Abstract
AbstractForest research has addressed the importance of an improved understanding of drought–stocks interactions in the dry edge of tree species range. Nonetheless, more efforts are still critically needed to link up the multiple ways by which climatic stressors can trigger tree mortality, including population‐level determinants and management. Here, we analyze the interactive effects of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a surrogate of climatic variability in southwestern Europe, and forest stocks on tree mortality in dry‐edge populations of the most widespread Eurasian tree species, Pinus sylvestris L., in the forest of Valsaín (central Spain). Specifically, we use tree mortality data gathered since 1941 in six multiannual periods. Results suggest that the main mortality risks in these forests can occur either in positive or negative NAO phases, but that their relative impacts are critically mediated by forest structure. In NAO+ periods, commonly associated with warm–dry conditions in the Iberian Peninsula, a peak of mortality was found in closed forest sections, whereas the second peak, found in open forest sections, was related to NAO‐ periods, correlated with temperate‐rainy weather conditions. This finding reinforces the key role of management—through its control on forest structure—as a driver of forest vulnerability to climate. Accounting for the multiple ways in which stocks modulate tree responses to different risks emerges as a critical element when it comes to the design of efficient adaptation measures in managed dry‐edge forests.
Highlights
Forest structure and its associated functions and services may experience dramatic changes due to drought-induced tree mortality in waterlimited environments (Allen et al 2010)
Results support a prominent role of climate–stock interaction in driving tree mortality in this mountain pinewood
While the relationship between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index and tree mortality is positive in logging units with high WV, the relationship turns negative when WV is low
Summary
Forest structure and its associated functions and services may experience dramatic changes due to drought-induced tree mortality in waterlimited environments (Allen et al 2010). The interplay between different climatic stressors and tree stocks has received less attention, mostly due to the difficulties to obtain suitable information on past population-level determinants and the scarcity of long-term mortality records in forests. A number of tree-ring studies have evidenced this pattern after specific extreme drought pulses in temperate latitudes (e.g., Dobbertin and Rigling 2006). These studies usually did not account for neighborhood competition. It is critical to analyze alternative information such as historical management archives to unveil how climate–forest stock interactions drive stand dynamics in dryedge forests (Canadell and Raupach 2008)
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