Paired analysis of tree ring width and carbon isotopes indicates when controls on tropical tree growth change from light to water limitations.

Light and water availability are likely to vary over the lifespan of closed-canopy forest trees, with understory trees experiencing greater limitations to growth by light and canopy trees greater limitation due to drought. As drought and shade have opposing effects on isotope discrimination (Δ13C), paired measurement of ring width and Δ13C can potentially be used to differentiate between water and light limitations on tree growth. We tested this approach for Cedrela trees from three tropical forests in Bolivia and Mexico that differ in rainfall and canopy structure. Using lifetime ring width and Δ13C data for trees of up to and over 200 years old, we assessed how controls on tree growth changed from understory to the canopy. Growth and Δ13C are mostly anti-correlated in the understory, but this anti-correlation disappeared or weakened when trees reached the canopy, especially at the wettest site. This indicates that understory growth variation is controlled by photosynthetic carbon assimilation due to variation in light levels. Once trees reached the canopy, inter-annual variation in growth and Δ13C at one of the dry sites showed positive correlations, indicating that inter-annual variation in growth is driven by variation in water stress affecting stomatal conductance. Paired analysis of ring widths and carbon isotopes provides significant insight in what environmental factors control growth over a tree's life; strong light limitations for understory trees in closed-canopy moist forests switched to drought stress for (sub)canopy trees in dry forests. We show that combined isotope and ring width measurements can significantly improve our insights in tree functioning and be used to disentangle limitations due to shade from those due to drought.

Inter- and intra-tree variability of carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios of modern pollen from nine European tree species.

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of raw pollen sampled from nine abundant tree species growing in natural habitats of central and northern Europe were investigated to understand the intra- and inter-specific variability of pollen-isotope values. All species yielded specific δ13Cpollen and δ18Opollen values and patterns, which can be ascribed to their physiology and habitat preferences. Broad-leaved trees flowering early in the year before leaf proliferation (Alnus glutinosa and Corylus avellana) exhibited on average 2.6‰ lower δ13Cpollen and 3.1‰ lower δ18Opollen values than broad-leaved and coniferous trees flowering during mid and late spring (Acer pseudoplatanus, Betula pendula, Carpinus betulus, Fagus sylvatica, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris and Quercus robur). Mean species-specific δ13Cpollen values did not change markedly over time, whereas δ18Opollen values of two consecutive years were often statistically distinct. An intra-annual analysis of B. pendula and P. sylvestris pollen revealed increasing δ18Opollen values during the final weeks of pollen development. However, the δ13Cpollen values remained consistent throughout the pollen-maturation process. Detailed intra-individual analysis yielded circumferential and height-dependent variations within carbon and oxygen pollen-isotopes and the sampling position on a tree accounted for differences of up to 3.5‰ for δ13Cpollen and 2.1‰ for δ18Opollen. A comparison of isotope ranges from different geographic settings revealed gradients between maritime and continental as well as between high and low altitudinal study sites. The results of stepwise regression analysis demonstrated, that carbon and oxygen pollen-isotopes also reflect local non-climate environmental conditions. A detailed understanding of isotope patterns and ranges in modern pollen is necessary to enhance the accuracy of palaeoclimate investigations on δ13C and δ18O of fossil pollen. Furthermore, pollen-isotope values are species-specific and the analysis of species growing during different phenophases may be valuable for palaeoweather reconstructions of different seasons.

Subfossil trees suggest enhanced Mediterranean hydroclimate variability at the onset of the Younger Dryas.

Nearly 13,000 years ago, the warming trend into the Holocene was sharply interrupted by a reversal to near glacial conditions. Climatic causes and ecological consequences of the Younger Dryas (YD) have been extensively studied, however proxy archives from the Mediterranean basin capturing this period are scarce and do not provide annual resolution. Here, we report a hydroclimatic reconstruction from stable isotopes (δ18O, δ13C) in subfossil pines from southern France. Growing before and during the transition period into the YD (12 900-12 600 cal BP), the trees provide an annually resolved, continuous sequence of atmospheric change. Isotopic signature of tree sourcewater (δ18Osw) and estimates of relative air humidity were reconstructed as a proxy for variations in air mass origin and precipitation regime. We find a distinct increase in inter-annual variability of sourcewater isotopes (δ18Osw), with three major downturn phases of increasing magnitude beginning at 12 740 cal BP. The observed variation most likely results from an amplified intensity of North Atlantic (low δ18Osw) versus Mediterranean (high δ18Osw) precipitation. This marked pattern of climate variability is not seen in records from higher latitudes and is likely a consequence of atmospheric circulation oscillations at the margin of the southward moving polar front.

