Zhang, Yun and Bergeron, Yves and Zhao, Xiu-Hai and Drobyshev, Igor
(2015).
Stand history is more important than climate in controlling red maple (Acer rubrum L.) growth at its northern distribution limit in western Quebec, Canada.
Journal of Plant Ecology. 8
:4
, 368-379
[Research article]
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Abstract
Aims: We examined growth of red maple (Acer rubrum L.) to evaluate environmental controls of its northern distributional limit in Eastern North America and its potential response to future climate change.
Methods: We collected growth data from nine sites located along a 300-km transect (47-49 degrees N), which included frontier population of red maple and covered three bioclimatic domains in western Quebec. We analyzed three growth variables: growth rates during the first 30 years of maple lifespan, cumulative basal area increment (BA I) over the most recent decade (2000-2009) and annual growth rate over the whole tree lifespan ranging from 58 to 112 years. We also examined growth sensitivity to climate by using response function analysis.
Important Findings: Three different proxies of maple absolute growth (initial growth rate, BA I during 2000-09 and mean diameter growth rate) indicated a better growth with an increase in latitude. We speculate that stand history effectively overrode the direct effects of colder climate on maple growth along the S-N gradient. Regeneration of maple in the southern sites likely occurred in canopy gaps, whereas in the north it was contingent upon large disturbances such as stand-replacing fires, which apparently provided more favorable light environment for maple growth than canopy gaps. The annual growth variability, which reflects effects of annual weather on growth and is largely independent from the absolute growth rate, was significantly affected by monthly climate, suggesting a positive effect of higher summer temperature in the northern part of the transect (48-49 degrees N) and a negative effect of summer drought in the south (47-48 degrees N). In the future, the natural and human disturbance regimes will be dominant controls of the actual biomass productivity of red maple at the northern limit of its present distribution range. Direct effects of climate on maple growth would likely be less important in this context, and will likely entail negative effect of increased summer drought in the southern part of the study area and positive effects of increased temperatures in the north.
Authors/Creators: | Zhang, Yun and Bergeron, Yves and Zhao, Xiu-Hai and Drobyshev, Igor | ||||||
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Title: | Stand history is more important than climate in controlling red maple (Acer rubrum L.) growth at its northern distribution limit in western Quebec, Canada | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Journal of Plant Ecology | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2015 | ||||||
Volume: | 8 | ||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||
Page range: | 368-379 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 12 | ||||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||
ISSN: | 1752-993X | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Accepted version | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 105 Earth and Related Environmental Sciences > Environmental Sciences (social aspects to be 507) (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Forest Science | ||||||
Agrovoc terms: | Ecology, Forest ecology | ||||||
Keywords: | biomass productivity, climate change, dendrochronology, ecotone, hardwoods, species migration | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-3383 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-e-3383 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 13183 | ||||||
Faculty: | S - Faculty of Forest Sciences | ||||||
Department: | (S) > Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 15 Apr 2016 09:52 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 09 Sep 2020 14:17 |
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