The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Growth
Volume 7 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1434773
Response of radial growth of Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii) to climate factors at different altitudes in the northern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains
Provisionally accepted- Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China
To investigate the differences in the response of radial growth of larch (Larix gmelinii) at varying altitude gradients to climatic factors, this study established tree-ring width chronologies of Larix gmelinii at altitudes of 900 m, 1120 m and 1300 m based dendroclimatology. We also employed R packages including "dplR", "static" and "moving" to determine the correlation between larch at different altitudes and climatic factors and to explore the sensitivity and stability between radial growth and the climate of larch at different altitudes in the northern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains Range in Northeast China.The results revealed the radial growth of larch in high altitude areas to exhibit a downward trend due to climate warming,while the growth of trees in intermediate and low altitude areas showed an upward trend. The growth-climate relationship exhibited a significant negative correlation between radial growth in low altitude larch (900 m) and temperatures in the current winter (February and March) and growing season (July, October of the current year, and October of the previous year) (p < 0.05). Moreover, high altitude larch (1300 m) showed a significant negative correlation with temperature in January, March, and October of the current year (p < 0.05).However, in intermediate altitude areas (1120 m),the radial growth of trees was significantly positively correlated with the temperature of the growing season (May, June and August). Precipitation in April was observed to promote the radial growth of low-altitude larch. Moving correlation analysis revealed that the inhibitory effect of low temperatures in winter and high temperatures in the growing season on the radial growth of larch at three altitudes gradually strengthened, transitioning from significant negative/positive correlations to significant positive/negative correlations along the altitudinal gradient.Larch trees in high and low altitudes exhibited an increased sensitivity to winter and spring precipitation, while in the intermediate region, the inhibitory effect of growing season precipitation on larch 2 radial growth continued to intensify. The results of the study have an important reference value for the in-depth understanding of the growth dynamics of Larix gmelinii natural forests in the northern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains under climate change.
Keywords: Greater Khingan Mountains, Larix gmelinii, Tree-ring width, radial growth, Climate response
Received: 18 May 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Luo, Wang, Zhang, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Dongyou Zhang, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.