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Forests
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Tree Growth in Limiting Environments
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Tree Growth in Limiting Environments

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecophysiology and Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 6689

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Eustaquio Gil-Pelegrín

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Sistemas Agrícolas, Forestales y Medio Ambiente, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), Avda. Montañana 930, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: drought; tree functioning; ecophsyiology; environmental stresses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jesús Julio Camarero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: treeline ecotone; dendrochronology; wood anatomy; biodiversity & conservation; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tree growth can be used as a proxy of tree performance under particular conditions and as an overall response to the supply of the main resources (light, water, and nutrients) and to the regulatory effect of different environmental variables. In this sense, the dating and studying annual tree rings through dendrochronology has been successfully used for climatic reconstructions, allowing for the detection of impacts of climatic extremes, such as droughts or frosts. However, changes in the tree ring width can be the consequence of other limitations imposed by life conditions. The effects of severe defoliations during the vegetative period, the excessive competition in dense stands, or the drastic reduction in this after thinning or in response to natural disturbances can be detected as a change in the tree-ring series.

Therefore, the study of secondary or radial tree growth, from the simple recording of the > ring width sequence, as well as deeper anatomical studies of intra-annual variables (density, xylem conduits diameter, vessel distributions, changes in stem perimeter or radius, etc.), can contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between overall tree performance and limitations imposed by the environment.

We invite colleagues willing to contribute their research on tree growth responses to limiting environmental conditions, including drought or cold stress, and other climatic extreme events, as well as other environmental influences negatively affecting growth capability, to consider submitting an article for publication. Observational and empirical studies on changes in tree growth at intra- and inter-annual scales where emphasis is placed on radial growth variability as the response variable are also welcome.

Dr. Eustaquio Gil-Pelegrín
Dr. Jesús Julio Camarero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • secondary growth
  • xylem vessels
  • tracheids
  • hydraulic conductivity
  • drought
  • frost

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 6092 KiB  
Article
Why Intra-Annual Density Fluctuations Should Be Formed at Night? Implications for Climate–Growth Relationships in Seasonally Dry Conifer Forests
by Jesús Julio Camarero
Forests 2022, 13(9), 1425; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13091425 - 5 Sep 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1536
Abstract
Trees grow at night, when the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is low enough. Therefore, intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) should be formed when the VPD drops below a certain threshold. This idea is tested by assessing climate-latewood IADF relationships in six conifer species under [...] Read more.
Trees grow at night, when the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is low enough. Therefore, intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) should be formed when the VPD drops below a certain threshold. This idea is tested by assessing climate-latewood IADF relationships in six conifer species under Mediterranean climate conditions. Hourly climate and dendrometer data were analyzed for years with elevated IADF production in two species (Pinus halepensis, Juniperus thurifera). Lastly, climate–growth relationships were evaluated in two drought-prone sites to assess the relative role of minimum vs. maximum temperatures as growth drivers. Latewood IADF production was positively related to growth rate. IADFs were more abundant when monthly or 10-day long precipitation was high in the late growing season (August and September). According to dendrometer data, growth mainly occurred in early night (20–2 h) and early morning (6–8 h). This growth window corresponded to rainy periods with VPD below a minimum threshold associated with summer storms. Latewood IADFs are produced in response to these wet late-summer conditions, which could be related to bimodal growth. These associations are in line with correlations showing that high minimum (night) rather than maximum (day) temperatures reduce growth. This last idea should be further checked in drought-prone forests using global tree-ring databases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth in Limiting Environments)
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14 pages, 2198 KiB  
Article
The Imprint of Droughts on Mediterranean Pine Forests
by Maria Royo-Navascues, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Ernesto Tejedor, Roberto Serrano-Notivoli, Luis Alberto Longares, Miguel Angel Saz, Klemen Novak and Martin de Luis
Forests 2022, 13(9), 1396; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13091396 - 31 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2391
Abstract
Triggered by frequent high temperatures and scarce precipitation, droughts are a recurrent phenomenon in the Mediterranean Basin, causing significant impacts on forests. We analyzed the effects of drought intensity, duration, and seasonality on tree growth by investigating the relationship between the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration [...] Read more.
Triggered by frequent high temperatures and scarce precipitation, droughts are a recurrent phenomenon in the Mediterranean Basin, causing significant impacts on forests. We analyzed the effects of drought intensity, duration, and seasonality on tree growth by investigating the relationship between the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) at different time scales and tree-ring width (TRW) in three pine species (Pinus halepensis Mill., P. sylvestris L, and P. uncinata Ramond ex A.DC) throughout a dense dendrochronological network in the Mediterranean Basin. We used generalized linear mixed models to predict such values over the entire distribution of the analyzed species. Furthermore, in areas where the species coexist, we analyzed the same parameters to highlight differences in their responses to similar climatic conditions. Our results showed that the maximum intensity of drought-affected conifers occurred more in the southern areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, especially P. halepensis, with maximum values of r = 0.67, while in the rest of the study area, the intensity decreased with elevation; we obtained maximum values of r = 0.40 and r = 0.33 for P. sylvestris and P. uncinata, respectively. This spatial distribution was also related to the duration of the drought impacts, showing that areas with lower intensity had shorter durations (2–4 months). We observed a latitudinal pattern in the seasonality of the drought impacts, with earlier growing seasons at high elevations (June–August) and later ones in the semi-arid Mediterranean. Similar intensity impacts were found in P. halepensis and P. sylvestris coexistence zones, although P. halepensis had a much longer duration and an earlier beginning of seasonality. Higher intensity, duration, and seasonality of drought effects were observed for P. sylvestris in areas where P. sylvestris and P. uncinata are distributed sympatrically. Understanding the plasticity and climatic response of these common southern European species to different types of droughts is crucial in the context of climate change where droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth in Limiting Environments)
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Other

