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Forests
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Climatic Impact on Functional Wood Anatomy, Seasonal Wood Formation and...
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Climatic Impact on Functional Wood Anatomy, Seasonal Wood Formation and Tree Growth

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 12850

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Achim Bräuning

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Geography, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91052 Erlangen, Germany
Interests: dendroclimatology; dendroecology; wood formation; xylogenesis; tropical dendrochronology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tree adaptation to changing environments includes morphological, anatomical, and physiological aspects of plant response to external forcing factors. While climatic effects on radial tree growth have been widely studied in different environments, research on how climatic extremes are manifested on the structural level imprinted in wood anatomical characteristics is a rapidly developing field. For example, combinations of dendrometer studies, wood anatomical analyses, and modelling approaches enable forecasting of growth responses on future climatic conditions. However, it is often unclear how the adaptation of wood functional traits to changing climate affects tree growth and wood production. While most of these responses are studied on the individual tree level, upscaling to the species level or to forest ecosystems still remains challenging.
This Special Issue of Forests invites contributions describing advances in methodological aspects on quantitative wood anatomy, wood formation dynamics, and scaling problems to larger spatial scales. A special focus lies on approaches linking functional wood anatomy with tree growth and forest responses to climatic change, including aspects of adaptation to expected future climate conditions and tree mortality. Furthermore, case studies from environments which are still hardly studied, e.g., tropical climate zones or high mountain regions are of great interest.

Prof. Dr. Achim Bräuning
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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

  • wood anatomical anomalies
  • growth dynamics
  • radial tree growth
  • climatic extreme events
  • drought impact
  • cambial dynamics
  • wood anatomical plasticity
  • wood functional traits