Global Peak in Atmospheric Radiocarbon Provides a Potential Definition for the Onset of the Anthropocene Epoch in 1965.

Anthropogenic activity is now recognised as having profoundly and permanently altered the Earth system, suggesting we have entered a human-dominated geological epoch, the 'Anthropocene'. To formally define the onset of the Anthropocene, a synchronous global signature within geological-forming materials is required. Here we report a series of precisely-dated tree-ring records from Campbell Island (Southern Ocean) that capture peak atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) resulting from Northern Hemisphere-dominated thermonuclear bomb tests during the 1950s and 1960s. The only alien tree on the island, a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), allows us to seasonally-resolve Southern Hemisphere atmospheric 14C, demonstrating the 'bomb peak' in this remote and pristine location occurred in the last-quarter of 1965 (October-December), coincident with the broader changes associated with the post-World War II 'Great Acceleration' in industrial capacity and consumption. Our findings provide a precisely-resolved potential Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) or 'golden spike', marking the onset of the Anthropocene Epoch.

Increased water-use efficiency translates into contrasting growth patterns of Scots pine and sessile oak at their southern distribution limits.

In forests, the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Ca ) has been related to enhanced tree growth and intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE). However, in drought-prone areas such as the Mediterranean Basin, it is not yet clear to what extent this "fertilizing" effect may compensate for drought-induced growth reduction. We investigated tree growth and physiological responses at five Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and five sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) sites located at their southernmost distribution limits in Europe for the period 1960-2012 using annually resolved tree-ring width and δ13 C data to track ecophysiological processes. Results indicated that all 10 natural stands significantly increased their leaf intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci ), and consequently iWUE. Different trends in the theoretical gas-exchange scenarios as a response to increasing Ca were found: generally, Ci tended to increase proportionally to Ca , except for trees at the driest sites in which Ci remained constant. Ci from the oak sites displaying higher water availability tended to increase at a comparable rate to Ca . Multiple linear models fitted at site level to predict basal area increment (BAI) using iWUE and climatic variables better explained tree growth in pines (31.9%-71.4%) than in oak stands (15.8%-46.8%). iWUE was negatively linked to pine growth, whereas its effect on growth of oak differed across sites. Tree growth in the western and central oak stands was negatively related to iWUE, whereas BAI from the easternmost stand was positively associated with iWUE. Thus, some Q. petraea stands might have partially benefited from the "fertilizing" effect of rising Ca , whereas P. sylvestris stands due to their strict closure of stomata did not profit from increased iWUE and consequently showed in general growth reductions across sites. Additionally, the inter-annual variability of BAI and iWUE displayed a geographical polarity in the Mediterranean.

Xylem adjustment of sessile oak at its southern distribution limits.

Drought is a key limiting factor for tree growth in the Mediterranean Basin. However, the variability in acclimation via xylem traits is largely unknown. We studied tree growth and vessel features of Quercus petraea (Matt.) Lieb. in five marginal stands across southern Europe. Tree-ring width (TRW), mean earlywood vessel area (MVA) and number of earlywood vessels (NV) as well as theoretical hydraulic conductivity (Kh) chronologies were developed for the period 1963-2012. Summer drought signals were consistent among TRW chronologies; however, climatic responses of vessel features differed considerably among sites. At the three xeric sites, previous year's summer drought had a negative effect on MVA and a positive effect on NV. In contrast, at the two mesic sites, current year's spring drought negatively affected NV, while exerting a positive influence on MVA. In both cases, Kh was not altered by this xylem adjustment. All variables revealed identical east-west geographical patterns in growth and anatomical features. Sessile oak copes with drought in different ways: at xeric sites and after unfavourable previous summer conditions more but smaller vessels are built, lowering vulnerability to cavitation, whereas at mesic sites, dry springs partly lead to tree-rings with wider but fewer vessels. The variability of vessel-related features displays a similar geographical dipole in the Mediterranean Basin previously described for tree growth by other studies.

Meteorological Drivers of Extremes in Daily Stem Radius Variations of Beech, Oak, and Pine in Northeastern Germany: An Event Coincidence Analysis.

