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Divergent responses to climate factors in the radial growth of Larix sibirica in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, northwest China

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The radial growth of Larix sibirica has exhibited divergent responses to temperatures in the growing season due to the temperature-driven drought stress in the eastern Tianshan Mountains of Northwest China.

Abstract

The warming of the continental interior of the Northern Hemisphere in the latter half of the twentieth century has led to divergent responses between trees growth and climate factors at high latitudes. This study explored the variability in the responses of radial growth to climate factors and the temporal stability of growth–climate relationships under climate change for Siberia larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.) in the mid-latitude area of the eastern Tianshan Mountains. The results indicated as follows: (1) Analysis of the relationships between tree-ring width chronology and climate factors before and after the abrupt increases in temperature demonstrated that divergent responses of radial growth occurred in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, suggesting that correlation coefficients with temperature varied significantly in the growing season. (2) Examination of variations in the climate factors limiting radial growth in the two time periods demonstrated that the minimum temperature played a key role from 1989 to 2012. (3) Assessment of the temporal stability of growth–climate relationships by a moving correlation function demonstrated that the positive sensitivity of Siberia larch to temperature during the growing season decreased. The reasons for this ‘divergence problem’ were the increased drought stress and changes in the physiological responses of trees. (4) Simulation of the trend of basal area increment by linear regression showed that the growth rate of Siberia larch first increased and then decreased. The future effects of increasing temperature may cause significant alterations in forest ecosystems, with greater effects on forests in arid and semi-arid areas.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects No. 41171067 and 41361010). The authors would like to thank Xiaolong Shang for his assistance in the field work. We are grateful to Wen Xiao and Ao Shen for the construction of the tree-ring width chronology. We also thank the anonymous referees for their careful and helpful comments and suggestions regarding this paper.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100875, China

    Liang Jiao & Yuan Jiang

  2. College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100875, China

    Liang Jiao, Yuan Jiang, Wen-Tao Zhang, Ming-Chang Wang, Ling-Nan Zhang & Shou-Dong Zhao

  3. College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, No. 967, Anning East Road, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Liang Jiao

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  1. Liang Jiao
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Correspondence to Yuan Jiang.

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Communicated by E. Liang.

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Jiao, L., Jiang, Y., Zhang, WT. et al. Divergent responses to climate factors in the radial growth of Larix sibirica in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, northwest China. Trees 29, 1673–1686 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-015-1248-6

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