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Divergent responses of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) to recent warming along elevational gradients in the central Qilian Mountains, Northwest China

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Abstract

Understanding the radial growth trends of trees and their response to recent warming along elevation gradients is crucial for assessing how forests will be impacted by future climate change. Here, we collected 242 tree-ring cores from five plots across the Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) forest belt (2600–3350 m a.s.l.) in the central Qilian Mountains, Northwest China, to study trends in the radial growth of trees and their response to climate factors with variable elevation. All the sampled P. crassifolia chronologies showed an increasing trend in the radial growth of trees at higher altitudes (3000–3350 m), whereas the radial growth of trees at lower altitudes (2600–2800 m) has decreased in recent decades. The radial growth of trees was limited by precipitation at lower elevations (L, ML), but mainly by temperature at higher elevation sites (MH, H, TL). Climate warming has caused an unprecedented increase in the radial growth of P. crassifolia at higher elevations. Our results suggest that ongoing climate warming is beneficial to forest ecosystems at high elevations but restricts the growth of forest ecosystems at low elevations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Qipeng Sun, Yiran Zhang, Zhenyu Tu, Dingcai Yin, Haowen Fan, Haijiang Yang, Kaixuan Yang, Rui Bian, Miaomiao Du, Kai Wang, Jie Liu, Jingqing Xia, Lanya Liu and Fangjingcheng Zhu for their kind field and laboratory works.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Weiguo Zhang, Xiaohua Gou, Fen Zhang, Wenhuo Liu & Linlin Gao

  2. Gansu Liancheng Forest Ecosystem Field Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Weiguo Zhang, Xiaohua Gou, Fen Zhang & Linlin Gao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CAS, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Wenhuo Liu

  4. National Plateau Wetlands Research Center, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, 650224, China

    Yun Zhang

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  1. Weiguo Zhang
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  2. Xiaohua Gou
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  3. Fen Zhang
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  4. Wenhuo Liu
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Correspondence to Xiaohua Gou.

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Foundation

National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41790422; The Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP), No.2019QZKK0301; The National Key Research & Development (R&D) Program of China, No.2019YFC0507401; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41801018; The 111 Project, No.BP0618001; The Foundation for Excellent Youth Scholars of “Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources”, CAS, No.FEYS2019004

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Zhang Weiguo (1990–), PhD, E-mail: zhangwg18@lzu.edu.cn

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Zhang, W., Gou, X., Zhang, F. et al. Divergent responses of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) to recent warming along elevational gradients in the central Qilian Mountains, Northwest China. J. Geogr. Sci. 33, 151–168 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-023-2077-y

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