Search

Climate warming is modifying the movement of air masses over Northern latitudes, producing warming and cooling events across the boreal regions. These new conditions changes may mismatch plant phenology from weather conditions, and affect the growing period of trees. Understanding the processes of local adaptation in bud phenology can help to predict the response of plants to these rapid and unexpected environmental changes.Our study monitored bud burst and bud set weekly during four growing seasons in black spruce [Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.] saplings planted in a common garden and originating from five provenances representing the whole latitudinal distribution of the closed boreal forest in Quebec, Canada. We compared the variance in bud phenology among populations and years, and analysed the relationships with temperatures at the origin sites.Bud burst and bud set occurred in mid‐May and mid‐July, respectively, with a large variability among provenances and between the study years. A delayed bud phenology was observed in the provenances from warmer sites, with bud burst and bud set being 1.1 and 1.4 days later for every additional degree in mean annual temperature at the origin site respectively. Populations with earlier bud bursts also showed earlier bud sets, thus the growing season was similar among provenances. The heritability of bud set was higher than that of bud burst, with estimates of 0.26 and 0.21 respectively. On average, variance in bud phenology among provenances reached 5.3%, which was higher than that within provenances (2.6%). The factor year explained 37.7%–69.7% of the variance in bud phenology.Synthesis. The findings demonstrate the evolutionary response to climate variations in the boreal biome. Endogenous and environmental components have different effects on the phases of bud burst and bud set. This complex interaction among drivers of bud phenology may prevent reliable predictions of changes in the growing season under changing climate. An earlier growth reactivation due to higher spring temperatures could result in higher frost risks to the developing buds. Despite a longer period for photosynthesis expected for the evergreen black spruce under warmer conditions, the period spent for bud development could remain unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is critical to investigate the effects of competition and climate on forest growth as they are main forces affecting forest dynamics. However, in subtropics of China such a study has never been conducted. Here we conducted a pioneer study to evaluate the effects of competition and climate on growth of Chinese red pine (Pinus massoniana) in mixed forests of subtropical China along a broad latitudinal gradient (23°N∼32°N). Twenty-three plots (20m × 20m) were randomly selected from 11 sites and competition and tree radial growth data were collected. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to detect the potential spatial pattern in site-specific standard tree-ring chronologies during the common period (1990-2015). The linear mixed-effect models (LMMs) were employed to quantify the relationships between cumulated basal area increment (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years) of subject trees and six distance-independent competition indices. The relationships between tree radial growth and climate were evaluated by response analyses. Finally the best predicted competition index and climate factor were employed in a full model and their relative importance were calculated. The PCA results allowed classifying the mixed forests into southeastern and northern groups along the Nanling Mountains and Wuyi Mountains. LMMs results revealed that competition pressures mainly come from density and size of larger individuals. Response coefficients demonstrated that precipitation in September and sunshine duration in October influenced trees radial growth of southeastern group and northern group respectively. Our results clearly showed that effects of competition on tree radial growth decreased from southeast to north while effects of climates increasing over this large spatial scale. This is the first attempt to clarify the effects of competition, and further quantify the contributions of competition and climate on tree radial growth in China subtropics. Our finds will certainly contribute to a better policy-making for sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]