Impact of climate and drought events on the growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provenances

•We explored the growth response to temperature, precipitation, and drought.•Site differences were mostly attributable to climate.•Drought response depended on timing and duration of the drought event.•Provenances differ in adaption to drought.•Archetype analysis reveals good overall performance of...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Forest ecology and management 2013-11, Vol.307, p.30-42
Main Authors:	Taeger, Steffen, Zang, Christian, Liesebach, Mirko, Schneck, Volker, Menzel, Annette
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Biological and medical sciences Climate–growth relations Forest drought response Forest genetics Forestry Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution Resilience Synecology Terrestrial ecosystems Tree height growth Tree-ring
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	•We explored the growth response to temperature, precipitation, and drought.•Site differences were mostly attributable to climate.•Drought response depended on timing and duration of the drought event.•Provenances differ in adaption to drought.•Archetype analysis reveals good overall performance of German (local), French and Polish provenances. We explored the growth response of Scots pine to temperature, precipitation, and drought focusing on eleven provenances from the IUFRO 1982 international provenance trial. At two macroclimatically different sites in Germany we measured chronologies of tree-ring widths and annual height increment. We estimated general climate/growth relationships and examined the growth response, based on tolerance indices of resistance, recovery, resilience and relative resilience, to the most severe drought event per site. Using multivariate benchmarking of provenance archetypes, we established a ranking of the individual provenances in terms of general performance. In addition to considerable differences in overall growth between provenances, growth metrics differed between sites which were mostly attributable to climate. Basal area increment depended mainly on water availability from May to July, whereas annual height growth was influenced by moisture deficit during May of the current year. The reaction to drought events was shown to depend on the timing and duration of the drought event. Differences between provenances in resistance were modest, but more pronounced for recovery and especially for resilience and relative resilience. The results indicate a better adaptation to drought of the provenance from Bosnia Herzegovina and of local German provenances compared to other provenances. We summarized the findings by aligning the eleven provenances between two multivariately defined archetypes, one of which represented best general performance defined by good overall growth, low climate sensitivity and high resilience to drought. This approach confirmed the superior performance of the local German populations. Provenances from France and Poland were ranked above average whereas northern provenances and that from Bosnia Herzegovina were found to be least suitable at the sites under investigation. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of considering provenance in the discussion about future adaptedness and adaptability of tree species under climate change scenarios.
ISSN:	0378-1127 1872-7042