Abstract
Purpose
Climate change, largely caused by elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, is a driver of lasting disturbances that cause changes in forest ecosystem functioning. This study aimed to investigate how Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) and Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica D. Don) plantations in the subtropical forests of China respond to disturbances in tree growth under climate change.
Materials and methods
In this study, 23 canopy gaps were selected from two species in the Lushan National Nature Reserve of Jiangxi Province, China. Increment cores were obtained from trees retained near the edges of gaps and within the forest. Tree-ring chronologies were established, and the basal area increment (BAI) was calculated. The growth averaging method was used to detect growth release and analyze two key parameters of tree radial growth: magnitude and time lag. Moving correlation analyses were used to assess the long-term relationship between tree growth and climate, and regression analyses were used to quantify the relationship between the BAI and atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Results and discussion
Species characteristics, tree distance from the gap center, gap size, and elevation all influenced tree growth release which was greater for Japanese cedar than Japanese cypress, and decreased with increasing distance from the gap center. Diameter at breast height (DBH) and pre-release growth influenced the time lag in growth release. The time-lag effect was more significant with smaller DBH and pre-release growth and did not differ between the two species. The correlations among growth, temperature, and precipitation were altered by the microclimatic environment created by the gaps. The BAI of Japanese cypress and Japanese cedar responded quadratically with increasing CO2 concentration (Ca), and the BAI increased with rising Ca, peaking at 360–380 ppm, followed by a decreasing trend. Due to the effect of the disturbance, there was a BAI increase of approximately 400 ppm (2015) for trees at the gap edge.
Conclusions
Growth characteristics were influenced by tree- and gap-level variables. Disturbance altered the link between tree growth and climate responses, increasing tree growth sensitivity to climatic influences, shifting the quadratic relationship between BAI and CO2 concentration, and providing growth potential to trees that crossed the CO2 tipping point.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Not applicable.
References
Altman J (2020) Tree-ring-based disturbance reconstruction in interdisciplinary research: current state and future directions. Dendrochronologia 63:125733
Altman J, Fibich P, Dolezal J, Aakala T (2014) TRADER: a package for Tree Ring Analysis of Disturbance Events in R. Dendrochronologia 32(2):107–112
Altman J, Fibich P, Leps J, Uemura S, Hara T, Dolezal J (2016) Linking spatiotemporal disturbance history with tree regeneration and diversity in an old-growth forest in northern Japan. Perspect Plant Ecol Evol Syst 21:1–13
Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67(1):42–45
Bigler C, Gričar J, Bugmann H, Čufar K (2004) Growth patterns as indicators of impending tree death in silver fir. For Ecol Manag 199:183–190
Biondi F (1999) Comparing tree-ring chronologies and repeated timber inventories as forest monitoring tools. Ecol Appl 9:216–227
Black BA, Abrams MD (2003) Use of boundary-line growth patterns as a basis for dendroecological release criteria. Ecol Appl 13(6):1733–1749
Canham CD, Marks PL (1985) The response of woody plants to disturbance patterns of establishment and growth. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics. Academic Press, New York, pp 197–216
Carter DR, Bialecki MB, Windmuller-Campione M, Seymour RS, Weiskittel A, Altman J (2021) Detecting growth releases of mature retention trees in response to small-scale gap disturbances of known dates in natural-disturbance-based silvicultural systems in Maine. For Ecol Manag 502:119721
Chalupová O, Šilhán K, Kapustová V, Chalupa V (2020) Spatiotemporal distribution of growth releases and suppressions along a landslide body. Dendrochronologia 60:125676
Clinton BD (2003) Light, temperature, and soil moisture responses to elevation, evergreen understory, and small canopy gaps in the southern Appalachians. For Ecol Manag 186(1–3):243–255
Cook ER, Briffa KR, Shiyatov S, Mazepa V, Jones PD (1990) Data analysis. Methods of dendrochronology: applications in the environmental sciences. Dordrecht: Springer. Netherlands 1990:97–162
Cook ER (1985) A time-series analysis approach to Tree-ring standardization. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/188110 or http://hdl.handle.net/10150/188110
Denslow JS, Ellison AM, Sanford RE (1998) Treefall gap size effects on above-and below-ground processes in a tropical wet forest. J Ecol 86(4):597–609
Fraver S, White AS, Seymour RS (2009) Natural disturbance in an old-growth landscape of Northern Maine, USA. J Ecol 97:289–298
Fu L, Xu Y, Xu Z, Wu B, Zhao D (2020) Tree water-use efficiency and growth dynamics in response to climatic and environmental changes in a temperate forest in Beijing. China Environ Int 134:105209
