Abstract
The important ecosystem services of the high altitude tropical afro-alpine Erica arborea L. forests are under increasing environmental and human pressure. The Erica treeline ecotone in the Ethiopian highlands forms a temperature-responsive vegetation boundary that is potentially affected by climate change. The cambium of 10 Erica arborea trees in Lib Amba Mountain and Ferrah Amba Mountain in the North Ethiopian highlands was marked in 2012, and corresponding tree disks were sampled after 498 days. Microphotographs of these cambial marks confirmed the formation of annual growth rings (0.76 ± 0.24 mm) with higher vessel density in earlywood and radially flattened fibers in the last layers of the latewood. In-continuum measurements of vessel size and density on microphotographs indicated the formation of inter-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) related to early rainfall in March-May. The same stem disks and 40 increment cores were used for detailed tree-ring analyses—a tree-ring chronology with 18 trees spanning from 1966 to 2014 could be derived. A significant (p < 0.1) positive correlation with minimum temperature in the growing season (August) and a negative correlation with minimum temperature in the spring season (March) were indicated as the most important climate factors regulating tree growth of Erica trees in the afro-alpine forest. The existence of annual tree rings and the proven potential for chronology building encourages further tree-ring analyses of Erica arborea in the afro-alpine tropical highlands in order to link it with climate variability and climate change.
Highlights
Tree ring series contain valuable information on tree and forest history, as influenced by biotic and environmental factors [1]
Kaeppeli [21] did not consider dendroclimatology with Erica arborea due to wedging rings, human impact, and the occurrence of inter-annual density fluctuations (IADFs), whereas this study indicated that Erica arborea could potentially be used for dendroclimatology
Stem disks and increment cores were collected in the tropical highlands of North Ethiopia in Lib Amba and Ferrah Amba Mountain
Summary
Tree ring series contain valuable information on tree and forest history, as influenced by biotic and environmental factors [1]. This linkage between tree rings and environmental factors (e.g., temperature, precipitation) provides a good opportunity to estimate environmental dynamics retrospectively [2], which may help to understand forest dynamics in relationship to their controls. Because temperature variations in the tropics are relatively small, tree rings in these regions are potentially a result of intra-annual rainfall periodicity [4]. Non-periodic cycles in water availability can cause non-annual tree rings [3] This still causes major challenges for dendrochronological studies in the dry tropics [3]. Within the European context, similar challenges are encountered in the Mediterranean region, where summer drought and winter rain patterns are less predictable [7]
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