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XRCT images reveal climate control on wound recovery after intense flood in Mediterranean riparian trees

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Abstract

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In the Mediterranean region, the recovery of riparian trees after wounds can be jeopardized under drier climate condition and cooccurrence of extreme flood events.

Abstract

Climate change could impair riparian vegetation dynamics through more intense and frequent climatic extreme events such as flash flooding. However, it is still poorly known how climate warming can also impair vegetation recovery through control on cellular traits after such extreme events. Here, we analyze how Mediterranean riparian tree species (namely Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus angustifolia, and Salix atrocinerea) recover after wounds caused by intense floods using 239 X-ray computed tomography (XRCT) images taken on 30 trees. The XRCT imagery allowed to characterize wounds-related macroscopic parameters in different sections along the stems in three dimensions. Then, we quantified the annual wound closure rates by dating dendrochronologically each wound and measuring the annual overgrowth on the wounded area. Finally, we used linear mixed models to investigate how wound closure rates are affected by climate conditions. Our results show that wound closure varies between species. A. glutinosa and F. angustifolia presented higher wound recovery rates than S. atrocinerea. However, the statistical analyses suggest that F. angustifolia and S. atrocinerea tend to recover much less(more) during drier(wetter) years than A. glutinosa. Our results suggest that A. glutinosa could be more stressed under climate change in the Mediterranean region, where the cooccurrence of drier conditions with extreme flood events may increase.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been funded by the research project CGL2010-19274 (projects MAS Dendro-Avenidas) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. JABC have been partially founded by the EU/CCMM (project 2020-T1/AMB-19913) (INOVA-RISK). The authors acknowledge the Forensic Institute of the University of Bern for access to the XRCT devices, as well as to Tragsa Avila foresters for field support and the two anonymous reviewers.

Funding

This research has been funded by the research project CGL2010-19274 and, partially, by the project 2020-T1/AMB-19913.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Museum of Natural Sciences, MNCN-CSIC, C/ Serrano 115bis, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Antonio Ballesteros-Cánovas

  2. Departmento de Biología Animal, Ecología y Parasitología, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno sn, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Jaime Madrigal-González

  3. Geological Survey of Spain (IGME), Ríos Rosas 23, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    Carolina Guardiola Albert

  4. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, IBAM (Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza), CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Chacras de Coria, Almirante Brown 500 (5505), Mendoza, Luján de Cuyo, Argentina

    Carina González

  5. Dendrolab.ch, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Markus Stoffel

  6. Department F.A. Forel for Environmental and Aquatic Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Markus Stoffel

  7. Climatic Change and Climate Impacts, Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Markus Stoffel

Authors
  1. Juan Antonio Ballesteros-Cánovas
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  2. Jaime Madrigal-González
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  4. Carina González
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  5. Markus Stoffel
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Contributions

Design research: JABC and MS; data analyses: JABC, JM, and CGu; results' interpretation: JABC, JM, and CGo; writing: all authors.

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Correspondence to Juan Antonio Ballesteros-Cánovas.

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Communicated by H. Gärtner.

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Ballesteros-Cánovas, J.A., Madrigal-González, J., Albert, C.G. et al. XRCT images reveal climate control on wound recovery after intense flood in Mediterranean riparian trees. Trees 36, 1529–1538 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02310-3

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