Fu L, Xu Y, Zhao D, Wu B, Xu Z (2023) Analysis of coniferous tree growth gradients in relation to regional pollution and climate change in the Miyun Reservoir Basin. China Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(19):55635–55648
Gagnon JL, Jokela EJ, Moser WK, Huber DA (2003) Dynamics of artificial regeneration in gaps within a longleaf pine flatwoods ecosystem. For Ecol Manag 172(2–3):133–144
Gray AN, Spies TA, Easter MJ (2002) Microclimatic and soil moisture responses to gap formation in coastal Douglas-fir forests. Can J for Res 32:332–343
Gray AN, Spies TA, Pabst RJ (2012) Canopy gaps affect long-term patterns of tree growth and mortality in mature and old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. For Ecol Manag 281:111–120
Hart JL, Austin DA, van de Gevel SL (2010) Radial growth responses of three cooccurring species to small canopy disturbances in a secondary hardwood forest on the Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee. Phys Geogr 31:270–291
Hart JL, Buchanan ML, Clark SL, Torreano SJ (2012) Canopy accession strategies and climate-growth relationships in Acer rubrum. For Ecol Manag 282:124–132
He Z, Liu J, Wu C, Zheng S, Hong W, Su S, Wu C (2012) Effects of forest gaps on some microclimate variables in Castanopsis kawakamii natural forest. J Mountain Sci 9:706–714
Holmes RL (1983) Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree Ring Bull 43:69–78
Izworska K, Muter E, Fleischer P, Zielonka T (2022) Delay of growth release after a windthrow event and climate response in a light-demanding species (European larch Larix decidua Mill.). Trees 36:427–438. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-021-02218-4
Johnstone JF, Allen CD, Franklin JF, Frelich LE, Harvey BJ, Higuera PE, Turner MG (2016) Changing disturbance regimes, ecological memory, and forest resilience. Front Ecol Environ 14(7):369–378
Jones TA, Thomas SC (2004) The time course of diameter increment responses to selection harvests in Acer saccharum. Can J for Res 34(7):1525–1533
Jones TA, Domke GM, Thomas SC (2009) Canopy tree growth responses following selection harvest in seven species varying in shade tolerance. Can J for Res 39(2):430–440
Juchheim J, Ammer C, Schall P, Seidel D (2017) Canopy space filling rather than conventional measures of structural diversity explains productivity of beech stands. For Ecol Manag 395:19–26
Kovács B, Tinya F, Németh C, Ódor P (2020) Unfolding the effects of different forestry treatments on microclimate in oak forests: results of a 4-yr experiment. Ecol Appl 30(2):e02043
Krasny ME, Whitmore MC (1992) Gradual and sudden forest canopy gaps in Allegheny northern hardwood forests. Can J for Res 22:139–143
Lai J, Zou Y, Zhang S et al (2022) glmm.hp: an R package for computing individual effect of predictors in generalized linear mixed models. J Plant Ecol 15(6):1302–1307
Liu T, Xu Y, Xu Z, Deng H (2021) Effects of climate change and local environmental factors on long-term tree water-use efficiency and growth of Pseudolarix amabilis and Cryptomeria japonica in subtropical China. J Soils Sediments 21:869–880
Martin-Benito D, Pederson N, Lanter C, Köse N, Doğan M, Bugmann H, Bigler C (2020) Disturbances and climate drive structure, stability, and growth in mixed temperate old-growth rainforests in the Caucasus. Ecosystems 23:1170–1185
McGuire JP, Mitchell RJ, Moser EB, Pecot SD, Gjerstad DH, Hedman CW (2001) Gaps in a gappy forest: plant resources, longleaf pine regeneration, and understory response to tree removal in longleaf pine savannas. Can J for Res 31(5):765–778
Meigs GW, Morrissey RC, Bače R, Chaskovskyy O, Čada V, Després T, Svoboda M (2017) More ways than one: mixed-severity disturbance regimes foster structural complexity via multiple developmental pathways. For Ecol Manag 406:410–426
Niinemets Ü, Kull O (1995) Effects of light availability and tree size on the architecture of assimilative surface in the canopy of Picea abies: variation in needle morphology. Tree Physiol 15(5):307–315
Niinemets Ü, Díaz-Espejo A, Flexas J, Galmes J, Warren CR (2009) Role of mesophyll diffusion conductance in constraining potential photosynthetic productivity in the field. J Exp Bot 60(8):2249–2270
Nowacki GJ, Abrams MD (1997) Radial-growth averaging criteria for reconstructing disturbance histories from pre-settlement origin oaks. Ecol Monogr 67(2):225–249
Omelko A, Ukhvatkina O, Zhmerenetsky A (2016) Disturbance history and natural regeneration of an old-growth Korean pine-broadleaved forest in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, Southeastern Russia. For Ecol Manag 360:221–234
R Core Team (2022) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.r-project.org/
Seidl R, Schelhaas MJ, Lexer MJ (2011) Unraveling the drivers of intensifying forest disturbance regimes in Europe. Glob Chang Biol 17:2842–2852
Seidl R, Spies TA, Peterson DL, Stephens SL, Hicke JA (2016) Searching for resilience: addressing the impacts of changing disturbance regimes on forest ecosystem services. J Appl Ecol 53(1):120–129
Sideridis GD, Simos P (2010) What is the actual correlation between expressive and receptive measures of vocabulary? Approximating the sampling distribution of the correlation coefficient using the bootstrapping method. Int J Educ Psychol Assess 5:117–133
