Abstract

Transitional climate zones (TCZ) are characterized by instability due to rapid changes in climate and biological variables, and trees growing there are particularly sensitive to climate change. Therefore, knowledge about the shifted relationships of tree growth in response to climate warming will shape regional forest conservation and management strategies. China has experienced rapid warming in recent decades. However, how tree growth in semihumid to semiarid regions, such as the Guandi Mountains, responds to more sophisticated changes in the hydrothermal combination is not yet clear. In this study, we used tree-ring width data from three sites along an elevational gradient in the Guandi Mountains to present the response of Picea wilsonii Mast. radial growth to increasing temperature and elevational differences in the relationship between tree growth and climate. The results indicated that the Guandi Mountains have experienced rapid warming with a clear trend toward aridity. From 1959 to 1995, the radial growth of P. wilsonii was mainly influenced by temperature, while it was controlled by both temperature and precipitation after rapid warming in 1996. From 1959 to 2017, this species showed a generally consistent growth–climate relationship at different elevations in the Guandi Mountains. However, the radial growth of trees at higher elevations had a higher climatic correlation than at lower elevations, and it was more conditioned by higher summer temperatures and precipitation in December of the previous year. These results suggested that P. wilsonii was more susceptible to drought and high temperatures due to a warming climate and that more attention should be devoted to forest management, especially the adverse consequences of summer drought on P. wilsonii.

Highlights

  • The global climate has shifted towards warmer and drier regimes during the past 100 years [1,2], and the trend in northern China has been stronger than that of the Asian regional average [3,4]

  • Strucchange analysis (Figure 2) showed that there was a sudden rise in the annual mean temperature in 1996 (RSS = 10.815, Bayesian Information Criterions (BIC) = 83.647), which rose from 10.0 ◦ C

  • As the annual mean temperature increased significantly, annual precipitation decreased for the same period (Table S1), which suggested a climatic change in the region from semihumid to semiarid

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Summary

Introduction

The global climate has shifted towards warmer and drier regimes during the past 100 years [1,2], and the trend in northern China has been stronger than that of the Asian regional average [3,4]. The hydrothermal pattern is considered more complex for mountain ranges in climate transition areas such as the EASM margin due to the highly diverse topography and altered atmospheric circulation. Whether such regions become drier under the condition of rapid warming still needs further clarification. Tree growth–climate relationships provide bases for climate reconstruction and references for forest management. Variations in growth–climate relationships driven by climate

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