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Abstract Detail



Physiology & Ecophysiology

Warner, Scott M. [1], Jarosz, Andrew M. [2], Telewski, Frank W. [3].

A Comparison of Dendroclimatic Relationships in Three Co-Occurring Forest Species in the Context of Climate Change.

Climate is currently changing at an unprecedented rate. Fossil pollen shows that plants responded to glacial retreat by shifting their distributions, and contemporary climate change has already altered plant distributions, and their phenology. Individual trees can live long enough to experience climatic shifts, and their growth response to them may be a bellwether for a species’ ability to acclimate to climate change. In Michigan, white oak (Quercus alba), red oak (Q. alba), and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) are important components of forest communities across a wide range of site types. Individuals of each species can live for centuries, long enough to experience recent climatic shifts in Michigan. Annual temperature there has increased nearly 1° C since 1895, and annual precipitation has been steadily increasing since the 1930s. Here we perform a dendroclimatic correlative analysis of 100-plus-year-old populations of white oak, red oak, and shagbark hickory co-occurring at a single site in southern Michigan. We find relationships between radial growth and climate, compare these relationships during a cool (1897-1930) and warm period (1931-1964), and speculate about the implications of our results in the face of continuing climate change. We found few differences in growth-climate relationships between the warm and cool period, and those that were found had no consistent pattern. Thus, we assumed that growth-climate relationships were stable, and we assessed them over the entire climatic record (1897-2015). Among our study species, all of which are ring-porous and xerophytic, growth-climate relationships were similar, supporting the hypothesis that species within functional groups respond similarly to climate. Negative relationships with temperature during the year of ring formation, and positive relationships with precipitation, suggest summer moisture stress to be limiting at this site. Additionally, white oak growth was negatively correlated with temperature in August of the year preceding ring formation and positively with current-January precipitation, shagbark hickory growth was negatively correlated with current-March temperature and positively with current-January precipitation, and red oak growth was positively correlated with prior-November precipitation. Ongoing climate change could be detrimental to these populations if temperature increases are not counteracted by increased summer precipitation.


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1 - Michigan State University, Plant Biology, Plant Biology Laborotories, 612 Wilson Rd., Room 143, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
2 - Michigan State University, Plant Biology; Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Plant Biology Laborotories, 612 Wilson Rd., Room 143, East Lansing, MI, 48824, United States
3 - Michigan State University, Plant Biology; W.J. Beal Botanical Garden, Campus Planning and Administration, 408 West Circle Drive, Room 412, East Lansing, MI, 48824, United States

Keywords:
dendrochronology
white oak
Quercus alba
radial growth
climate change.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Physiology & Ecophysiology
Location: Exhibit Hall/Omni Hotel
Date: Monday, June 26th, 2017
Time: 5:30 PM This poster will be presented at 6:15 pm. The Poster Session runs from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Posters with odd poster numbers are presented at 5:30 pm, and posters with even poster numbers are presented at 6:15 pm.
Number: PPE002
Abstract ID:162
Candidate for Awards:Physiological Section Physiological Section Li-COR Prize


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