Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2011, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (5): 500-511.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.00500

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Different responses of radial growth to climate warming in Pinus koraiensis and Picea jezoensis var. komarovii at their upper elevational limits in Changbai Mountain, China

LI Guang-Qi1,2, BAI Fan1, SANG Wei-Guo1,*()   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    2Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2010-11-18 Accepted:2011-01-31 Online:2011-11-18 Published:2011-06-07
  • Contact: SANG Wei-Guo

Abstract:

Aims Temperature is generally considered the limiting factor for tree growth at species’ upper elevational limits. Our objectives were to determine the upper elevational limit response of radial growth in Pinus koraiensis and Picea jezoensis var. komarovii to climate warming in Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve of China and to elucidate temperature sensitivity of radial growth.

Methods We selected typical trees at each species’ upper limit for increment coring and established ring-width chronologies for both species. We compared the general trend of the chronologies with temperatures during 1958-2006. To determine species’ response to rising temperature, we analyzed the relationship between chronology and important meteorological factors (temperature, precipitation, growing season length, effective accumulative temperature, etc.) using correlation, response function, moving correlation and pointing year analyses.

Important findings As temperature rose, ring widths in Pinus koraiensis exhibited the same increasing trend as temperature, while ring widths in Picea jezoensis var. komarovii exhibited decreasing sensitivity to temperature. The increase of temperature and precipitation in the growing season mutually enhance Pinus koraiensis growth. Prolongation of the growing season and rising temperature during the growing season also can accelerate the growth of Pinus koraiensis. For Picea jezoensis var. komarovii, water stress caused by increasing temperature is the main reason for its relationship between ring width and temperature. Correlations between Picea jezoensis var. komarovii ring width and almost all temperature indices are significantly negative. As temperature rose, correlations between ring width and precipitation, especially spring precipitation, changed from negative to positive. High temperature in each month and inadequate precipitation in the middle and late growing season are the important meteorology conditions for narrow rings. Also, the insignificant extension of the growing season may relate to reduced temperature sensitivity in tree ring growth.

Key words: climate change, Picea jezoensis var. komarovii, Pinus koraiensis, temperature sensitivity, tree ring