Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2024, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (8): 988-1000.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2023.0206  cstr: 32100.14.cjpe.2023.0206

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Response of radial growth of early and late wood of planted Pinus tabuliformis to climate variables

SHI Qian1, TONG Xiao-Juan1,*(), XU Ling-Ling2,3, MENG Ping2,3, YU Pei-Yang1, LI Jun4, YANG Ming-Xin1   

  1. 1School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
    2Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
    3Henan Xiaolangdi Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Jiyuan, Henan 454650, China
    4Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2023-07-18 Accepted:2024-01-16 Online:2024-08-20 Published:2024-01-22
  • Contact: *TONG Xiao-Juan(tongxj@bjfu.edu.cn)
  • Supported by:
    National Key R&D Program of China(2020YFA0608101);National Natural Science Foundation of China(32271875);National Natural Science Foundation of China(31872703)

Abstract:

Aims Under the background of global warming, the plantation of Pinus tabuliformis is highly sensitive to climate change. However, the impacts of climate change on the radial growth of the earlywood and latewood are still less understood. Therefore, it is important for predicting the productivity and vegetation dynamics of the plantations to understand the responses of radial growth of earlywood and latewood to climate change.

Methods Based on dendrochronology, we established the standard chronology of earlywood and latewood tree rings from five sampling sites in the northern and northwest China. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between annual ring width index and climate variables, and investigated the relative influence of climate variables on the growth of P. tabuliformis.

Important findings Air temperature showed a significant increasing trend from 1980 to 2020, and regional climate was becoming warmer and drier. The ring widths of P. tabuliformis at Kangle (KL), Tianshui (TS) and Lingshou (LS) were higher than those at Xunyi (XY) and Chunhua (CH). Compared with CH and XY, the total ring width and earlywood width at TS, KL and LS showed a smaller decreased trend. The chronology of earlywood of P. tabuliformis showed positive correlations with precipitation in last September and during the pre-growing season of current year. The latewood largely showed a positive correlation with air temperature throughout the whole year. The radical growth in P. tabuliformis was positively correlated with averaged air temperature and maximum air temperature from March to April, especially in LS, KL and TS. It is indicated that the radial growth of earlywood and latewood was significantly correlated with climate factors during the growing season. The responses of radial growth to climate variables between earlywood and latewood were different. The relative influence of air temperature on the width change of the latewood increased by 21.89%, 8.63%, 3.31% and 7.25% compared to the earlywood in LS, CH, TS and KL, respectively. The latewood was more sensitive to air temperature than earlywood. Therefore, considering the difference in response to climate change between early and late wood chronology is helpful for improving the quality of regional climate reconstruction in the future.

Key words: Pinus tabuliformis, earlywood, latewood, climate change, relative influence