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Radial growth change of temperate tree species in response to altered regional climate and air quality in the period 1901–2008

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Abstract

Both increasing and decreasing 20th century growth trends have been reported in forests throughout Europe, but only for few species and areas suitable modelling techniques have been used to distinguish individual tree growth (operating on a local scale) from growth change due to exogenous factors (operating on a broad geographical scale). This study relates for the first time observed growth changes, in terms of basal area increment (BAI) of dominant trees of pedunculate oak, common beech and Scots pine, in north-west European temperate lowland forests (Flanders) to climate, atmospheric CO2 and tropospheric O3 concentrations, N deposition, site quality and forest structure for more than a century (the period 1901–2008), applying mixed models. Growth change during the 20th century is observed for oak (increasing growth) and beech (increasing growth until the 1960s, growth decline afterwards), but not for pine. It was possible to relate growth change of oak and beech to climate time series and N deposition trends. Adding time series for CO2 and O3 concentration did not significantly improve model results. For oak and beech a switch from positive to negative growth response with increasing nitrogen deposition throughout time is observed. Growth increase for oak is mainly determined by the interaction between growing season temperature and soil water recharge. It is reasonable to assume that the observed growth trend for oak will continue for as long as early season water availability is not compromised. The decreasing trend in summer relative air humidity observed since the 1960s in the study area can be a main cause of recent beech BAI decrease. A further growth decline of beech can be expected, independent of site quality.

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Abbreviations

AI:

Aridity index

AIC:

Akaike information criterion

BAI:

Basal area increment

BAL:

Basal area of the larger trees

BIC:

Bayesian information criterion

DBH:

Diameter at breast height

P:

Precipitation

PET:

Potential EvapoTranspiration

PBL:

Planetary boundary layer

RH:

Relative humidity

(r)RMSE:

(relative) Root Mean Square Error

Tx, Tm, Ta, :

Temperature (max, min, average)

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Acknowledgements

This study has been conducted as part of the SimForTree project (www.SimForTree.be; IWT-SBO contract 060032) and was further supported by the Research Fund K.U.Leuven (OT/07/046). Meteorological and other environmental data were kindly made available by KMI, KNMI, CDIAC and JRC/PBL. The authors wish to thank Joost Malliet, Marc De Vrieze, Sofie Bruneel and Kristof Haneca for their technical support, and Reinhart Ceulemans as well as two anonymous reviewers for their constructive review of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Box 2411, BE-3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Vincent Kint, Wim Aertsen & Bart Muys

  2. Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, BE-2610, Wilrijk, Belgium

    Matteo Campioli

  3. Laboratory of Wood Technology, Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, BE-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Dries Vansteenkiste

  4. Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, BE-1180, Brussels, Belgium

    Andy Delcloo

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  1. Vincent Kint
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Correspondence to Vincent Kint.

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Kint, V., Aertsen, W., Campioli, M. et al. Radial growth change of temperate tree species in response to altered regional climate and air quality in the period 1901–2008. Climatic Change 115, 343–363 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0465-x

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