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Research article2018Peer reviewedOpen access

Climatically controlled reproduction drives interannual growth variability in a temperate tree species

Hacket-Pain, Andrew J.; Ascoli, Davide; Vacchiano, Giorgio; Biondi, Franco; Cavin, Liam; Conedera, Marco; Drobyshev, Igor; Dorado Linan, Isabel; Friend, Andrew D.; Grabner, Michael; Hartl, Claudia; Kreyling, Juergen; Lebourgeois, Francois; Levanic, Tom; Menzel, Annette; van der Maaten, Ernst; van der Maaten-Theunissen, Marieke; Muffler, Lena; Motta, Renzo; Roibu, Catalin-Constantin;
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Abstract

Climatically controlled allocation to reproduction is a key mechanism by which climate influences tree growth and may explain lagged correlations between climate and growth. We used continent-wide datasets of tree-ring chronologies and annual reproductive effort in Fagus sylvatica from 1901 to 2015 to characterise relationships between climate, reproduction and growth. Results highlight that variable allocation to reproduction is a key factor for growth in this species, and that high reproductive effort ('mast years') is associated with stem growth reduction. Additionally, high reproductive effort is associated with previous summer temperature, creating lagged climate effects on growth. Consequently, understanding growth variability in forest ecosystems requires the incorporation of reproduction, which can be highly variable. Our results suggest that future response of growth dynamics to climate change in this species will be strongly influenced by the response of reproduction.

Keywords

Dendrochronology; drought; European beech; Fagus sylvatica; forest growth; masting; path analysis; SEM; structural equation modelling; trade-off

Published in

Ecology Letters
2018, Volume: 21, number: 12, pages: 1833-1844
Publisher: WILEY

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Forest Science
    Ecology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13158

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/97159