Forest growth at high altitudes and latitudes is sensitive to climate warming. However, warming-induced drought stress has decreased forest growth and survival rates, and constitutes a key uncertainty in projections of forest ecosystem dynamics. A fast warming rate has occurred over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and the response pattern of alpine forest growth on the TP to a warmer and possibly drier climate is still unknown. By compiling tree-ring width records from ten alpine treeline ecotones (ATEs), we developed an index of regional tree growth in ATEs (RTGA) on the southeastern TP, which is a major forested region of the TP. Our results showed a stable and clear coherence between RTGA and the regional summer (June-August) minimum temperature during the studied period (1950-2012, R-2 = 0.59, P < 0.001), despite a prominent drying trend since the 1990s. We conclude that warming-induced drought stress has not limited ATE forest growth on the moist southeastern TP.
1.Beijing Normal Univ, Coll Global Change & Earth Syst Sci, JCGCS, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 3.Beijing Normal Univ, Fac Geog Sci, State Key Lab Earth Surface Proc & Resource Ecol, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 4.Chinese Acad Sci, Res Ctr Ecoenvironm Sci, State Key Lab Urban & Reg Ecol, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China 5.Chinese Acad Forestry, Inst Forest Ecol Environm & Protect, State Forestry Adm, Key Lab Forest Ecol & Environm, Beijing 100091, Peoples R China 6.Chinese Acad Sci, Xishuangbanna Trop Bot Garden, Key Lab Trop Forest Ecol, Mengla 666303, Yunnan, Peoples R China
Recommended Citation:
Shi, Chunming,Shen, Miaogen,Wu, Xiuchen,et al. Growth response of alpine treeline forests to a warmer and drier climate on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau[J]. AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY,2019-01-01,264:73-79