Wood anatomy of Juniperus communis: a promising proxy for palaeoclimate reconstructions in the Arctic

Abstract

The Arctic is one of the most sensitive areas worldwide with respect to climate changes, and recent climate change impacts are evident throughout Arctic ecosystems. In order to put current and projected changes in a palaeoclimatic context, exact information of past conditions and therefore detailed knowledge of proxy archives are crucial. Here, we investigated wood anatomical and other growth-related records of the long-lived and widespread Arctic tundra shrub Juniperus communis L. Annual ring-widths and cell anatomical parameters of 20 individuals from south-west Greenland were measured to test for age-related trends in the proxy time series and to correlate them with past climatic conditions. We documented a clear age trend in the investigated growth parameters (ring-widths, conduit-lumen areas, and cell wall thicknesses), which indicates the need for detrending the time series prior to possible climate correlation analyses and climate or environmental reconstructions. Prostrate growth forms of J. communis do not exhibit the general trend of an exponential widening of the conduit-lumen areas during ontogeny, as has been observed for many tree species, but their conduit lumens stop to increase in size at some point. This is possibly caused by a combination of extreme climate and physiological adaptations, which result in a prostrate growth form. Of the tested growth parameters, only detrended cell wall thickness showed stable correlations with summer temperature and the summer standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The other growth parameters did not pass cross-calibration verification analyses, although for ring-widths we found the strongest climate correlations. Despite the fact that the ecophysiological processes behind our observations (i.e. reduced cell wall thickness combined with wider rings under dry conditions in the vegetation season) yet are not fully understood, we recognize the potential of J. communis for climate reconstructions. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of using cell anatomical parameter of J. communis shrubs as palaeoclimatological proxy for the Arctic.