Key message
The relationships between growth rates of examined provenances in the sub-Mediterranean change between juvenile and adult growth phase, while wood density is approximately similar in all four examined provenances.
Abstract
Tree rings, wood density and the climate–growth relationship of four Douglas-fir provenances were analysed separately for the juvenile and adult phases. Four provenances were selected from an existing IUFRO provenance trial planted in 1971 based on their diameter at breast height and vitality. Increment cores were extracted from individual trees, on which we measured tree-ring widths (RW), earlywood widths (EWW) and latewood widths (LWW). Wood density was assessed in standing trees using resistance drilling. The climate–growth correlations were calculated between provenance chronologies of RW, EWW, LWW and latewood share, and the day-wise aggregated Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). The analysis was done separately for the juvenile and mature phases of growth. Provenances 1064 (Jefferson) and 1080 (Yelm) exhibited larger annual radial increments than provenances 1028 (Merrit) and 1089 (Cathlamet). The two provenances with the highest annual radial increment in the juvenile phase did not exhibit the same trend in the adult phase. In all provenances, RW, and consequently EWW and LWW, were wider in the juvenile than in adult phase. The share of latewood was in all cases higher in juvenile wood than in mature wood. All four provenances had similar wood densities in both analyzed growth phases. Our analysis showed that when selecting the most promising provenance for planting, possible changes in relative growth rate from the juvenile to adult phase need to be considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and materials
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Abdel-Gadir AY, Krahmer RL (1993) Estimating the age of demarcation of juvenile and mature wood in Douglas-fir. Wood Fiber Sci 25(3):242–249
Agencija Republike za Okolje (2014) Data for meteorological station Ilirska Bistrica. Tech. rep, Slovenian Environment Agency
Beguería S, Vicente-Serrano SM (2017) SPEI: calculation of the standardised precipitation–evapotranspiration index. R package version 1.7
Bendtsen BA, Senft J (1986) Mechanical and anatomical properties in individual growth rings of plantation-grown eastern cottonwood and loblolly pine. Wood Fiber Sci 18(1):23–38
Bindewald A, Michiels HG, Bauhus J (2020) Risk is in the eye of the assessor: comparing risk assessments of four non-native tree species in Germany. For Int J For Res 93(4):519–534. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpz052
Blohm JH, Evans R, Koch G et al (2016) Identification and characterisation of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) juvenile and adult wood grown in southern Germany. Drewno 59(197):41–47. https://doi.org/10.12841/wood.1644-3985.C01.05
Bolte A, Ammer C, Löf M et al (2009) Adaptive forest management in central Europe: climate change impacts, strategies and integrative concept. Scand J For Res 24(6):473–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/02827580903418224
Breznikar A (1991) Mednarodno proučevanje duglazije (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) v Sloveniji: International provenance research on Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) in Slovenia. Diploma Thesis, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Brus R, Pötzelsberger E, Lapin K et al (2019) Extent, distribution and origin of non-native forest tree species in Europe. Scand J For Res 34(7):533–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2019.1676464
Buras A, Menzel A (2019) Projecting tree species composition changes of European forests for 2061–2090 under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. Front Plant Sci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.01986
Colangelo M, Camarero JJ, Gazol A et al (2021) Mediterranean old-growth forests exhibit resistance to climate warming. Sci Total Environ 801(149):684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149684
Cornes RC, van der Schrier G, van den Besselaar EJM et al (2018) An ensemble version of the E-OBS temperature and precipitation data sets. J Geophys Res Atmos 123(17):9391–9409. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JD028200
de Luis M, Gričar J, Čufar K et al (2007) Seasonal dynamics of wood formation in Pinus halepensis from dry and semi-arid ecosystems in Spain. IAWA J 28(4):389–404. https://doi.org/10.1163/22941932-90001651
DeBell DS, Singleton R, Gartner BL et al (2004) Wood density of young-growth western hemlock: relation to ring age, radial growth, stand density, and site quality. Can J For Res 34(12):2433–2442. https://doi.org/10.1139/x04-123
Deslauriers A, Fonti P, Rossi S et al (2017) Ecophysiology and plasticity of wood and phloem formation. In: Amoroso MM, Daniels LD, Baker PJ et al (eds) Dendroecology: tree-ring analyses applied to ecological studies. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp 13–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61669-82
