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Climatic impacts and drought control of radial growth and seasonal wood formation in Pinus halepensis

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Abstract

Short- and long-term growth responses to drought and climatic influences still remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the impact of climatic drivers (temperature, precipitation) and drought, using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) calculated at different time scales (1–48 months), on earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) widths in Pinus halepensis. Nine forests subjected to dry summer conditions were sampled in Mediterranean semi-arid areas from north-eastern Spain. In addition, we explored the seasonal dynamics of cambial activity and wood formation in relation to short-term climate variability. We found two peaks of tracheid cell production corresponding to EW (May–June) and LW (mid-July–August) growth phases, associated with a sharp decrease in enlarging cells in early July in response to low water availability. In the period of analysis (1970–2005), EW growth was positively correlated with precipitation in previous December and current January, April, May and June, while it was negatively correlated with temperature in June and July. LW was correlated positively with minimum temperatures in January. Probably this was an indirect relationship as a consequence of increased EW width at higher January temperatures. Drought affected more negatively EW than LW formation as evidenced the higher SPI-EW correlation (r = 0.72) than the SPI-LW one (r = 0.54). The strongest EW response to drought was observed in July, whereas the highest LW response to drought occurred in September; and this seasonal pattern matched the phases of lowest EW and LW tracheid production. Under a future reduction of winter and spring precipitation, the studied forests may show a decrease in tracheid cell production, causing a decline of radial growth, a reduction in hydraulic conductivity and, indirectly, a hampered carbon uptake in such semi-arid woodlands.

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Acknowledgments

Edmond Pasho thanks the financial support of the Albanian Ministry of Education and Science. This work has been supported by the research projects CGL2008-01189/BTE, CGL2008-04847-C02-01/BOS, CGL2011-27574-CO2-02, CGL2008-05112-C02-01/BOS CGL2011-27536 and CGL2011-26654 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, and EUROGEOSS (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226487) and ACQWA (FP7-ENV-2007-1-212250) financed by the VII Framework Program of the European Commission. JJC thanks the support of ARAID. We thank the support in the field of J.M. Gil and V. Pérez Fortea and the Spanish “Agencia Estatal de Meteorología” for providing the meteorological data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARAID-Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, Zaragoza, 50080, Spain

    J. Julio Camarero

  2. Faculty of Forestry Sciences, Agricultural University of Tirana, 1029, Kodër-Kamëz, Tirana, Albania

    Edmond Pasho

  3. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, Zaragoza, 50080, Spain

    Edmond Pasho & Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano

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  1. Edmond Pasho
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  2. J. Julio Camarero
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Correspondence to Edmond Pasho.

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Communicated by S. Mayr.

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Pasho, E., Julio Camarero, J. & Vicente-Serrano, S.M. Climatic impacts and drought control of radial growth and seasonal wood formation in Pinus halepensis . Trees 26, 1875–1886 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0756-x

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