Publication details
A millennium-long perspective on high-elevation pine recruitment in the Spanish central Pyrenees
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Canadian journal of forest research. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfr-2018-0025#.XoME_ogzZaQ |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2018-0025 |
| Keywords | dendroecology; Pinus uncinata; subalpine forests; recruitment; tree rings |
| Description | Long-term fluctuations in forest recruitment, at time scales well beyond the life-span of individual trees, can be related to climate changes. The underlying climatic drivers are, however, often understudied. Here, we present the recruitment history of a high-elevation mountain pine (Pinus uncinata Ram.) forest in the Spanish central Pyrenees throughout the last millennium. A total of 1108 ring-width series translated into a continuous chronology from 924 to 2014 CE, which allowed estimated germination dates of 470 trees to be compared against decadal-scale temperature variability. High recruitment intensity mainly coincided with relatively warm periods in the early 14th, 15th, 19th, and 20th centuries, whereas cold phases during the mid-17th, early 18th, and mid-19th centuries overlapped with generally low recruitment rates. In revealing the importance of prolonged warm conditions for high-elevation pine recruitment in the Pyrenees, this study suggests increased densification and even possible upward migration of tree-line ecotones under predicted global warming. |