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9 pages, 2775 KiB  
Brief Report
Reduced Rainfall Variability Reduces Growth of Nothofagus alessandrii Espinosa (Nothofagaceae) in the Maule Region, Chile
by Rómulo Santelices-Moya, Stephanie Gibson-Carpintero, Antonio Cabrera-Ariza, Luiz Santini-Junior and Alejandro Venegas-González
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1184; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081184 - 26 Jul 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2018
Abstract
Nothofagus alessandrii Espinosa is an endemic species of the coastal Maulino forest of central Chile that has historically been severely threatened by the reduction of its habitat and the isolation of its fragments. In addition, a gradual reduction in precipitation has been [...] Read more.
Nothofagus alessandrii Espinosa is an endemic species of the coastal Maulino forest of central Chile that has historically been severely threatened by the reduction of its habitat and the isolation of its fragments. In addition, a gradual reduction in precipitation has been observed in recent years across its entire natural distribution area. Although the genus Nothofagus has been extensively analyzed in dendrochronological studies in the Southern Hemisphere, the dendrochronological potential of this species is unknown. In this study, we developed a novel tree-ring chronology of N. alessandrii in order to examine the climate sensitivity of the radial growth and to thus understand its response to climate change in central Chile. Our ring-width chronology showed a series intercorrelation value of 0.48 for the period of 1942–2016 (EPS < 0.85, with 10 trees), showing a strong common growth signal among the trees. N. alessandrii growth was strongly influenced by precipitation from May to November (the austral winter and spring seasons), while the temperature signal was weak. We observed that the radial growth patterns of N. alessandrii chronology showed upward growth trends, with a marked positive slope until the mid-1980s. However, a negative trend was observed for the period of 1985–2016, which was related to the increased drought conditions (rainfall and soil moisture reductions) in past decades and affected the entire natural distribution of the species. We suggest that drier winters and springs would slow the growth of this species. This information is of vital importance to understanding the growth dynamics of N. alessandrii, a critically endangered species, and to take on urgent adaptation and mitigation measures in the face of climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth in Limiting Environments)
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