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

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1258.2011.00500

Abstract

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

LI Guang-Qi, BAI Fan, SANG Wei-Guo. 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[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2011, 35(5): 500-511.

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Figures/Tables 9

Fig. 1 Variation of annual average temperature and total precipitation of Songjiang meteorological station in 1958- 2006. Dash is piecewise fitted linear regression line of the meteorological data.

Fig. 2 Tree ring-width chronologies and number of the core sampled of Pinus koraiensis and Picea jezoensis var. komarovii in the upper-limit region. Black solid line is the chronology, and the dash is the number of the core sampled.

Table 1 Statistical characters of Pinus koraiensis and Picea jezoensis var. komarovii chronologies in the upper-limit region

	红松 Pinus koraiensis	鱼鳞云杉 Picea jezoensis var. komarovii
海拔 Elevation	1 300 m	1 800 m
样本量 Total number of series	39	36
年表区间 Full chronology interval	1805-2006	1757-2006
子样本信号强度大于0.85的年表区间 Chronology interval (SSS > 0.85)	1852-2006 (14)	1807-2006 (13)
平均敏感度 Mean sensitivity	0.11	0.13
均方差 Standard deviation	0.173	0.281
树与树间平均相关系数 Mean correlations among all radii	0.296	0.309
一阶自相关系数 First order autocorrelation	0.687	0.816
信噪比 Signal-to-noise ratio	12.639	11.192
样本量总体代表性 Express population signal	0.927	0.918
第一主成分所占方差量 Variance in first eigenvector	0.343 3	0.367 8

Fig. 3 Consistency analysis between ring-width chronologies and annual average temperature of two species in upper-limit area in 1958-2006. Black solid line stands for the ring-width chronology, and the gray solid line for the annual average temperature. Dash line is the trend line of each chronology with the method of cubic power function.

Table 2 Correlation between tree-ring-width chronology and meteorology factors of two species in upper-limit area in 1958-2006

	气温 Air temperature					降水量 Precipitation
	年 Year	秋季 Autumn	冬季 Winter	春季 Spring	夏季Summer	年总量 Total of the year	秋季 Autumn	冬季 Winter	春季 Spring	夏季 Summer
红松 Pinus koraiensis	0.05	-0.11	0.01	0.09	0.14	0.23	0.05	-0.08	-0.04	0.31*
鱼鳞云杉 Picea jezoensis var. komarovii	-0.42**	-0.22	-0.39**	-0.33*	-0.34*	-0.02	0.03	-0.07	-0.19	0.12

Fig. 4 Response function analysis between ring-width chronology and monthly meteorological data. *, correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). p stands for the previous year. For instance, p8 means previous August.

Fig. 5 Moving correlation between ring-width chronology and meteorological data of two species in upper-limit area. Solid line presents the changing of temperature correlation, and the dash line is for that of precipitation. Moving window is 20 years, and the X-coordinate is the beginning year of moving window.

Fig. 6 Pointer year analysis for the pointer years’ climate information. The object of pointer year is the average of standardized anomalies of the pointer years. N stands for the years of the narrowest 12 rings, and W is the years of the widest 12 rings. In the x-coordinate, number is the month, and year is the annual average temperature or the annual precipitation. The y-coordinate is the average of standardized anomalies. Err bar is the standard error for the pointer years’ anomalies. p stands for the prerious year.

Fig. 7 Variation of effective accumulated temperature and growing season length in the upper-limit of two tree species in 1958-2006. Solid dot and line is the accumulated temperature, and hollow dot and line is the growing season length. Black dash is the linear fit for the accumulated temperature, and the gray one is the fit for growing season.

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