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Tree growth–climate relationships of Juniperus tibetica along an altitudinal gradient on the southern Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

The southern Tibetan Plateau forms the ecotone between forest areas and alpine steppes and thus, tree growth is expect to react sensitive to climate variability in this semi-humid region. We sampled 328 increment cores from 169 trees at two study sites at four elevations along altitudinal transects from 4,000 to 4,500 m a.s.l. to evaluate elevation-dependent tree growth–climate relationships of Juniperus tibetica. Standard dendrochronological statistical parameters like mean inter-series correlation (Rbar), expressed population signal as well as signal-to-noise ratio is not significantly correlated to elevation. Mean segment lengths and average growth rates of the tree-ring series increase with elevation. Correlation and response function analysis with available climate data indicate that elevation has no significant effect on tree growth–climate relationships. Instead, local tree growth is mainly driven by common regional climatic signals as it is also indicated by significant correlations between all chronologies over their common period of A.D. 1550–2010. Moisture variability during April–June has the highest impact on tree growth, even close to the upper tree limit.

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Acknowledgments

The study was also jointly funded by the 973 project (2010CB950104), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) 100 Talents Project (29082762), and the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program Grant (No. XDA05080801). Achim Bräuning was supported by DFG (project BR 1895/13) and the CAS Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists (Grant No. 2010T1Z31). The authors extend many thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. Bao Yang gratefully acknowledges the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The authors extend many thanks to Linzhou Xia and Yajun Shao for their field and laboratory work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Donggang West Road, 730000, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

    Minhui He & Bao Yang

  2. MOE Key Laboratory of West China’s Environmental System, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

    Bao Yang

  3. Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Kochstr. 4/4, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Achim Bräuning

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  1. Minhui He
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  2. Bao Yang
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  3. Achim Bräuning
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Correspondence to Bao Yang.

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Communicated by A. Braeuning.

Special topic: Dendroecology in Asia.

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He, M., Yang, B. & Bräuning, A. Tree growth–climate relationships of Juniperus tibetica along an altitudinal gradient on the southern Tibetan Plateau. Trees 27, 429–439 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0813-5

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