Assessing tree drought resistance and climate-growth relationships under different tree age classes in a pinus nigra arn. Ssp. salzmannii forest

Lucas Borja, Manuel Esteban; Bose, Arun K.; Andivia, Enrique; Candel Pérez, David; Plaza-Álvarez, Pedro A.; Linares, Juan C.

Assessing tree drought resistance and climate-growth relationships under different tree age classes in a pinus nigra arn. Ssp. salzmannii forest

dc.contributor.author	Lucas Borja, Manuel Esteban
dc.contributor.author	Bose, Arun K.
dc.contributor.author	Andivia, Enrique
dc.contributor.author	Candel Pérez, David
dc.contributor.author	Plaza-Álvarez, Pedro A.
dc.contributor.author	Linares, Juan C.
dc.contributor.department	Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB	en
dc.date.accessioned	2022-01-12T08:17:17Z
dc.date.available	2022-01-12T08:17:17Z
dc.date.issued	2021
dc.description.abstract	The magnitude of drought impact in forest ecosystems depends on which group of trees are more severely affected; greater mortality of smaller trees can modulate the trajectories of succession, while the mortality of larger trees can disproportionately offset the ecosystem’s carbon balance. Several studies have documented a greater vulnerability of large trees to extreme droughts while some other studies reported a greater growth reduction in smaller trees during droughts. We tested these hypotheses by comparing tree basal area increment (BAI), drought resistance (i.e., magnitude of growth decline during drought), and resilience (i.e., magnitude of growth recovery after drought) across five different age-classes in black pine (Pinus nigra Arn. Ssp salzmannii) forests in Spain. Our results showed that the BAI patterns, drought resistance, and resilience were strongly influenced by tree age-classes. In addition, the effect of climatic water balance (precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration) on BAI significantly varied among age-classes. The effect of water balance on BAI was lower for younger age-classes (1–39 years of age) compared to older age-classes. We observed a greater growth reduction (i.e., lower resistance) in older trees (>40 years of age) during droughts compared to younger trees (<40 years of age). However, all trees, irrespective of their ages, were able to recover the growth rates after the drought. In general, younger trees showed a greater capacity in recovering the growth rate (i.e., more resilient) than older trees. We detected no significant effects of stand basal area and stand density on BAI, drought resistance, and resilience. Overall, our results indicated that growth of older trees was more negatively affected during drought. Therefore, these older/larger trees can be selected for commercial thinning, or can be released from competition, which can minimize the potential impacts of future droughts in black pine forests in Spain.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Pedro Antonio Plaza Álvarez was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (FPU16/03296).	en
dc.format.extent	14 p.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/zip	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.3390/f12091161
dc.identifier.issn	1999-4907
dc.identifier.uri	https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/41743
dc.language.iso	eng	en
dc.publisher	MDPI	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Forests, 12 (9), 1161	en
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://doi.org/10.3390/f12091161
dc.rights	© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.	en
dc.rights.accessRights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Climate change	en
dc.subject	Drought	en
dc.subject	Black pine	en
dc.subject	Resistance	en
dc.subject	Resilience	en
dc.title	Assessing tree drought resistance and climate-growth relationships under different tree age classes in a pinus nigra arn. Ssp. salzmannii forest	en
dc.type	info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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