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Age effects and climate response in trees: a multi-proxy tree-ring test in old-growth life stages

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Abstract

Aging in trees implies a progressive reduction in the growth rate, related to a shortening of the growing period and changes in the photosynthetic capability and efficiency. These changes may continue during the old-growth life stages following the juvenile phase and are reflected in tree-ring properties such as growth increment, density or stable isotopes. We studied possible climate age effects in time series of several tree-ring parameters (ring width, wood density and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes) of mature individuals from two age groups of Pinus uncinata and P. nigra at two locations in Spain. The aim was to test whether age differences in trees in the old-growth life stages could lead to diverging climate responses. The results show some differences in response to climate between age groups at a monthly level, but most of these divergences are not significant for seasonal climate variables. Regardless of the age group, the main limiting climate factors constrained tree growth equally. Although our findings do not support the idea of an age-dependent response to climate that may lead to inaccurate climate reconstructions, further studies using tree-ring density and stable isotope series are urgently needed to verify the current results.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Carmen Bürger and Christoph Küppers for the isotope analyses and Björn Günther for performing all density measurements. This research was funded by EU project MILLENNIUM (017008-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament d’Ecologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Isabel Dorado Liñán, Emilia Gutiérrez, Laia Andreu-Hayles, Elena Muntán & Filipe Campelo

  2. German Centre for Geosciences, Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, Potsdam Dendro Laboratory, Potsdam, Germany

    Isabel Dorado Liñán, Ingo Heinrich & Gerhard Helle

  3. Tree-Ring Laboratory, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA

    Laia Andreu-Hayles

  4. Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Centro de Ecologia Funcional, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Filipe Campelo

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  1. Isabel Dorado Liñán
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  2. Emilia Gutiérrez
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Correspondence to Isabel Dorado Liñán.

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Communicated by G. Brazaitis.

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Dorado Liñán, I., Gutiérrez, E., Heinrich, I. et al. Age effects and climate response in trees: a multi-proxy tree-ring test in old-growth life stages. Eur J Forest Res 131, 933–944 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0566-5

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