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2979 KiB  
Article
Variation in Stem Xylem Traits is Related to Differentiation of Upper Limits of Tree Species along an Elevational Gradient
by Da Yang, Ai-Ying Wang, Jiao-Lin Zhang, Corey J. A. Bradshaw and Guang-You Hao
Forests 2020, 11(3), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11030349 - 20 Mar 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3975
Abstract
The distribution limits of many plants are dictated by environmental conditions and species’ functional traits. While many studies have evaluated how plant distribution is driven by environmental conditions, there are not many studies investigating xylem vessel properties with altitude, and whether these traits [...] Read more.
The distribution limits of many plants are dictated by environmental conditions and species’ functional traits. While many studies have evaluated how plant distribution is driven by environmental conditions, there are not many studies investigating xylem vessel properties with altitude, and whether these traits correlate with altitudinal distribution of tree. Here, we investigated the upper limits of distribution for ten deciduous broadleaf tree species from three temperate montane forest communities along a large elevational gradient on the north-facing slope of Changbai Mountain in Northeast China. We measured stem xylem traits associated with a species’ ability to transport water and resist freezing-induced cavitation that theoretically represent important adaptations to changes in climatic conditions along the elevational gradient. Hydraulically weighted vessel diameter (Dh) was negatively correlated with with the upper limit across the ten studied tree species; however, the correlation seems to be driven by the large differences between ring- and diffuse-porous tree species groups. The ring-porous tree species (e.g., Fraxinus mandshurica Rupr., Maackia amurensis Rupr. et Maxim., and Phellodendron amurense Rupr.) had considerably wider vessels than the diffuse-porous species and were all limited to low-elevation communities. The coefficient of variation (CV) for Dh was 0.53 among the 10 studied species, while the intraspecific analysis showed that the highest CV was only 0.22 among the 10 species. We found no evidence of a relationship between Dh and the upper limits across the seven diffuse-porous species. In contrast to elevation, hydraulic-related xylem traits had no clear patterns of change with precipitation, indicating that hydraulic functionality was largely decoupled from the influences of precipitation in the study area. This finding suggests that xylem traits are associated with altitudinal limits of species distribution, which is mostly evidenced by the contrasts between ring- and diffuse-porous species in xylem anatomy and their altitudinal distributions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Impact on Functional Wood Anatomy, Seasonal Wood Formation and Tree Growth)
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13 pages, 2739 KiB  
Article
Intra-Annual Radial Growth of Pinus kesiya var. langbianensis Is Mainly Controlled by Moisture Availability in the Ailao Mountains, Southwestern China
by Ze-Xin Fan, Achim Bräuning, Pei-Li Fu, Rao-Qiong Yang, Jin-Hua Qi, Jussi Grießinger and Aster Gebrekirstos
Forests 2019, 10(10), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10100899 - 11 Oct 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 4705
Abstract
Intra-annual monitoring of tree growth dynamics is increasingly applied to disentangle growth-change relationships with local climate conditions. However, such studies are still very limited in subtropical regions which show a wide variety of climate regimes. We monitored stem radius variations (SRV) of Pinus [...] Read more.
Intra-annual monitoring of tree growth dynamics is increasingly applied to disentangle growth-change relationships with local climate conditions. However, such studies are still very limited in subtropical regions which show a wide variety of climate regimes. We monitored stem radius variations (SRV) of Pinus kesiya var. langbianensis (Szemao pine) over five years (2012–2015 and 2017) in the subtropical monsoon mountain climate of the Ailao Mountains, Yunnan Province, southwest China. On average, the stem radial growth of Szemao pine started in early March and ended in early October, and the highest growth rates occurred during May to June. Stem radius increments were synchronous with precipitation events, while tree water deficit corresponded to the drought periods. Correlation analysis and linear mixed-effects models revealed that precipitation and relative humidity are the most important limiting factors of stem radial increments, whereas air temperature and vapor pressure deficit significantly affected tree water balance and may play an important role in determining the growing season length and seasonality (i.e., duration, start, and cessation). This study reveals that moisture availability plays a major role for tree growth of P. kesiya var langbianensis in the Ailao Mountains, southwest China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Impact on Functional Wood Anatomy, Seasonal Wood Formation and Tree Growth)
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15 pages, 4085 KiB  
Article
Comparing Primary and Secondary Growth of Co-Occurring Deciduous and Evergreen Conifers in an Alpine Habitat
by Yiping Zhang, Yuan Jiang, Yan Wen, Xinyuan Ding, Biao Wang and Junliang Xu
Forests 2019, 10(7), 574; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10070574 - 10 Jul 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3599
Abstract
Investigations on primary and secondary growth in co-occurring species will aid in assessment of the physiological adaptation of species and the prediction of forest stand structure dynamics. To explore the correlation and coordination between primary and secondary growth, we monitored the leaf phenology, [...] Read more.
Investigations on primary and secondary growth in co-occurring species will aid in assessment of the physiological adaptation of species and the prediction of forest stand structure dynamics. To explore the correlation and coordination between primary and secondary growth, we monitored the leaf phenology, shoot elongation, and stem growth of co-occurring Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. and Picea meyeri Rehd. et Wils. in an alpine habitat, Luya Mountain (North-Central China), during the growing season of 2014. We measured bud development on terminal branches three days per week by direct observations and intra-annual stem xylem formation at weekly intervals by the microcores method. The onset sequence of three organs was the needle, shoot, and stem, without species-specific differences. Needles appeared one month earlier than stem growth in larch, while it was only one week earlier in spruce. The duration of needle growth was the shortest, followed by the shoot and stem. The timing of primary growth (i.e., onset, end, and maximum growth rate) between the two species was asynchronous, but secondary growth was synchronic with the same date of the maximum growth rate occurrence, potentially indicating species competition for resources. Unlike larch, spruce staggered growth peaks among different organs, which may effectively mitigate trees’ internal competition for resources. Soil temperature was positively correlated with both shoot and stem growth in the two species, whereas air temperature and soil water content were positively correlated with needle growth only in larch. Therefore, it can be inferred that the spruce will probably outcompete the larch at cold alpine treeline sites due to its high adaptability to acquiring and allocating resources. These results provide insight into the potential physiological correlation between primary and secondary growth and allow better prediction of future climate change effects on forest ecosystem productivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climatic Impact on Functional Wood Anatomy, Seasonal Wood Formation and Tree Growth)
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