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A new approach to identify the climatic drivers of leaf production reconstructed from the past yearly variation in annual shoot lengths in an evergreen conifer (Picea mariana)

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Annual shoot length is useful for analyzing the climate influence on tree level leaf production because it is proportional to leaf mass, and their yearly variations are synchronized within trees.

Abstract

Recent global warming could cause boreal forests to become carbon sources instead of large carbon sinks. A robust prediction of carbon uptake capacity of such forests is, therefore, necessary. However, even though leaf production is a determinant of forest carbon sink capacity, reconstructing annual leaf production in evergreen conifers is still challenging. A new method was proposed to reconstruct the past yearly variation in leaf production of evergreen conifers and was applied to an open stand of Picea mariana in Canada. A clear linear relationship was obtained between annual shoot length and leaf dry mass. Annual shoot lengths on primary branches were measured for over twenty years on ten mature trees. Yearly variations in these lengths were synchronized within trees, which suggests that the measured variation could be scaled up from the branch to the tree level. They were also synchronized among most of the sampled trees; however, two trees showed their own variation. These differences must be considered before scaling up from the tree to the stand level. Neither tree-ring width nor radial area increment of the stem at breast height predicted leaf production. Temperature and rainfall during the growing season were the dominant climatic drivers of leaf production reconstructed from annual shoot lengths. Leaf production may increase under future global warming if the temperature continues to rise and precipitation during the growing season does not decrease, which would otherwise negate the growth benefits of a warmer climate.

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Acknowledgements

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to the late Professor Akira Osawa for the inspiration, field support, and deep discussions. He is a person who should be a senior author; however, we have included him in our acknowledgments because his final approval for this paper was not obtained. We also thank Ruth Ann Gal, David Hahn, Nahoko Kurach, Yojiro Matsuura, Kai Moriguchi, and Hatena Osawa for their field assistance and useful discussions about the study area. We are particularly grateful to Naoki Okada for the helpful advice in writing the manuscript and to the reviewers for the conscientious read, critical comments, and useful advice. Parks Canada and Aurora Research Institute of Northwest Territories issued the research licenses (No. WB-2018-28961 and No. 16483, respectively). The staff members are acknowledged for their assistance with field measurements, especially Sharon Irwin from the Wood Buffalo National Park, for her fieldwork advice.

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) grant (No. 18H04008), which was obtained by Professor Akira Osawa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Tomoko Tanabe

  2. Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Daniel Epron & Masako Dannoura

  3. Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000, Nancy, France

    Daniel Epron

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  1. Tomoko Tanabe
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Correspondence to Tomoko Tanabe.

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Tanabe, T., Epron, D. & Dannoura, M. A new approach to identify the climatic drivers of leaf production reconstructed from the past yearly variation in annual shoot lengths in an evergreen conifer (Picea mariana). Trees 36, 179–190 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-021-02193-w

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