Topography- and Species-Dependent Climatic Responses in Radial Growth of Picea meyeri and Larix principis-rupprechtii in the Luyashan Mountains of North-Central China

Forests

Wentao Zhang¹  Yuan Jiang¹  Mingchang Wang²  Lingnan Zhang²  Manyu Dong² 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Process and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China; E-Mails:;College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China

关键词: Topographic aspect;    Interspecific difference;    Dendroclimatic response;    Picea meyeri;    Larix principis-rupprechtii;    Luyashan Mountains;   

DOI  :  10.3390/f6010116

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Dendroecological techniques were used to examine the relationships between topographic aspects, climate factors and radial growth of Picea meyeri and Larix principis-rupprechtii in Luyashan Mountains, North-Central China. Four sites were selected at timberline and totally 67 trees and 134 cores were collected. Pearson correlation and regression surface analysis were conducted to reveal the growth-climate relationships. The results indicated that the two species both showed significant negative correlations with temperature during preceding November on the two topographic aspects. On both slope aspects, growth of P. meyeri exhibited significant negative correlations with precipitation in current June, whereas growth of L. principis-rupprechtii showed significant negative correlations with precipitation in preceding September. On north-facing slope, tree growth was limited by low temperature in early growing season, which not shown on south-facing slope. If climate warming continues, L. principis-rupprechtii may be more favored and a reverse between relationships with temperature and precipitation maybe occur in growth of trees. Treeline position on the north-facing slope may possess a greater potential for elevation shifting than the south-facing slope. Our results supply useful information for discussing the potential effect of future climate on the forest growth in North-Central China.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.