20.500.12556/DiRROS-21087 Autumn phenology of mountain birch at the sub-arctic treeline in comparison with silver birch in the cold and mild temperate zone Lack of knowledge on autumn phenology of deciduous trees still exists for high-latitude regions. We studied the leaf and wood growth autumn phenology of mountain birch in a sub-arctic climate (northern Sweden) and compared them with the same dynamics for silver birch in a temperate climate (southern Norway and Belgium). The first autumn phenophase for mountain birch was the decline of the remotely sensed Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index (TCI) at the end of July. This was followed by wood growth cessation, onset of chlorophyll degradation and of loss of canopy greenness, and the latter accompanied by onset of anthocyanin production and flavonoids degradation. The earlier timing of TCI decline than chlorophyll degradation was probably due to the different scales of measurements (ecosystem level vs. tree leaves, respectively). In 2020, the decline in canopy greenness started in the same period at the three studied sites, showing an unexpected early timing for Belgium, likely due to the very warm late summer conditions and drought stress or intraseasonal legacy effects. Accordingly, wood growth cessation also occurred unexpectedly earlier in Belgium than in Norway. The end of senescence was inversely related to latitude. Our study presents, for the first time, the autumn timeline of a deciduous species at the northern treeline, and indicates that the timing of autumn phenology of birch populations does not consistently follow the latitudinal gradient but varies according to the phenophase, the scale of measurements and the current year meteorological conditions. Betula pendula Betula pubescens deciduous trees leaf senescence terrestrial chlorophyll index wood phenology Betula pendula Betula pubescens listavci staranje listov terestrični klorofilni indeks les fenologija true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2024-12-19 11:01:31 2024-12-19 11:01:31 2024-12-20 03:39:03 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 19. 12. 2024; str. 1-13 art. no. ǂ14 Vol. 39 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2025-01-01 630*81:630*18 1432-2285 10.1007/s00468-024-02587-6 219860483 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00468-024-02587-6 1 3ad452d5-bdf0-11ef-ba3f-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=29881 RAZ_Zuccarini_Paolo_2025.pdf RAZ_Zuccarini_Paolo_2025.pdf 1 A34641D47A587B8EB39C0BA969E3930D 667f03b8173e49cb000549c6de3d6795858caf69adb1664ede7a63d09ca352fc 4d068e69-bdf0-11ef-ba3f-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=29882 Gozdarski inštitut Slovenije 0 0 0