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Research article2004Peer reviewedOpen access

Contrasting tree-ring data with fire record in a pine-dominated landscape in the Komi republic (Eastern European Russia): Recovering a common climate signal

Drobyshev I, Niklasson M, Angelstam P

Abstract

For the period 1420-1960 we contrasted fire events reconstructed at 14 sites distributed over a 50 km x 50 km area in the central part of the Komi Republic (European Russia) with a set of tree-ring width chronologies of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), developed for the same area. Our aim was to infer common climatic information contained in treering variables and independently dated fire events with the help of a superposed epoch analysis. The strongest weather-growth link was shown for the latewood width, which was positively correlated with the temperature in April-May and July-August of the current growth season and with previous year precipitation in July-August. Earlywood width was positively affected by previous year precipitation in May and November. The relationship between yearly ring variables and multiple-site fire events was dependent on the seasonal timing of fire events as recorded in the scars. In years with early-season fires (which made up 37% of all fires dated with seasonal resolution) total ring width was significantly narrower. In years with late-season fires (63%) total ring width, earlywood, and latewood width were significantly wider. Years with late-season fires tended to be associated with local highs of the latewood width chronologies over 1400-1960, which implied a link between decadal-scale climate variation and fire regime of the area

Published in

Silva Fennica
2004, Volume: 38, number: 1, pages: 43-53
Publisher: FINNISH SOCIETY FOREST SCIENCEFINNISH FOREST RESEARCH