DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-14DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126214
Cláudia Fontana , Lidio López , Guaciara M. Santos , Ricardo Villalba , Bruna Hornink , Gabriel Assis-Pereira , Fidel A. Roig , Mario Tomazello-Filho
{"title":"A new chronology of Cedrela fissilis (Meliaceae) for Southern Brazil: Combining classical dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating","authors":"Cláudia Fontana , Lidio López , Guaciara M. Santos , Ricardo Villalba , Bruna Hornink , Gabriel Assis-Pereira , Fidel A. Roig , Mario Tomazello-Filho","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126214","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126214","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><em>Cedrela fissilis</em> is a tree species widely distributed in the tropical biomes of South America. This species has visible annual growth rings and can live for several centuries. The present study aims to (i) develop a chronology of <em>C. fissilis</em> to the Southern Brazilian Plateau using traditional dendrochronological methods, (ii) validate the dendrochronological dating using the radiocarbon (<sup>14</sup>C) bomb pulse method, and (iii) determine the influence of temperature and precipitation variations and their teleconnections with the tropical Pacific Ocean temperatures on the annual radial growth of this species. The ring width chronology was developed using 24 <em>C. fissilis</em> trees. The Schulman years of 1957, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1969 and 1974 were independently dated using the <sup>14</sup>C bomb pulse methodology by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Tree-ring indices were compared with temperature and precipitation records from stations around the study forest. The chronology covers the period 1907–2018 (111 years) and is well replicated (> 10 trees) from 1941 onwards. Statistics commonly used in dendrochronology indicate that the chronology is highly reliable and of good quality (mean series intercorrelation r = 0.49; Rbar = 0.30; EPS = 0.86; MSI = 0.40). The <sup>14</sup>C bomb pulse of selected calendar years showed that the trees were accurately dated using the classical cross-dating approach. Precipitation from November to December (wet period) is positively correlated with tree growth (r = 0.36, n = 49; p<0.05). In addition, variations in temperature from May to July are positively correlated with ring width (r = 0.39, n = 49; p<0.05), suggesting that <em>C. fissilis</em> growth is favored by abundant rainfall during the growing season and above-average winter temperatures. Interannual variation in the chronology is partially modulated by El Niño 3.4 (East Central Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature) during Oct-Dec (r = 0.27, n = 68, p<0.05). The growth of <em>C. fissilis</em> trees is directly dependent on climate variability, suggesting that more abundant precipitation and higher winter temperatures, as projected for the future climate of southern Brazil, will have a positive effect on tree growth. However, prolonged droughts and high temperatures during the growing season will have a negative impact on tree growth, even in humid forests with high soil moisture content.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126214"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141028921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dendrochronology and extreme climate signals recorded in seven Icelandic shrubs: A multi-species approach in the sub-Arctic","authors":"Magdalena Opała-Owczarek , Piotr Owczarek , Mohit Phulara , Zuzanna Bielec-Bąkowska , Zuzanna Wawrzyniak","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126207","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126207","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Iceland, located in the climatologically sensitive subarctic zone, is one of the key areas for studying climate change and the current Arctic warming. Poor and rich heathland covers approximately 30% of Iceland, with heath vegetation being the area’s most important vegetation type. Prostrate and erect dwarf shrub and shrub species are the primary sources of dendrochronological information on the changes and characteristics of Iceland’s climate. Here, we investigate the dendrochronological potential of seven common Icelandic heathland species (<em>Dryas octopetala</em>, <em>Calluna vulgaris</em>, <em>Salix arctica</em>, <em>Salix herbacea</em>, <em>Empetrum nigrum</em>, <em>Juniperus communis nana</em>, and <em>Betula nana</em>) and explore the impact of climate conditions on their growth, particularly with regard to extreme meteorological events. We conducted comparative analyses among species and observed their climatic responses in a climatically, morphologically, and geologically homogeneous setting in north-eastern Iceland. After sampling, measurements, and cross-dating, we constructed local chronologies for the seven species. Of approximately 200 samples, only 113 were included in the final shrub chronologies. All chronologies covered at least 50 years, with few of them exceeding 100 years. Dendroclimatological analysis indicated that above-average temperatures in June and summer positively influence the growth of <em>D. octopetala</em> (June–September), <em>J. communis</em> (July–August), <em>B. nana</em> (July–August), <em>C. vulgaris</em> (June–August), and <em>S. arctica</em> (August–September). The opposite is observed for <em>S. herbacea</em> and <em>E. nigrum</em>. Climate–growth correlations indicate that the growth of these species is negatively correlated with temperature and positively correlated with winter and summer precipitation. Furthermore, among the long-lived woody species growing in Iceland, seven common species were used to assess the impact of extreme meteorological conditions on their growth. The most pronounced extreme year in the wood anatomy of Icelandic shrubs was 1979, depicted as very narrow or missing rings and as the blue ring in <em>J. communis</em>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126207"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141038917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-12DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126213
Hao Wu , Keyan Fang , Xinyan Li