Observed recent and expected future increases in frequency and intensity of climatic extremes in central Europe may pose critical challenges for domestic tree species. Continuous dendrometer recordings provide a valuable source of information on tree stem radius variations, offering the possibility to study a tree's response to environmental influences at a high temporal resolution. In this study, we analyze stem radius variations (SRV) of three domestic tree species (beech, oak, and pine) from 2012 to 2014. We use the novel statistical approach of event coincidence analysis (ECA) to investigate the simultaneous occurrence of extreme daily weather conditions and extreme SRVs, where extremes are defined with respect to the common values at a given phase of the annual growth period. Besides defining extreme events based on individual meteorological variables, we additionally introduce conditional and joint ECA as new multivariate extensions of the original methodology and apply them for testing 105 different combinations of variables regarding their impact on SRV extremes. Our results reveal a strong susceptibility of all three species to the extremes of several meteorological variables. Yet, the inter-species differences regarding their response to the meteorological extremes are comparatively low. The obtained results provide a thorough extension of previous correlation-based studies by emphasizing on the timings of climatic extremes only. We suggest that the employed methodological approach should be further promoted in forest research regarding the investigation of tree responses to changing environmental conditions.

Punctuated Shutdown of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during Greenland Stadial 1.

The Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1; ~12.9 to 11.65 kyr cal BP) was a period of North Atlantic cooling, thought to have been initiated by North America fresh water runoff that caused a sustained reduction of North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), resulting in an antiphase temperature response between the hemispheres (the 'bipolar seesaw'). Here we exploit sub-fossil New Zealand kauri trees to report the first securely dated, decadally-resolved atmospheric radiocarbon ((14)C) record spanning GS-1. By precisely aligning Southern and Northern Hemisphere tree-ring (14)C records with marine (14)C sequences we document two relatively short periods of AMOC collapse during the stadial, at ~12,920-12,640 cal BP and 12,050-11,900 cal BP. In addition, our data show that the interhemispheric atmospheric (14)C offset was close to zero prior to GS-1, before reaching 'near-modern' values at ~12,660 cal BP, consistent with synchronous recovery of overturning in both hemispheres and increased Southern Ocean ventilation. Hence, sustained North Atlantic cooling across GS-1 was not driven by a prolonged AMOC reduction but probably due to an equatorward migration of the Polar Front, reducing the advection of southwesterly air masses to high latitudes. Our findings suggest opposing hemispheric temperature trends were driven by atmospheric teleconnections, rather than AMOC changes.

UV-laser-based microscopic dissection of tree rings - a novel sampling tool for δ(13) C and δ(18) O studies.

UV-laser-based microscopic systems were utilized to dissect and sample organic tissue for stable isotope measurements from thin wood cross-sections. We tested UV-laser-based microscopic tissue dissection in practice for high-resolution isotopic analyses (δ(13) C/δ(18) O) on thin cross-sections from different tree species. The method allows serial isolation of tissue of any shape and from millimetre down to micrometre scales. On-screen pre-defined areas of interest were automatically dissected and collected for mass spectrometric analysis. Three examples of high-resolution isotopic analyses revealed that: in comparison to δ(13) C of xylem cells, woody ray parenchyma of deciduous trees have the same year-to-year variability, but reveal offsets that are opposite in sign depending on whether wholewood or cellulose is considered; high-resolution tree-ring δ(18) O profiles of Indonesian teak reflect monsoonal rainfall patterns and are sensitive to rainfall extremes caused by ENSO; and seasonal moisture signals in intra-tree-ring δ(18) O of white pine are weighted by nonlinear intra-annual growth dynamics. The applications demonstrate that the use of UV-laser-based microscopic dissection allows for sampling plant tissue at ultrahigh resolution and unprecedented precision. This new technique facilitates sampling for stable isotope analysis of anatomical plant traits like combined tree eco-physiological, wood anatomical and dendroclimatological studies.

Climate signals derived from cell anatomy of Scots pine in NE Germany.

Tree-ring chronologies of Pinus sylvestris L. from latitudinal and altitudinal limits of the species distribution have been widely used for climate reconstructions, but there are many sites within the temperate climate zone, as is the case in northeastern Germany, at which there is little evidence of a clear climate signal in the chronologies. In this study, we developed long chronologies of several cell structure variables (e.g., average lumen area and cell wall thickness) from P. sylvestris growing in northeastern Germany and investigated the influence of climate on ring widths and cell structure variables. We found significant correlations between cell structure variables and temperature, and between tree-ring width and relative humidity and vapor pressure, respectively, enabling the development of robust reconstructions from temperate sites that have not yet been realized. Moreover, it has been shown that it may not be necessary to detrend chronologies of cell structure variables and thus low-frequency climate signals may be retrieved from longer cell structure chronologies. The relatively extensive resource of archaeological material of P. sylvestris covering approximately the last millennium may now be useful for climate reconstructions in northeastern Germany and other sites in the temperate climate zone.

Pooled versus separate measurements of tree-ring stable isotopes.

