Abstract
Tree growth in mountain ecosystems is affected by complex environments, and its relationship with climatic and environmental factors varying with elevation. In order to examine the spatial variation and temporal stability of the growth/climate relationship of Betula platyphylla (BP), the dendrochronological method was used to analyze the radial growth/climate relationship between 1946 and 2016 of the BP trees along an altitudinal gradient in the Changbai Mountain of northeast China. Our results showed that the mean sensitivity of BP was higher than that of other species studied in Changbai Mountain. The growth/climate relationship of BP trees varies with altitude, and this conclusion has reached a consensus from the study of tree growth response to climate change. More specifically, at low altitudes (550–995 m a.s.l.), the radial growth of BP is mainly affected by spring precipitation and temperature in May and October of the current year. However, at high-altitude areas (1210–1425 m a.s.l.), it is mainly affected by the temperature in September of the previous year and May of the current year. Furthermore, the growth/climate relationship of BP trees showed temporal instability. After 1970, the rise in temperature inhibited the growth of BP at low altitudes and promoted the growth of BP trees at high altitudes. In the context of continued warming in the future, the white birch stands in Changbai Mountain will move to higher altitudes.
Highlights
Our results indicated that the temperature in September of the previous year was a key factor affecting the radial growth of Betula platyphylla (BP) in high-altitude areas (E1210–E1425) (Figure 6a)
Temperature is a key factor affecting the growth of BP trees in Changbai Mountain
The growth of BP trees at all sampling points was significantly positively correlated with the temperature in May, in the period 1946–2016, the growth of birch trees distributed at high altitudes and low altitudes had different response patterns to climate change
Summary
The rising global temperature has a major influence on high-altitude mountain ecosystems of the continental interior of the mid-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere [1], causing significant changes in species phenology, biomass, diversity, distribution, and ecosystem processes in this region [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Changbai Mountain (CBM) is the core area of forests in northeast China, and the growth of trees within it is very sensitive to climate change [32,33,34,35,44]. It has never been widely affected by human activities It covers a large area of pure white birch (BP) forests, and the BP forests are distributed at an altitude of 550–1425 m a.s.l. CBM is an ideal experimental platform from where to study the climate/growth relationships for BP. This study is the first time the relationships between climatic factors and growth of white birch trees in the forests of northeast China are explored. This study can provide data to support policy-making for forest protection and management and as well as for forest succession models
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