{"title":"Examining the effect of sample size on the estimation of low-frequency signals in tree-ring chronologies","authors":"Hao Wu , Keyan Fang , Xinyan Li","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126213","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126213","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Dendrochronology utilizes mean values of individual tree-ring indices to average out noise and strengthen common signals, typically associated with climate. Expressed Population Signal (EPS) is commonly used to assess the degree to which a chronology represents the common signal. However, there is a lack of studies on how EPS reflects low-frequency signals. In this study, we propose a frequency-dependent EPS (FEPS) approach to evaluating the low-frequency signal strength. Extensive tests were conducted using tree rings from Chinese Loess Plateau. We found that as timescales lengthen, EPS decreases due to declining inter-series correlations, thus demanding larger sample sizes. This finding remains robust across different detrending methods, filtering methods, filter orders, and treatments for end effects. Determining sample sizes by standard EPS (common use of EPS with unfiltered series) has a limited impact on multi-year frequencies, but considerably influences timescales exceeding a decade. Our study reveals a prevalent underestimation of sample size requirements for robust multi-year and interdecadal signals estimation, and the FEPS approach is expected to potentially enhance our understanding of long-term climate dynamics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126213"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141042967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126212
A. Elzanowska , E. Tsakanika , A. Christopoulou , Y. Özarslan , T. Ważny
{"title":"Dendrochronological examination of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary orthodox church in the village of Pades, Greece","authors":"A. Elzanowska , E. Tsakanika , A. Christopoulou , Y. Özarslan , T. Ważny","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126212","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126212","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The current study is a dendrochronological analysis of the wood from the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Pades, Greece which was built towards the end of the 18th century according to historical sources. The tree-ring analysis shows that the date, 1784, given on the inscription at the main entrance of the church probably documents the year when the construction works began, and that there were several construction stages of the structural and decorative elements of the church until the early 19th century. Moreover, the oldest (reused) timber elements that were identified through the dendrochronological study date back to the first half of the 15th century and may indicate the first traces of the construction activity in and around Pades. The dendrochronological study enabled the development of three local reference chronologies for the Epirus region. The timespan for the developed chronologies for the church in Pades is: 1262–1825 for <em>Pinus heldreichii</em> (Bosnian pine), 1295–1854 for <em>Pinus nigra</em> (Black pine), and 1571–1767 for <em>Quercus</em> sp. (Deciduous oak).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126212"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141040073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126211
Genaro Gutiérrez-García, Martin Ricker
{"title":"Climatic effects on primary and secondary growth of Pinus oocarpa trees in southern Mexico","authors":"Genaro Gutiérrez-García, Martin Ricker","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126211","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126211","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We analyzed the influence of the local climate and three large-scale climatic phenomena on primary (crown) and secondary (radial) growth of 35 <em>Pinus oocarpa</em> trees in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve in southeastern Mexico. Whereas local satellite data of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was employed to analyze primary growth, annual tree-ring widths were measured and averaged across trees to quantify secondary growth for the site. For primary growth, a monthly time series of 26 years (1982–2008) resulted for the site. For secondary growth, the annual time series of tree-ring widths was for 45 years (1965–2008). The NDVI positively correlated with precipitation for March to May (<em>r</em> = 0.56), and tree-ring widths for January to June (<em>r</em> = 0.63). Maximum temperature correlated negatively with the NDVI for June to July (<em>r</em> =−0.55) and tree ring widths for June (<em>r</em> = −0.55). The results from correlation analysis and spatial correlation maps highlight the negative influence of the Pacific Ocean and the positive influence of the Atlantic Ocean on both types of growth, by causing large-scale climatic phenomena that affect the regional climate. The NDVI and radial growth positively correlated from April to July (<em>r</em> = 0.44), when both growth types resume concurrently, suggesting that carbohydrates produced in the crown lead to increased radial growth at the beginning of the growing season. Our study highlights the differential effects of large-scale climate phenomena on primary and secondary tree growth in a widespread tropical pine species in Mexico.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126211"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141052547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-09DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126209
Nicole E. Zampieri , Stephanie Pau , Monica T. Rother