Soliz-Gamboa CC, Sandbrink A, Zuidema PA (2012) Diameter growth of juvenile trees after gap formation in a Bolivian rain forest: responses are strongly species-specific and size-dependent. Biotropica 44:312–320
Splechtna BE, Gratzer G, Black BA (2005) Disturbance history of a European old-growth mixed-species forest-a spatial dendro-ecological analysis. J Veg Sci 16(5):511–522
Stan AB, Daniels LD (2010) Growth releases of three shade-tolerant species following canopy gap formation in old-growth forests. J Veg Sci 21:74–87
Stan AB, Daniels LD (2014) Growth releases across a natural canopy gap-forest gradient in old-growth forests. For Ecol Manag 313:98–103
Succarie A, Xu Z, Wang W, Liu T, Zhang X, Cao X (2020) Effects of climate change on tree water use efficiency, nitrogen availability and growth in boreal forest of northern China. J Soils Sediments 20:3607–3614
Succarie A, Xu Z, Wang W (2022) The variation and trends of nitrogen cycling and nitrogen isotope composition in tree rings: the potential for fingerprinting climate extremes and bushfires. J Soils Sediments 22(9):2343–2353
Sun F, Kuang Y, Wen D et al (2010) Long-term tree growth rate, water use efficiency, and tree ring nitrogen isotope composition of Pinus massoniana L. in response to global climate change and local nitrogen deposition in Southern China. J Soils Sediments 10:1453–1465
Terborgh J, Huanca Nuñez N, Alvarez Loayza P, Cornejo Valverde F (2017) Gaps contribute tree diversity to a tropical floodplain forest. Ecology 98(11):2895–2903
Thorpe HC, Thomas SC, Caspersen JP (2007) Residual-tree growth responses to partial stand harvest in the black spruce (Picea mariana) boreal forest. Can J for Res 37(9):1563–1571
Trotsiuk V, Svoboda M, Janda P, Mikolas M, Bace R, Rejzek J, Myklush S (2014) A mixed severity disturbance regime in the primary Picea abies (L.) Karst. forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians. For Ecol Manag 334:144–153
Tryon EH, Lanasa M, Townsend EC (1992) Radial growth response of understory sugar maple (Acer saccharum) surrounding openings. For Ecol Manag 55:249–257
Vašíčková I, Šamonil P, Král K, Ubilla AEF, Daněk P, Adam D (2019) Driving factors of the growth response of Fagus sylvatica L. to disturbances: a comprehensive study from Central-European old-growth forests. For Ecol Manag 444:96–106
Walters MB, Lajzerowicz CC, Coates KD (2006) Soil resources and the growth and nutrition of tree seedlings near harvest gap-forest edges in interior cedar-hemlock forests of British Columbia. Can J for Res 36:62–76
Wang B, Yu P, Yu Y, Wan Y, Wang Y, Zhang L, Xu L (2020) Effects of canopy position on climate-growth relationships of Qinghai spruce in the central Qilian mountains, northwestern China. Dendrochronologia 64:125756
Xiao T, Wang C, Yuan X, Tao L, Li P, Deng W, Liu Y (2022) Effects of different forest gap ages on soil physical properties and stoichiometric characteristics in Cryptomeria japonica plantations (Lf) D. Don, 1839. Forests 13(10):1708. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101708
Xu ZH, Chen CR, He JZ, Liu JX (2009) Trends and challenges in soil research 2009: linking global climate change to local long-term forest productivity. J Soils Sediments 9:83–88
Xu Y, Li W, Shao X, Xu Z, Nugroho P (2014) Long-term trends in intrinsic water-use efficiency and growth of subtropical Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. and Pinus taiwanensis Hayata in central China. J Soils Sediments 14:917–927
Zang C, Biondi F (2015) Treeclim: an R package for the numerical calibration of proxy-climate relationships. Ecography 38:431–436
Zhou Q, Shi H, Liu C, Zhang K, Zhang Q, Dang H (2018) Disturbance history of an old-growth subalpine larch forest in the Qinling Mountains, north-central China. Dendrochronologia 50:91–97
Ziaco E, Biondi F, Di Filippo A, Piovesan G (2012) Biogeoclimatic influences on tree growth releases identified by the boundary line method in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) populations of southern Europe. For Ecol Manag 286:28–37
Acknowledgements
We sincerely acknowledge the cordial assistance in the field work of Jiahui Huang and Tianjun Bai. We are grateful for the financial support from the Jiangxi Provincial Forestry Good Seed and Good Law Project “Promotion and Demonstration of Renewal Techniques for Japanese Cedar and Japanese Cypress in Mount Lu.”
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: C.W. and Y.L.; methodology: C.W., P.L., T.B., and W.D.; investigation: C.W., P.L., T.X., and T.B.; data curation: C.W.; writing—original draft preparation: C.W.; writing—review and editing: W.D. and Y.L.; all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible editor: Zhihong Xu
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, C., Li, P., Xiao, T. et al. Effects of climate change and forest gap disturbance on the growth characteristics of Japanese cypress and Japanese cedar on Mount Lushan, subtropical China. J Soils Sediments (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-024-03777-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-024-03777-y