Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-10-2017

Keywords

Treeline, Climate response

Abstract

Tree rings have long been used to make inferences about the environmental factors that influence tree growth. Great Basin bristlecone pine is a long-lived species and valuable dendroclimatic resource, but often with mixed growth signals; in many cases, not all trees at one location are limited by the same environmental variable. Past work has identified an elevational threshold below the upper treeline above which trees are limited by temperature, and below which trees tend to be moisture limited. This study identifies a similar threshold in terms of temperature instead of elevation through fine-scale topoclimatic modeling, which uses a suite of topographic and temperature-sensor data to predict temperatures across landscapes. We sampled trees near the upper limit of growth at four high-elevation locations in the Great Basin region, USA, and used cluster analysis to find dual-signal patterns in radial growth. We observed dual-signal patterns in ring widths at two of those sites, with the signals mimicking temperature and precipitation patterns. Trees in temperature-sensitive clusters grew in colder areas, while moisture-sensitive cluster trees grew in warmer areas. We found thresholds between temperatureand moisture-sensitivity ranging from 7.4 °C to 8°C growing season mean temperature. Our findings allow for a better physiological understanding of bristlecone pine growth, and seek to improve the accuracy of climate reconstructions.

Publication Title

Environmental Research Letters

Volume

12

Issue

1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa5388

Required Publisher's Statement

IOP Publishing

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa5388

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Great Basin bristlecone pine--Climatic factors--Great Basin; Dendroclimatology--Great Basin; Dendrochronology--Great Basin; Topoclimatology--Great Basin

Geographic Coverage

Great Basin

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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