Later growth onsets or reduced growth rates: What characterises legacy effects at the tree-ring level in conifers after the severe 2018 drought?

Severe drought events negatively affect tree growth and often cause legacy effects, expressed by smaller tree rings in the post-drought recovery years. While the pattern of reduced tree-ring widths is frequently described the processes underlying such legacy effects, i.e., whether it is due to shorter growth periods or lower growth rates, remains unclear and is investigated in this study. To elucidate these post-drought effects, we examined radial stem growth dynamics monitored with precision band-dendrometers on 144 Douglas fir, Norway spruce and silver fir sample trees distributed along four elevational gradients in the Black Forest (Southwest Germany) during the post-drought years 2019 and 2020. Growth onset of all investigated species occurred between 11 and 24 days significantly earlier in 2020 compared to 2019. Modelling growth onset based on chilling and forcing units and taking the study year into account explained 88-98 % of the variance in the growth onset data. The highly significant effect of the study year (p < 0.001) led to the conclusion, that other factors than the prevailing site conditions (chilling and forcing units) must have triggered the earlier growth onset in 2020. On the other hand, for Douglas fir growth rates were significantly higher in 2020 compared to 2019 (2.9 µm d-1) and marginally significantly higher for silver fir (1.3 µm d-1), underlining the explanatory power of growth rate on recovery processes in general and suggesting that Douglas fir copes better with droughts, as it recovered faster. Growth dynamics at the beginning of the year showed limited growth for earlier growth onsets, which, however, could not explain the difference between the investigated years. Our results provide evidence that legacy effects of drought events are expressed by a delayed growth onset and a reduced growth rate in the post-drought year and that Douglas fir has a superior recovery potential.

A heat wave during leaf expansion severely reduces productivity and modifies seasonal growth patterns in a northern hardwood forest.

A useful approach to monitor tree response to climate change and environmental extremes is the recording of long-term time series of stem radial variations obtained with precision dendrometers. Here, we study the impact of environmental stress on seasonal growth dynamics and productivity of yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in the Great Lakes, St Lawrence forest region of Ontario. Specifically, we research the effects of a spring heat wave in 2010, and a summer drought in 2012 that occurred during the 2005­14 study period. We evaluated both growth phenology (onset, cessation, duration of radial growth, time of maximum daily growth rate) and productivity (monthly and seasonal average growth rates, maximum daily growth rate, tree-ring width) and tested for differences and interactions among species and years. Productivity of sugar maple was drastically compromised by a 3-day spring heat wave in 2010 as indicated by low growth rates, very early growth cessation and a lagged growth onset in the following year. Sugar maple also responded more sensitively than yellow birch to a prolonged drought period in July 2012, but final tree-ring width was not significantly reduced due to positive responses to above-average temperatures in the preceding spring. We conclude that sugar maple, a species that currently dominates northern hardwood forests, is vulnerable to heat wave disturbances during leaf expansion, which might occur more frequently under anticipated climate change.

Vessel plasticity of European beech in response to thinning and aspect.

The importance of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) for the Central European forest and wood sector demands profound research to examine the adaptive capacity of beech forests to changing environmental conditions. Quantitative wood anatomy is a valuable tool for studying the relation between structural and functional traits of trees, but due to the laborious methodology not many studies have thus far been performed on the conductive tissue of broadleaf tree species with diffuse-porous wood structure. The aim of our research was to test the effects of aspect and thinning on vessel anatomical features of European beech (vessel density, vessel size, total vessel area, vessel groups and hydraulic conductivity). Our analysis of increment cores of trees sampled from a long-term experimental research area on the Swabian Alb showed that (i) the variations in different vessel traits were mainly controlled by tree-ring width. Additionally, we could observe that (ii) thinning contributed to a safer water transport by decreasing vessel size and that (iii) the aspect modified these responses. Our results provide new insights into the plastic response of European beech wood anatomy to warmer climatic conditions and demonstrated that thinning of the forest stands modified the water-conducting system to become more resistant against hydraulic failure.