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Disentangling the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment.
Journal article

Disentangling the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment.

  • Madrigal-González J Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain; Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland. Electronic address: ecojmg@hotmail.com.
  • Andivia E Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
  • Zavala MA Grupo de Ecología y Restauración Forestal, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, km 33.4, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
  • Stoffel M Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland; Dendrolab, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, rue des Maraîchers 13, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland; Department F.-A, Forel for Aquatic and Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland.
  • Calatayud J Integrated Science Lab, Department of Physics, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden.
  • Sánchez-Salguero R Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. Utrera, km 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain.
  • Ballesteros-Cánovas J Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences (IES), University of Geneva, 66 Boulevard Carl-Vogt, CH-1205, Switzerland; Dendrolab, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, rue des Maraîchers 13, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
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  • 2018-06-18
Published in:
  • The Science of the total environment. - 2018
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
Dry forests
Mediterranean Oscillation Index
North Atlantic Oscillation
Pinus pinaster Ait
Tree growth
Climate Change
Ecosystem
Forests
Mediterranean Region
Temperature
Trees
English Climate change can impair ecosystem functions and services in extensive dry forests worldwide. However, attribution of climate change impacts on tree growth and forest productivity is challenging due to multiple inter-annual patterns of climatic variability associated with atmospheric and oceanic circulations. Moreover, growth responses to rising atmospheric CO2, namely carbon fertilization, as well as size ontogenetic changes can obscure the climate change signature as well. Here we apply Structural Equation Models (SEM) to investigate the relative role of climate change on tree growth in an extreme Mediterranean environment (i.e., extreme in terms of the combination of sandy-unconsolidated soils and climatic aridity). Specifically, we analyzed potential direct and indirect pathways by which different sources of climatic variability (i.e. warming and precipitation trends, the North Atlantic Oscillation, [NAO]; the Mediterranean Oscillation, [MOI]; the Atlantic Mediterranean Oscillation, [AMO]) affect aridity through their control on local climate (in terms of mean annual temperature and total annual precipitation), and subsequently tree productivity, in terms of basal area increments (BAI). Our results support the predominant role of Diameter at Breast Height (DHB) as the main growth driver. In terms of climate, NAO and AMO are the most important drivers of tree growth through their control of aridity (via effects of precipitation and temperature, respectively). Furthermore and contrary to current expectations, our findings also support a net positive role of climate warming on growth over the last 50 years and suggest that impacts of climate warming should be evaluated considering multi-annual and multi-decadal periods of local climate defined by atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/216314
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