δ(13)C and δ(18)O of tree rings contain time integrated information about the environmental conditions weighted by seasonal growth dynamics and are well established as sources of palaeoclimatic and ecophysiological data. Annually resolved isotope chronologies are frequently produced by pooling dated growth rings from several trees prior to the isotopic analyses. This procedure has the advantage of saving time and resources, but precludes from defining the isotopic error or statistical uncertainty related to the inter-tree variability. Up to now only a few studies have compared isotope series from pooled tree rings with isotopic measurements from individual trees. We tested whether or not the δ(13)C and the δ(18)O chronologies derived from pooled and from individual tree rings display significant differences at two locations from the Iberian Peninsula to assess advantages and constraints of both methodologies. The comparisons along the period 1900-2003 reveal a good agreement between pooled chronologies and the two mean master series which were created by averaging raw individual values (Mean) or by generating a mass calibrated mean (MassC). In most of the cases, pooled chronologies show high synchronicity with averaged individual samples at interannual scale but some differences also show up especially when comparing δ(18)O decadal to multi-decadal variations. Moreover, differences in the first order autocorrelation among individuals may be obscured by pooling strategies. The lack of replication of pooled chronologies prevents detection of a bias due to a higher mass contribution of one sample but uncertainties associated with the analytical process itself, as sample inhomogeneity, seems to account for the observed differences.

Tracing carbon and oxygen isotope signals from newly assimilated sugars in the leaves to the tree-ring archive.

The analysis of delta(13)C and delta(18)O in tree-ring archives offers retrospective insights into environmental conditions and ecophysiological processes. While photosynthetic carbon isotope discrimination and evaporative oxygen isotope enrichment are well understood, we lack information on how the isotope signal is altered by downstream metabolic processes. In Pinus sylvestris, we traced the isotopic signals from their origin in the leaf water (delta(18)O) or the newly assimilated carbon (delta(13)C), via phloem sugars to the tree-ring, over a time-scale that ranges from hours to a growing season. Seasonally, variable (13)C enrichment of sugars related to phloem loading and transport did lead to uncoupling between delta(13)C in the tree-ring, and the c(i)/c(a) ratio at the leaf level. In contrast, the oxygen isotope signal was transferred from the leaf water to the tree-ring with an expected enrichment of 27 per thousand, with time-lags of approximately 2 weeks and with a 40% exchange between organic oxygen and xylem water oxygen during cellulose synthesis. This integrated overview of the fate of carbon and oxygen isotope signals within the model tree species P. sylvestris provides a novel physiological basis for the interpretation of delta(13)C and delta(18)O in tree-ring ecology.

Characteristics of radial growth and stable isotopes in a single oak tree to be used in climate studies.

In this study we have analyzed the variability of tree-ring widths and stable isotopes (delta(13)C and delta(18)O) of a single sessile oak tree (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) since these parameters are critical in reconstructing the environment, particularly climatic conditions. Tree rings were separated into early- and latewood (EW(t); LW(t)), tree ring (TR(t)), and transfer tree ring (TTR(t), the latter being the latewood plus the earlywood of the subsequent year. Mean sensitivity, simple correlation, partial correlation and autocorrelation analyses were applied to describe data and relationships. Although this research focused on a single tree, the results compared well with average site data. Widths and delta(18)O values showed generally low autocorrelation for all tree-ring components, whereas delta(13)C revealed highly significant autocorrelations for most tree-ring components. Mean sensitivity of the standardized values turned out to be high for delta(18)O, marginally lower for width and the lowest for delta(13)C. Correlation analyses have proven that the relationships within the tree-ring widths or within the isotope parameters are much stronger than across widths and isotope parameters. The study demonstrates the unique potential of all measured tree-ring data to be used as climate proxies.

The twentieth century was the wettest period in northern Pakistan over the past millennium.

Twentieth-century warming could lead to increases in the moisture-holding capacity of the atmosphere, altering the hydrological cycle and the characteristics of precipitation. Such changes in the global rate and distribution of precipitation may have a greater direct effect on human well-being and ecosystem dynamics than changes in temperature itself. Despite the co-variability of both of these climate variables, attention in long-term climate reconstruction has mainly concentrated on temperature changes. Here we present an annually resolved oxygen isotope record from tree-rings, providing a millennial-scale reconstruction of precipitation variability in the high mountains of northern Pakistan. The climatic signal originates mainly from winter precipitation, and is robust over ecologically different sites. Centennial-scale variations reveal dry conditions at the beginning of the past millennium and through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with precipitation increasing during the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries to yield the wettest conditions of the past 1,000 years. Comparison with other long-term precipitation reconstructions indicates a large-scale intensification of the hydrological cycle coincident with the onset of industrialization and global warming, and the unprecedented amplitude argues for a human role.