data set highlights the complexity of forest dynamical processes such as long-term, gradual changes of forest structure, demography and species composition, which together with climate determine mortality rates.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2019.00307/fulldroughtcompetitionstand basal areaclimate changetree sizemortality |
| spellingShingle | Sophia Etzold Kasia Ziemińska Brigitte Rohner Alessandra Bottero Alessandra Bottero Arun K. Bose Nadine K. Ruehr Andreas Zingg Andreas Rigling Andreas Rigling One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality Frontiers in Plant Science drought competition stand basal area climate change tree size mortality |
| title | One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality |
| title_full | One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality |
| title_fullStr | One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality |
| title_full_unstemmed | One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality |
| title_short | One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality |
| title_sort | one century of forest monitoring data in switzerland reveals species and site specific trends of climate induced tree mortality |
| topic | drought competition stand basal area climate change tree size mortality |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2019.00307/full |
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