Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2019, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (11): 946-958.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2019.0169

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Radial growth responses to climate warming and drying in Pinus yunnanensis in Nanpan River Basin

SHEN Jia-Yan1,LI Shuai-Feng1,HUANG Xiao-Bo1,LEI Zhi-Quan2,SHI Xing-Quan2,SU Jian-Rong1,*()   

  1. 1Research Institute of Resource Insects, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Kunming 650224, China
    2State-owned Haizhai Forest Farm of Qujing, Qujing, Yunnan 655000, China
  • Received:2019-07-02 Accepted:2019-10-22 Online:2019-11-20 Published:2020-03-26
  • Contact: SU Jian-Rong
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the Yunnan Science and Technology Innovation Talent Program(2018HC013)

Abstract:

Aims Forests in Nanpan River Basin are under severe effects by drought because of the warming and drying climate. As the typical dominant coniferous forests in this region, Pinus yunnanensis forests occur over a broad range and present a good potential for dendroclimatological studies. However, little is known about the relationship between radial growth and climate in this tree species. Our objectives were to determine the constraining factors of radial growth and examine the stability of growth-climate relationships in P. yunnanensis in response to climate warming and drying.Methods We used standardized dendrochronological method, combined with trend analysis of meteorological data from 1952 to 2016, to study the effects of climate variabilities on the radial growth in P. yunnanensis. We extracted increment cores from 87 trees and measured annual ring-width. Response analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to determine the constraining factors of radial growth. Moving correlation was used to detect the stability of growth-climate response.Important findings The annual mean temperature (Tmp), mean maximum temperature (Tmx), and mean minimum temperature (Tmn) in the research region have increased at a rate of 0.044, 0.041 and 0.050 °C·a -1, respectively. The annual total precipitation showed a significant decreasing trend at a rate of 6.02 mm·a -1 during 1985-2016. The growth of P. yunnanensis trees was less sensitive to temperature but more sensitive to moisture; prior to and after warming and drying period, the explainable variance of radial growth by temperature decreased from 44.95% to 21.97%, and that by moisture-related factors increased from 55.05% to 78.03%. Warming and drying climate enhanced the influence of climatic factors on radial growth of the current year and weakened the influence of climatic factors of the previous year, while increasing the climatic factors of the current year significantly affecting radial growth by three and explanation rate by 16.05%. The “hysteresie effect” weakened and the effects of climate change on growth became more promptly. The growth-climate relationship in P. yunnanensis could become more moisture sensitive under a warming and drying climate. Tree growth and forest productivity of P. yunnanensis in the Nanpan River Basin is likely to decline if the warming and drying climate trend continues.

Key words: Pinus yunnanensis, annual rings, climate warming and drying, climate response, stability