{"title":"Variation in the strength and stationarity of southern longleaf pine seasonwood climate-growth relationships","authors":"Nicole E. Zampieri , Stephanie Pau , Monica T. Rother","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126209","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126209","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate change is predicted to cause asymmetric warming and increased precipitation variability across different seasons. These changes and their effects may be captured in subannual seasonwood measures of tree growth (i.e., earlywood, latewood). Longleaf pine is a foundational tree species throughout the broad southeastern U.S. Its latewood growth may be more variable and sensitive to climate change than earlywood, but prior studies have geographical and ecological sampling limitations. Here, we use dendroecological methods to develop ring-width and seasonwood (earlywood, latewood, and adjusted latewood) chronologies and analyze climate-growth relationships for longleaf pine from eight sites in the Southern Coastal Plain of Florida, USA. Sites spanned a range of environmental conditions to generate an ecologically representative dataset. We evaluated chronology strength and variability and determined monthly and seasonal correlations with precipitation and temperature. We furthermore evaluated climate-growth stationarity using a moving response function and bootstrapped transfer function stability tests. We found adjusted latewood chronologies were most climatically sensitive although totalwood chronologies had higher interseries correlations. Totalwood measurements were more variable than early- or latewood year to year. Tree growth was positively correlated with summer precipitation at six out of eight sites and negatively correlated with late summer maximum temperatures at six out of eight sites. Negative relationships between growth and maximum temperature occurred earlier in the year at southern sites and the positive effect of June precipitation on tree growth was notable, found at six out of eight sites. However, the strength and significance of climate-growth relationships were non-stationary through space and time, with shifts largely occurring post-1950s. Longleaf pine at its southern range extent was less sensitive to climate than more northern populations, which may indicate non-linear responses to warming captured at the species’ range margin. Our results highlight dynamic climate-growth relationships related to the broad range of environmental conditions where longleaf pine is found.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126209"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141027807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-05-03DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126208
Marín Pompa-García , Eduardo Daniel Vivar-Vivar , Bruna Hornink , José Alexis Martínez-Rivas , Daigard Ricardo Ortega-Rodriguez , Mario Tomazello-Filho
{"title":"Tree-ring wood density reveals differentiated hydroclimatic interactions in species along a bioclimatic gradient","authors":"Marín Pompa-García , Eduardo Daniel Vivar-Vivar , Bruna Hornink , José Alexis Martínez-Rivas , Daigard Ricardo Ortega-Rodriguez , Mario Tomazello-Filho","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126208","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate variations are influencing the growth dynamics of forests, with direct consequences on their biomass productivity. The scientific community, concerned with refining the understanding of tree-climate interactions, has recently used tree-ring density to elucidate ecological mechanisms that may be overlooked by earlywood, latewood, and total tree-ring widths. In this study, we model the sensitivity of intra-annual wood density in tree-rings for 15 species distributed across a broad bioclimatic and biodiverse gradient in the Mexican Republic. Maximum, minimum, latewood, and earlywood density (MaxD, MinD, LWD, and EWD, respectively) were associated with climatic data through correlation analysis and mixed-effects models. Maximum temperature (T<sub>MAX</sub>) and precipitation (P) stand out as key drivers of temporal density fluctuations, notably influencing MaxD and LWD as indicators of hydroclimatic regime changes. MinD and EWD are less responsive but prove valuable in gauging environmental sensitivity. <em>Abies religiosa</em> from the Southern Semi-Arid Highlands and <em>Picea martinezii</em> from Mediterranean California were the most responsive species to climate variables. These results open new paradigms for densitometry as a proxy for ecological processes that species face in anticipating dieback phenomena, mortality rates, and resilience mechanisms, with implications for productivity and carbon rates in the face of predicted climate variations. However, the wood density-climate relationship is even more complex, and integrative research combining other proxies (e.g., wood anatomy and chemical composition) is recommended to refine wood density variations and understand the causes of the interspecific differences found in this study.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126208"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140918501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-04-28DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126205
Inga K. Homfeld , Ulf Büntgen , Frederick Reinig , Max C.A. Torbenson , Jan Esper
{"title":"Application of RCS and signal-free RCS to tree-ring width and maximum latewood density data","authors":"Inga K. Homfeld , Ulf Büntgen , Frederick Reinig , Max C.A. Torbenson , Jan Esper","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126205","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Dendroclimatic research faces the challenge of selecting appropriate detrending methods for retaining low-frequency signals in temperature reconstructions. Among the numerous methods available to dendrochronologists, regional curve standardisation (RCS) and the signal-free approach in combination with RCS (SF-RCS) are increasingly used to preserve the full spectrum of temperature variance in tree-ring data. Here, we apply RCS and SF-RCS to tree-ring width (TRW) and maximum latewood density (MXD) datasets composed of only living and combined living and relict trees from northern Scandinavia. Whereas RCS and SF-RCS produce highly similar chronologies when applied to composite (living-plus-relict) datasets, particularly for MXD, both methods fail to establish chronologies coherent with regional temperature trends when applied to living-tree datasets. Additional tests including pruning of well-replicated living-tree datasets, to approximate the heterogenous age-structure of composite datasets, reveal improved results and coherent trends in MXD. While this demonstrates the applicability of joint detrending and pruning techniques to retain meaningful low-frequency variance in living-tree MXD chronologies, similar improvements were not achieved with TRW, likely because of the much stronger age-trend inherent to this widely used proxy. Further tests with other tree species and in alpine environments are needed to verify these findings. However, such assessments require an adjustment of tree-ring sampling protocols to increase replication to 50+ trees per site including old and young individuals to facilitate data pruning.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126205"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1125786524000420/pdfft?md5=746c174ce289117c78a31af62d43cea8&pid=1-s2.0-S1125786524000420-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140818585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-04-23DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126204