Dinwoodie J (1981) Timber, its nature and behaviour. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
Duarte AG, Katata G, Hoshika Y et al (2016) Immediate and potential long-term effects of consecutive heat waves on the photosynthetic performance and water balance in Douglas-fir. J Plant Physiol 205:57–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2016.08.012
Dyderski MK, Paź S, Frelich LE et al (2018) How much does climate change threaten European forest tree species distributions? Glob Change Biol 24(3):1150–1163. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13925
Eilmann B, Rigling A (2012) Tree-growth analyses to estimate tree species’ drought tolerance. Tree Physiol 32(2):178–187. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tps004
Eilmann B, de Vries SM, den Ouden J et al (2013) Origin matters! Difference in drought tolerance and productivity of coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.)) provenances. For Ecol Manag 302:133–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2013.03.031
Esper J, Niederer R, Bebi P et al (2008) Climate signal age effects—evidence from young and old trees in the Swiss Engadin. For Ecol Manag 255(11):3783–3789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2008.03.015
Feki H, Slimani M, Cudennec C (2012) Incorporating elevation in rainfall interpolation in Tunisia using geostatistical methods. Hydrol Sci J 57(7):1294–1314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2012.710334
Fick SE, Hijmans RJ (2017) WorldClim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. Int J Climatol 37(12):4302–4315. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5086
Giagli K, Timko L, Gryc V et al (2017) Tree-ring widths and wood density variability of non- native species: a case study of Douglas-fir growing in central Europe. In: International conference on information and communication technologies in agriculture, food and environment, Chania, Crete, Greece, p 10
Guijarro JA (2019) climatol R package: climate tools (series homogenization and derived products). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=climatol
Hargreaves GH, Samani ZA (1985) Reference crop evapotranspiration from temperature. Appl Eng Agric 1(2):96–99. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.26773
Isaac-Renton MG, Roberts DR, Hamann A et al (2014) Douglas-fir plantations in Europe: a retrospective test of assisted migration to address climate change. Glob Change Biol 20(8):2607–2617. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12604
Jandl R, Spathelf P, Bolte A et al (2019) Forest adaptation to climate change—is non-management an option? Ann For Sci 76(2):48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-019-0827-x
Jevšenak J (2020) New features in the dendroTools R package: bootstrapped and partial correlation coefficients for monthly and daily climate data. Dendrochronologia 63(125):753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2020.125753
Jevšenak J, Levanič T (2018) dendroTools: R package for studying linear and nonlinear responses between tree-rings and daily environmental data. Dendrochronologia 48:32–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2018.01.005
Keenan RJ (2015) Climate change impacts and adaptation in forest management: a review. Ann For Sci 72(2):145–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-014-0446-5
Kleinschmit J, Bastien J (1992) IUFRO’s role in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) tree improvement. Silvae Genetica 41(3):161–173
Krajnc L (2020) densitr R package: analysing density profiles from resistance drilling of trees. https://github.com/krajnc/densitr
Krajnc L, Hafner P, Gričar J et al (2020) Calibration of resistograph measurements of wood density in standing trees: conversion into basic wood density (in Slovenian, abstract and summary in English). Slov Prof J For (Gozdarski vestnik) 78(10):404–410
Kramer K, Degen B, Buschbom J et al (2010) Modelling exploration of the future of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) under climate change–range, abundance, genetic diversity and adaptive response. For Ecol Manag 259(11):2213–2222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.12.023
Lassoie JP, Salo DJ (1981) Physiological response of large Douglas-fir to natural and induced soil water deficits. Can J For Res 11(1):139–144. https://doi.org/10.1139/x81-019
Levanič T (2007) Atrics—a new system for image acquisition in dendrochronology. Tree-Ring Res 63(2):117–122. https://doi.org/10.3959/1536-1098-63.2.117
Liñán ID, Gutiérrez E, Heinrich I et al (2011) Age effects and climate response in trees: a multi-proxy tree-ring test in old-growth life stages. Eur J For Res 131(4):933–944. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0566-5
Liphschitz N, Lev-Yadun S (1986) Cambial activity of evergreen and seasonal dimorphics around the Mediterranean. IAWA J 7(2):145–153. https://doi.org/10.1163/22941932-90000978
