Abstract
Climate change affects forest ecosystems at a variety of scales, from the composition of landscapes to the growth of individual trees. Research across regions and tree species has produced contradictory findings on the effects of climate variables on radial growth. Here, we examine tree ring samples taken from four directions of a tree to determine whether there is directional variability in tree growth in relation to climate trends. The results showed directional differences in the temporal growth processes of Pinus koraiensis, with more commonalities between the west and north directions and between the east and south directions. The contemporaneous June maximum temperature was the main climate factor associated with the difference between the growth of tree rings toward the east or west. Annual tree ring growth toward the east was more affected by the year’s temperature while growth toward the south was more sensitive to the year’s precipitation. Our research demonstrates that diverse response of tree growth to climate may exist at intra-individual scale. This contributes to understanding the sensitivity of tree growth to climate change at differ scales.
Highlights
Forests are under great pressure with climate change [1], but little is known about how forests have responded to the continuous warming since the latter half of the last century [2]
We found that seven climatic factors were significantly correlated with at least one direction average chronology: previous August precipitation, current June precipitation, current August precipitation, current March average daily temperature, current March daily minimum temperature, current April daily minimum temperature, and current June maximum temperature
Discussion latedThe withradial the current maximum andwas significantly positively correlated growthJune of most trees intemperature, four directions significantly negatively correwith the current June precipitation (Figure 4). This is consistent with previous research lated with the current June maximum temperature, and significantly positively correlated results showing that both June maximum temperature and precipitation of the current year with the current June precipitation (Figure 4). This is consistent with previous research are the key factors affecting the radial growth of P. koraiensis at all latitudes, at scales of results showing that both June maximum temperature and precipitation of the current stands and individuals [37,38]
Summary
Forests are under great pressure with climate change [1], but little is known about how forests have responded to the continuous warming since the latter half of the last century [2]. Traditional dendrochronological research usually amplifies the climate signal in tree growth and filters out differences in tree growth caused by other factors such as age, diameter class, and competitive pressure [9]. This has made it difficult to understand how the variability in growth response to climate is affected by these other factors. The quantification of tree species vulnerability to stress factors such as climate change must recognize that individuals, not forests, respond to climate [10] With these issues in mind, recent studies have paid more attention to the effects of non-climate factors such as age, competition, size, or soil conditions on the response of individual tree growth to climate [11,12,13]. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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