Tree growth–climate relationships of Juniperus tibetica along an altitudinal gradient on the southern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

The southern Tibetan Plateau forms the ecotone between forest areas and alpine steppes and thus, tree growth is expect to react sensitive to climate variability in this semi-humid region. We sampled 328 increment cores from 169 trees at two study sites at four elevations along altitudinal transects from 4,000 to 4,500 m a.s.l. to evaluate elevation-dependent tree growth–climate relationships of Juniperus tibetica. Standard dendrochronological statistical parameters like mean inter-series correlation (Rbar), expressed population signal as well as signal-to-noise ratio is not significantly correlated to elevation. Mean segment lengths and average growth rates of the tree-ring series increase with elevation. Correlation and response function analysis with available climate data indicate that elevation has no significant effect on tree growth–climate relationships. Instead, local tree growth is mainly driven by common regional climatic signals as it is also indicated by significant correlations between all chronologies over their common period of A.D. 1550–2010. Moisture variability during April–June has the highest impact on tree growth, even close to the upper tree limit.