Tree growth response along an elevational gradient: climate or genetics?

King, Gregory; Gugerli, Felix; Fonti, Patrick; Frank, David (2013). Tree growth response along an elevational gradient: climate or genetics? Oecologia, 173(4), pp. 1587-1600. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 10.1007/s00442-013-2696-6

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Environment and genetics combine to influence tree growth and should therefore be jointly considered when evaluating forest responses in a warming climate. Here, we combine dendroclimatology and population genetic approaches with the aim of attributing climatic influences on growth of European larch (Larix decidua) and Norway spruce (Picea abies). Increment cores and genomic DNA samples were collected from populations along a ~900-m elevational transect where the air temperature gradient encompasses a ~4 °C temperature difference. We found that low genetic differentiation among populations indicates gene flow is high, suggesting that migration rate is high enough to counteract the selective pressures of local environmental variation. We observed lower growth rates towards higher elevations and a transition from negative to positive correlations with growing season temperature upward along the elevational transect. With increasing elevation there was also a clear increase in the explained variance of growth due to summer temperatures. Comparisons between climate sensitivity patterns observed along this elevational transect with those from Larix and Picea sites distributed across the Alps reveal good agreement, and suggest that tree-ring width (TRW) variations are more climate-driven than genetics-driven at regional and larger scales. We conclude that elevational transects are an extremely valuable platform for understanding climatic-driven changes over time and can be especially powerful when working within an assessed genetic framework.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Physical Geography

UniBE Contributor:

Frank, David

Subjects:

900 History > 910 Geography & travel
500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0029-8549

Publisher:

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Language:

English

Submitter:

Monika Wälti-Stampfli

Date Deposited:

08 Aug 2014 09:29

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s00442-013-2696-6

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Dendrochronology, Climate impact, Gene flow, Forest productivity, Alps

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.49317

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/49317

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