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A comparison of radial increment and wood density from beech provenance trials in Slovenia and Hungary

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European Journal of Forest Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Provenance trials are a valuable source of information, especially in species such as European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), which will likely increase its distribution due to global warming. The current study compares radial increment and wood density of beech provenances in the juvenile development stage from contrasting environments in Europe (Belgium, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Italy) planted at a mesic to wet site in Slovenia and a xeric site in Hungary. Existing data (past measurements of diameters and height) were combined with new measurements of tree height, diameter, dendrochronological and resistance drilling density measurements to assess differences in provenance radial growth. The wood density data were evaluated using a Bayesian general linear model. In order to study the differences in radial increment in more detail, two weather-wise contrasting years (2014 and 2017) were selected from the last decade, based on calculations of the 12-month Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index. The differences in average tree-ring width among provenances at each sampled site appeared to be relatively small when averaged over a whole decade of data. However, according to year-to-year data, some provenances grew faster than others, especially in favorable weather conditions. In unfavorable conditions, the differences in tree-ring widths among provenances were smaller. For most provenances, variation in tree-ring widths within the same provenance increased in unfavorable conditions. The difference between the provenances with the highest and lowest wood densities at both locations did not exceed 5%. The model results indicate that the Idrija (Slovenia) provenance probably has a higher median wood density than other studied provenances at both sites. Although the current study confirmed some differences in wood density between provenances and trial locations, the differences are negligible in practice due to their low magnitude and the fact that the analyzed trees were still juvenile. As beech has a diffuse-porous wood, negligible differences in wood density would also be expected in adult trees. Beech provenances for planting in relation to changing weather should probably be chosen for their ability to survive more extreme weather events rather than to improve radial increment or wood density, especially as the differences in wood density of juvenile trees are relatively small.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, research core funding no. P4-0107 and P4-0430, the young researchers’ program (Domen Arnič), and projects Z4-7318 and J4-2541. Part of the research was also supported by the project Wood and Wood Products over a Lifetime (Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport) and the Public Forestry Service Program (Task No. 3) financed by the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia.

Funding

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, research core funding no. P4-0107 and P4-0430, the young researchers’ program (Domen Arnič), and projects Z4-7318 and J4-2541. Part of the research was also supported by the project Wood and Wood Products over a Lifetime (Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport) and the Public Forestry Service Program (Task No. 3) financed by the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia.

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Domen Arnič, Peter Prislan, Gregor Božič and Luka Krajnc. The analysis was done by Luka Krajnc. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jožica Gričar and Luka Krajnc, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luka Krajnc.

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Communicated by Martina Meincken.

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Appendix A: Appendices

Appendix A: Appendices

Table 5 Robust mean tree-ring width in millimeters (RW) for the two chosen weather-wise extreme years.
Table 6 Model parameter values, displaying posterior distributions of the general linear model parameters: mean values and a 0.89 percentile span in brackets

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Krajnc, L., Prislan, P., Božič, G. et al. A comparison of radial increment and wood density from beech provenance trials in Slovenia and Hungary. Eur J Forest Res 141, 433–446 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01449-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-022-01449-5

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