Effect of experimental climate change and soil moisture content on germination and early growth response of Quercus dentata seedlings

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of changes in soil moisture content under climate change conditions on the growth response of Quercus dentata, a representative species of the genus Quercus on the Korean peninsula. The results showed that Q. dentata germination increased by 9.4 day...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest science and technology 2022-10, Vol.18 (4), p.213-223
Main Authors: Kim, Eui-Joo, Jung, Young-Ho, Park, Jae-Hoon, Lee, Eung-Pill, Na, Chae-Sun, Park, Chung-Yeoul, Kim, Jun-Hyeok, Kim, Se-Hee, Park, Ji-Won, Lee, Jung-Min, Kim, Yoon-Seo, Cho, Kyung-Mi, Kim, Hae-Ran, Jeong, Heon-Mo, You, Young-Han
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
below-ground biomass
Biomass
Climate change
environment gradient
Germination
individual characteristics
Initial establishment
Leaf area
Leaves
Moisture content
Moisture effects
Plant biomass
population variance
Predictive maintenance
Quercus dentata
Seedlings
Soil conditions
Soil moisture
Variance
Water content
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Summary:This study was conducted to investigate the effect of changes in soil moisture content under climate change conditions on the growth response of Quercus dentata, a representative species of the genus Quercus on the Korean peninsula. The results showed that Q. dentata germination increased by 9.4 days under climate change conditions (RCP 4.5 scenario), whereas the below-ground biomass and plant biomass increased by 1.3 and 1.2 times, respectively. However, the soil moisture treatment condition solely affected the leaf area, below-ground biomass, and plant biomass but not the germination percentage, germination speed, above-ground length, and above-ground biomass. The variance across the measured growth variables was considerably higher in the control group than in the climate change treatment group, whereas the variance was lower for lower soil moisture content. The findings suggested that under climate change conditions, Q. dentata germinated rapidly and exhibited broader leaf area and increased development below ground, which may be advantageous for the early establishment of seedlings. However, the plants may face difficulties in conditions with low soil moisture content. In conclusion, with continuous climate changes, Q. dentata seedlings are predicted to efficiently adapt to the altered soil moisture content to exhibit even more reliable growth than with the current condition. However, the growth of Q. dentata seedlings would be more difficult with severely low soil moisture content than with abundant soil moisture content, which is predicted to be detrimental to population maintenance in the long term.
ISSN:2158-0103
2158-0715
DOI:10.1080/21580103.2022.2144954