Mlinšek D (1977) Eksote na Krasu. Tech. rep., Inštitut za gozdno in lesno gospodarstvo, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Montwé D, Spiecker H, Hamann A (2015) Five decades of growth in a genetic field trial of Douglas-fir reveal trade-offs between productivity and drought tolerance. Tree Genet Genomes. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0854-1
Novak K, Luis MD, Gričar J et al (2016) Missing and dark rings associated with drought in Pinus halepensis. IAWA J 37(2):260–274. https://doi.org/10.1163/22941932-20160133
Ogrin D (1996) Podnebni tipi v Sloveniji. Geografski vestnik 68:39–56
Prislan P, Gričar J, de Luis M et al (2016) Annual cambial rhythm in Pinus halepensis and Pinus sylvestris as indicator for climate adaptation. Front Plant Sci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01923
R Core Team (2021) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Rais A, Poschenrieder W, Pretzsch H et al (2014) Influence of initial plant density on sawn timber properties for Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco). Ann For Sci 71(5):617–626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-014-0362-8
Rossi S, Deslauriers A, Anfodillo T et al (2008) Age-dependent xylogenesis in timberline conifers. New Phytol 177(1):199–208. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02235.x
Skudnik M, Grah A, Guček M et al (2021) Stanje in spremembe slovenskih gozdov med letoma 2000 in 2018 : rezultati velikoprostorskega monitoringa gozdov in gozdnih ekosistemov. Gozdarski inštitut Slovenije, založba Silva Slovenica. https://doi.org/10.20315/SFS.181
Smolnikar P (2018) Navadna ameriška duglazija (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) v mednarodnem provenienčnem poskusu v Brkinih. MSc Thesis, University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Smolnikar P, Brus R, Jarni K (2021) Differences in growth and log quality of Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) provenances. Forests 12(3):287. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12030287
Spiecker H, Lindner M, Schuler JK (2019) Douglas-fir: an option for Europe. European Forest Institute, Joensuu
St Clair JB, Howe GT (2007) Genetic maladaptation of coastal Douglas-fir seedlings to future climates. Glob Change Biol 13(7):1441–1454. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01385.x
Sun S, Zhang J, Zhou J et al (2021) Long-term effects of climate and competition on radial growth, recovery, and resistance in Mongolian pines. Front Plant Sci 12(729):935. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.729935
Vicente-Serrano SM, Beguería S, López-Moreno JI (2010) A multiscalar drought index sensitive to global warming: the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index. J Clim 23(7):1696–1718. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2909.1
Walter H, Lieth H (1960) Klimadiagramm Weltatlas. G. Fischer, Jena
Wigley TML, Briffa KR, Jones PD (1984) On the average value of correlated time series, with applications in dendroclimatology and hydrometeorology. J Clim Appl Meteorol 23(2):201–213. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0450(1984)023<0201:OTAVOC>2.0.CO;2
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency: research core funding no. P4-0430, P4-0107 and P4-0059; projects J4-9297 and V4-2017. Part of the research was also supported by the project WOOLF (Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport).
Funding
This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency: research core funding no. P4-0430, P4-0107 and P4-0059; projects J4-9297 and V4-2017. Part of the research was also supported by the project WOOLF (Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Communicated by Braeuning.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix A Additional tables and figures
Appendix A Additional tables and figures
See Tables 3, 4 and 5; Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
Raw chronologies
EWW, LWW and RW by phase and provenance. The comparison of means between growth phases was made using a Kruskal–Wallis test and statistical significance is marked with a * symbol (\(p < 0.05\))
Raw chronologies of latewood share by provenance
Correlations between growth and precipitation for the four analyzed provenances. Months with lowercase letters and ‘*’ represent previous growing season. Only correlations with \(p < 0.05\) are shown. The reference position of plotted correlations is the end of time windows
Correlations between growth and temperature for the four analyzed provenances. Months with lowercase letters and ‘*’ represent previous growing season. Only correlations with \(p < 0.05\) are shown. The reference position of plotted correlations is the end of time windows
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Krajnc, L., Gričar, J., Jevšenak, J. et al. Tree rings, wood density and climate–growth relationships of four Douglas-fir provenances in sub-Mediterranean Slovenia. Trees 37, 449–465 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02362-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-022-02362-5