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Changing relationships between tree growth and climate in Northwest China

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Abstract

Recently, several studies have shown changing relationships between tree growth and climate factors, mostly in the circumpolar north. There, changing relationships with climate seem to be linked to emergent subpopulation behavior. Here, we test for these phenomena in Northwest China using three tree species (Pinus tabulaeformis, Picea crassifolia, and Sabina przewalskii) that had been collected from six sites at Qilian Mts. and Helan Mts. in Northwest China. We first checked for growth divergence of individual sites and then investigated the relationship between tree growth and climate factors using moving correlation functions (CF). Two species, Pinus and Sabina, from two sites clearly showed growth divergence, not only in the late twentieth century as reported in other studies, but also over nearly the whole record. In divergent sites, one chronology shows more stable relationships with climate factors (usually precipitation). In non-divergent sites, nearly all relationships either vary in strength or become non-significant at one point. While this might possibly be related to increased stress on some trees due to increasing temperature, the exact causes for this shift in sensitivity remain unclear. We would like to highlight the necessity for additional studies investigating possible non-stationary growth responses of trees with climate, especially at sites that are used for climate reconstruction as our sites in Northwest China.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Jayendra Singh and Jinbao Li for discussing and help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Arid Environment and Paleoclimate Research, Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Ministry of Education, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Yongxiang Zhang & Xiaohua Gou

  2. Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing, 100085, People’s Republic of China

    Yongxiang Zhang

  3. Ecosystem Dynamics, Institute for Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Grimmer Strasse 88, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Yongxiang Zhang & Martin Wilmking

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  1. Yongxiang Zhang
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  2. Martin Wilmking
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  3. Xiaohua Gou
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Correspondence to Yongxiang Zhang.

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Zhang, Y., Wilmking, M. & Gou, X. Changing relationships between tree growth and climate in Northwest China. Plant Ecol 201, 39–50 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9478-y

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