Climatic factors controlling Pinus sylvestris radial growth along a transect of increasing continentality in southern Siberia

Abstract

The forest-steppe ecotone in southern Siberia is characterized by a strong dependence of tree growth on summer drought, which is expected to increase under ongoing climate change, with potential consequences for regional and global water and carbon cycles. Since climate conditions control tree secondary growth throughout the growing season, it is assumed that climate change will differently impact the formation of particular tree-ring sectors. In this study, we evaluated spatiotemporal trends in Pinus sylvestris L. tree-ring traits: tree-ring (RW), earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) widths, as well as their climate response in order to understand potential reactions of P. sylvestris radial growth to climate change along a 4900 km longitudinal transect of increasing continentality in southern Siberia. Results indicated an increasing tree radial growth from the West to the East along the transect. Tree-ring parameters were sensitive to drought, showing a temporal delay in the climatic signals of LW (summer) relative to EW (spring). Climate control of tree growth was stronger at the western site, while it was alleviated over time in eastern sites. This study highlighted the wide plasticity of P. sylvestris to thrive within a wide range of climatic conditions, also suggesting that future drought, as predicted by climate change simulations, will potentially impact P. sylvestris growth differently along the studied gradient, being more susceptible at the western sites due to the current growth limitation.