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Has an extending growing season any effect on the radial growth of Smith fir at the timberline on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau?

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Abstract

The growing season of high-elevation forests will presumably lengthen in response to warming. However, little is known about long-term effects of an extended growing season, particularly on the Tibetan Plateau. Based on a strong correlation between the daily mean temperatures at an automatic weather station at timberline (4,390 m a.s.l.) in the Sygera Mts., recorded since 2007, and at the meteorological station at Nyingchi (3,000 m a.s.l.), recorded since 1960, we modeled the variation in daily mean temperature at the timberline back to 1960. The onset and end of the growing season at the timberline were determined by the first and the last day within a year when the mean daily air temperature equals or exceeds, respectively falls below, +5 °C for at least 5 days. From 1960 to 2010, the estimated length of the growing season at the timberline has significantly extended by 21.2 days, resulting mainly from a significant delay of its end (by 14.6 days) rather than from an earlier onset (by 6.6 days). Nevertheless, the variation of the length of the growing season did not exhibit any significant effect on the radial growth of Smith fir at the timberlines. Thus, tree-ring width is still a reliable proxy for summer temperature.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program, the “Strategic Priority Research Program—Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Relevant Issues” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-Y W-QN 111, XDA05090311) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41130529). We thank the Southeast Tibet Station for Alpine Environment, Observation and Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences for the great support of fieldwork, and the communicating editor (Prof. Dr. Achim Bräuning) and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes (TEL), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China

    Bo Liu, Liping Zhu, Binod Dawadi & Eryuan Liang

  2. Meteorological Observation Center, China Meteorological Administration, 100081, Beijing, China

    Yan Li

  3. Department of Wood Science, University of Hamburg, Leuschnerstrasse 91, 21031, Hamburg, Germany

    Dieter Eckstein

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China

    Bo Liu & Binod Dawadi

  5. Central Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Binod Dawadi

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  1. Bo Liu
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  2. Yan Li
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  3. Dieter Eckstein
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  4. Liping Zhu
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  5. Binod Dawadi
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  6. Eryuan Liang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eryuan Liang.

Additional information

Communicated by A. Braeuning.

Special topic: Dendroecology in Asia.

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Liu, B., Li, Y., Eckstein, D. et al. Has an extending growing season any effect on the radial growth of Smith fir at the timberline on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau?. Trees 27, 441–446 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0819-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-012-0819-z

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