D.C. Pavão , D. Brunner , R. Resendes , J. Jevšenak , L. Borges Silva , L. Silva
{"title":"Climatic drivers and tree growth in a key production species: The case of Cryptomeria japonica (Thunb. ex L.f.) D.Don in the Azores archipelago","authors":"D.C. Pavão , D. Brunner , R. Resendes , J. Jevšenak , L. Borges Silva , L. Silva","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126204","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Forest management plays a crucial role in preserving and enhancing the delivery of ecosystem services, whereas dendrochronological methods can play a significant role in this regard. In the Azores archipelago, with a temperate oceanic climate, with low thermal amplitude, and mild and relatively wet Summers, <em>Cryptomeria japonica</em> (Thunb. ex L.f.) D.Don is the main timber production species. It has been extensively planted for timber production and erosion control, being the mainstay of the regional forestry chain, with a rotation period of 30 years. Although dendrochronological studies have targeted this species elsewhere, this dendrochronological study in the Azores aimed to better understand its climate-growth relationships in the archipelago. For this purpose, we sampled 140 trees, in a total of 361 wood cores samples. Following standard dendrochronological methods, we obtained four site chronologies from different volcanic complexes in São Miguel island. We used a stepwise modelling approach, with Random Forest, Principal Component Analysis and Generalized Linear Models. Our results suggest that despite year-round precipitation in the Azores, <em>C. japonica</em> is adversely affected by warm Winter and Summers, while on site SC it benefits from these conditions. As previously observed, precipitation may be overshadowed by temperature-driven mechanisms in <em>C. japonica</em>. Our spatial analysis resulted into climate-growth associations with similar directions for all site chronologies. In the future, higher Winters and Summer temperatures could lead to increased water stress and reduced growth rates. This should be considered when projecting the future distribution and productivity of <em>C. japonica</em> forests under different climate change scenarios. To ensure the long-term survival of this economically important tree species, adaptation responses should include genetic and conservation measures. Our findings provide baseline information for defining management approaches for this strategic species.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126204"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140649319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DendrochronologiaPub Date : 2024-04-23DOI: 10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126206
Momchil Panayotov, Nickolay Tsvetanov
{"title":"Dating of avalanches in Pirin mountains in Bulgaria by tree-ring analysis of Pinus peuce and Pinus heldriechii trees","authors":"Momchil Panayotov, Nickolay Tsvetanov","doi":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126206","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126206","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Snow avalanches are among the most important disturbances in mountain ecosystems. The effects of avalanches on the endemic <em>Pinus heldreichii</em> and <em>Pinus peuce</em> forests in the Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria are poorly understood. These forests are among the few remaining old-growth forests with preserved natural dynamics in Europe. However, the ongoing development of tourist infrastructure at the borders of some of the best-preserved <em>Pinus heldreichii</em> and <em>Pinus peuce</em> forests close to Bansko ski resort leads to increased tourist pressure. Many backcountry skiers and snowboarders venture beyond the resort boundaries, practicing their activities in these forests and avalanche tracks and couloirs within them. The objective of our study was to collect tree-ring cores from <em>Pinus peuce</em> and Pinus <em>heldreichii</em> trees affected by avalanches and verify the specific types of damages and tree responses characteristic for the species and region. Then using the collected data, we aimed at reconstructing the years in which specific areas were affected by avalanches and in this way obtain data on the magnitude of larger events. Our study shows that large magnitude avalanches (LMA) in the vicinity of Bansko ski resort in the Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria occurred dozens of times in the 20th century. On average the period between LMAs ranged between 9 and 20 years with the shortest period between two such events in one couloir being 2 years. Avalanches affected forests high on the couloir banks and left traces in the tree rings related to the mechanical impact that snow avalanches had on the surviving trees. In the studied tree-ring cores of <em>Pinus peuce</em> and <em>Pinus heldreichii</em> the most informative types of responses were sharp growth suppressions, including missing rings, followed by reaction wood and in less cases visible scars and callus tissue. Our data for frequent large avalanches shows that is necessary to address the avalanche risk with high priority especially for the Palashica couloir, which directly threatens the lower parts of the ski runs as well as other facilities in Bansko ski resort.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50595,"journal":{"name":"Dendrochronologia","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 126206"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1125786524000432/pdfft?md5=387bcf88acdedd01c28512085634b618&pid=1-s2.0-S1125786524000432-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140757127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}