Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest
The area covered by boreal forests accounts for ∼16% of the global and 22% of the Northern Hemisphere landmass. Changes in the productivity and functioning of this circumpolar biome not only have strong effects on species composition and diversity at regional to larger scales, but also on the Earth’...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074021 |
| _version_ | 1797748583628275712 |
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| author | Lena Hellmann Leonid Agafonov Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist Olga Churakova (Sidorova) Elisabeth Düthorn Jan Esper Lisa Hülsmann Alexander V Kirdyanov Pavel Moiseev Vladimir S Myglan Anatoly N Nikolaev Frederick Reinig Fritz H Schweingruber Olga Solomina Willy Tegel Ulf Büntgen |
| author_facet | Lena Hellmann Leonid Agafonov Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist Olga Churakova (Sidorova) Elisabeth Düthorn Jan Esper Lisa Hülsmann Alexander V Kirdyanov Pavel Moiseev Vladimir S Myglan Anatoly N Nikolaev Frederick Reinig Fritz H Schweingruber Olga Solomina Willy Tegel Ulf Büntgen |
| author_sort | Lena Hellmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The area covered by boreal forests accounts for ∼16% of the global and 22% of the Northern Hemisphere landmass. Changes in the productivity and functioning of this circumpolar biome not only have strong effects on species composition and diversity at regional to larger scales, but also on the Earth’s carbon cycle. Although temporal inconsistency in the response of tree growth to temperature has been reported from some locations at the higher northern latitudes, a systematic dendroecological network assessment is still missing for most of the boreal zone. Here, we analyze the geographical patterns of changes in summer temperature and precipitation across northern Eurasia >60 °N since 1951 AD, as well as the growth trends and climate responses of 445 Pinus , Larix and Picea ring width chronologies in the same area and period. In contrast to widespread summer warming, fluctuations in precipitation and tree growth are spatially more diverse and overall less distinct. Although the influence of summer temperature on ring formation is increasing with latitude and distinct moisture effects are restricted to a few southern locations, growth sensitivity to June–July temperature variability is only significant at 16.6% of all sites ( p ≤ 0.01). By revealing complex climate constraints on the productivity of Eurasia’s northern forests, our results question the a priori suitability of boreal tree-ring width chronologies for reconstructing summer temperatures. This study further emphasizes regional climate differences and their role on the dynamics of boreal ecosystems, and also underlines the importance of free data access to facilitate the compilation and evaluation of massively replicated and updated dendroecological networks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:06:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c022cf5de6b8437884a76a3cc9bdfce0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:06:53Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-c022cf5de6b8437884a76a3cc9bdfce02023-08-09T14:18:55ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262016-01-0111707402110.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074021Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forestLena Hellmann0Leonid Agafonov1Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist2Olga Churakova (Sidorova)3Elisabeth Düthorn4Jan Esper5Lisa Hülsmann6Alexander V Kirdyanov7Pavel Moiseev8Vladimir S Myglan9Anatoly N Nikolaev10Frederick Reinig11Fritz H Schweingruber12Olga Solomina13Willy Tegel14Ulf Büntgen15Swiss Federal Research Institute , WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Plant and Animal Ecology UD RAS, Yekaterinburg, RussiaDepartment of History, Stockholm University , Sweden; Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University , SwedenETH Zurich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Zurich, SwitzerlandJohannes Gutenberg University , Mainz, GermanyJohannes Gutenberg University , Mainz, GermanySwiss Federal Research Institute , WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland; ETH Zurich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Zurich, SwitzerlandV.N. Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia; Siberian Federal University , Krasnoyarsk, RussiaInstitute of Plant and Animal Ecology UD RAS, Yekaterinburg, RussiaSiberian Federal University , Krasnoyarsk, RussiaNorth-Eastern Federal University , Yakutsk, Russia; Melnikov Permafrost Institute , Yakutsk, RussiaSwiss Federal Research Institute , WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandSwiss Federal Research Institute , WSL, Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandInstitute of Geography, RAS, Moscow, RussiaInstitute for Forest Sciences IWW, University of Freiburg , Freiburg, GermanySwiss Federal Research Institute , WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland; Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, Switzerland; Global Change Research Centre AS CR, Brno, Czech RepublicThe area covered by boreal forests accounts for ∼16% of the global and 22% of the Northern Hemisphere landmass. Changes in the productivity and functioning of this circumpolar biome not only have strong effects on species composition and diversity at regional to larger scales, but also on the Earth’s carbon cycle. Although temporal inconsistency in the response of tree growth to temperature has been reported from some locations at the higher northern latitudes, a systematic dendroecological network assessment is still missing for most of the boreal zone. Here, we analyze the geographical patterns of changes in summer temperature and precipitation across northern Eurasia >60 °N since 1951 AD, as well as the growth trends and climate responses of 445 Pinus , Larix and Picea ring width chronologies in the same area and period. In contrast to widespread summer warming, fluctuations in precipitation and tree growth are spatially more diverse and overall less distinct. Although the influence of summer temperature on ring formation is increasing with latitude and distinct moisture effects are restricted to a few southern locations, growth sensitivity to June–July temperature variability is only significant at 16.6% of all sites ( p ≤ 0.01). By revealing complex climate constraints on the productivity of Eurasia’s northern forests, our results question the a priori suitability of boreal tree-ring width chronologies for reconstructing summer temperatures. This study further emphasizes regional climate differences and their role on the dynamics of boreal ecosystems, and also underlines the importance of free data access to facilitate the compilation and evaluation of massively replicated and updated dendroecological networks.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074021boreal forestclimate variabilitydendroecologyEurasiaforest productivityglobal warming |
| spellingShingle | Lena Hellmann Leonid Agafonov Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist Olga Churakova (Sidorova) Elisabeth Düthorn Jan Esper Lisa Hülsmann Alexander V Kirdyanov Pavel Moiseev Vladimir S Myglan Anatoly N Nikolaev Frederick Reinig Fritz H Schweingruber Olga Solomina Willy Tegel Ulf Büntgen Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest Environmental Research Letters boreal forest climate variability dendroecology Eurasia forest productivity global warming |
| title | Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest |
| title_full | Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest |
| title_fullStr | Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest |
| title_short | Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest |
| title_sort | diverse growth trends and climate responses across eurasia s boreal forest |
| topic | boreal forest climate variability dendroecology Eurasia forest productivity global warming |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074021 |
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