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Sclerophyllous Forest Tree Growth Under the Influence of a Historic Megadrought in the Mediterranean Ecoregion of Chile

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Abstract

The Mediterranean-type Ecosystems of Central Chile is one of the most threatened regions in South America by global change, particularly evidenced by the historical megadrought that has occurred in central Chile since 2010. The sclerophyllous forest stands out, whose history and relationship with drought conditions has been little studied. Cryptocarya alba and Beilschmiedia miersii (Lauraceae), two large endemic trees, represent an opportunity to analyze the incidence of intense droughts in the growth of sclerophyllous forests by analyzing their tree rings. Here, we considered > 400 trees from nineteen populations of C. alba and B. miersii growing across a latitudinal gradient (32°–35° S). To study the influence of local and large-scale climatic variability on tree growth, we first grouped the sites by species and explored the relationships between tree-growth patterns of C. alba and B. miersii with temperature, precipitation, and climate water deficit (CWD). Second, we performed Principal Component Analysis to detect common modes of variability and to explore relationships between growth patterns and their relationship to Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), ENSO and SAM indices. We detected a breaking point as of 2002 at regional level, where a persistent and pronounced decrease in tree growth occurred, mainly influenced by the increase in CWD and the decrease in winter-spring rainfall. In addition, a positive (negative) relationship was showed between PC1 growth-PDSI and PC1 growth-ENSO (growth-SAM), that is, growth increases (decreases) in the same direction as PDSI and ENSO (SAM). Despite the fact that sclerophyllous populations are highly resistant to drought events, we suggest that the sclerophyllous populations studied here experienced a generalized growth decline, and possibly the natural dynamics of their forests have been altered, mainly due to the accumulating effects of the unprecedented drought since 2010.

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Acknowledgements

We thank for the authorization of the fieldwork and support in the logistics to the Chilean National Forest Corporation (CONAF), and private parks: “Altos de Cantillana”, “Cerro Santa Inés”, “Aguas de Ramón”, “Bosques de Tinguiririca”, “Aguas Claras”, among others. AVG was funded by the Rufford Small Grants 25822-2, ANID/FONDECYT 11180992 and ClimatAmsud CLI2020009; and AAM was supported by ANID/FONDAP/15110009, ANID/FONDECYT 1201714, ESR UCV2095, and PUCV DI 39.431/2020; AGR thanks ANID/PAI/77190101. IAB also thanks to ANID-Subdirección de Capital Humano/Doctorado Nacional/2021-21212335 for the PhD scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hémera Centro de Observación de la Tierra, Escuela de Ingeniería Forestal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Camino La Pirámide 5750, Huechuraba, Santiago, Chile

    A. Venegas-González, S. Carpintero-Gibson, A. González-Reyes & F. A. Roig

  2. Instituto de Ciencias Agroalimentarias, Animales y Ambientales (ICA3), Universidad de O’Higgins, San Fernando, Chile

    A. Venegas-González

  3. Instituto de Geografía, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile

    A. A. Muñoz, I. Schneider & I. Aguilera-Betti

  4. Centro de Acción Climática, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile

    A. A. Muñoz

  5. Center for Climate and Resilience Research, Santiago, Chile

    A. A. Muñoz & I. Schneider

  6. Laboratorio de Dendrocronología y Cambio Global, Instituto de Conservación, Biodiversidad y Territorio, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    T. Gipolou-Zuñiga

  7. Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Antárticas y Subantárticas, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

    I. Aguilera-Betti

  8. Centro Transdisciplinario de Estudios Ambientales y Desarrollo Humano Sostenible (CEAM), Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile

    I. Aguilera-Betti

  9. Laboratorio de Dendrocronología e Historia Ambiental, IANIGLA-CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

    F. A. Roig

Authors
  1. A. Venegas-González
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  2. A. A. Muñoz
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  3. S. Carpintero-Gibson
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  4. A. González-Reyes
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  5. I. Schneider
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  6. T. Gipolou-Zuñiga
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  7. I. Aguilera-Betti
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  8. F. A. Roig
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Venegas-González.

Additional information

Author contributions: AVG and AAM conceived the manuscript and idea designed the field sampling; AVG, IS, TGZ and IAB collected the samples and conducted the lab work; AVG, SGC and AGR conducted the statistical analyses and produced figures and tables; AVG led the writing of the manuscript; AVG, AAM and FR contributed critically to the writing. All authors gave final approval for publication.

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Venegas-González, A., Muñoz, A.A., Carpintero-Gibson, S. et al. Sclerophyllous Forest Tree Growth Under the Influence of a Historic Megadrought in the Mediterranean Ecoregion of Chile. Ecosystems 26, 344–361 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-022-00760-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-022-00760-x

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