•Severe droughts reduce European beech GPP and ET annual fluxes by 20%.•Low precipitation limits beech forest productivity much more than heat stress.•Beech forests are sensitive to the timing of ...drought onset over the growing season.•Future GPP trends depend mainly on precipitation trends simulated by climate models.•Increased WUE in the future will counterbalance negative drought impacts.
The most accurate understanding of forest functioning during drought is crucial to improve the forecast of future forest productivity. Here we investigate the ecophysiological responses (i.e. primary production, evapotranspiration and water use efficiency) of European beech to drought events with the ecosystem model MuSICA, using as benchmark the observed fluxes at the experimental forest Hesse (France). We show that MuSICA is able to realistically simulate observed drought-induced limitations. Subsequently we use simulation experiments to provide: (1) a quantification of the reduction of ecosystem fluxes during the 2003 drought, (2) a partitioning of heat stress and water limitations during droughts, (3) an analysis of the impact of specific drought trajectories, and (4) an evaluation of the potential impact of projected climate change on the studied forest and (5) over the beech distributional range. Our results show that the 2003 drought resulted in a 17% reduction of annual gross primary production and in a 21% reduction of evapotranspiration at Hesse. The studied forest ecosystem is mostly sensitive to negative precipitation anomalies (82% of the reduced forest productivity in 2003) and almost insensitive to heat stress due to high temperatures (16%). Moreover, we show that the ecosystem fluxes are limited more by fast drought onsets in the early growing season (June–July) than by onsets later in the season. Deciphering the impact of future climate change on beech productivity is complicated by large uncertainties in projected future precipitation and in the severity of extreme dry years. Drastic reduction of ecosystem fluxes is only predicted with climate projections that show marked reductions in precipitation. However, increased CO2 fertilization in the future will counterbalance negative drought impacts. This modelling-based study improves our understanding of the functioning of an emblematic European tree species during extreme events and informs on potential future forest responses to projected climate change.
This study investigates the functionality of a Mediterranean-mountain beech forest in Central Italy using simultaneous determinations of optical measurements, carbon (C) fluxes, leaf ...eco-physiological and biochemical traits during two growing seasons (2014–2015). Meteorological variables showed significant differences between the two growing seasons, highlighting a heat stress coupled with a reduced water availability in mid-summer 2015. As a result, a different C sink capacity of the forest was observed between the two years of study, due to the differences in stressful conditions and the related plant physiological status. Spectral indices related to vegetation (VIs, classified in structural, chlorophyll and carotenoid indices) were computed at top canopy level and used to track CO2 fluxes and physiological changes. Optical indices related to structure (EVI 2, RDVI, DVI and MCARI 1) were found to better track Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) variations for 2014, while indices related to chlorophylls (SR red edge, CL red edge, MTCI and DR) provided better results for 2015. This suggests that when environmental conditions are not limiting for forest sink capacity, structural parameters are more strictly connected to C uptake, while under stress conditions indices related to functional features (e.g., chlorophyll content) become more relevant. Chlorophyll indices calculated with red edge bands (SR red edge, NDVI red edge, DR, CL red edge) resulted to be highly correlated with leaf nitrogen content (R2>0.70), while weaker, although significant, correlations were found with chlorophyll content. Carotenoid indices (PRI and PSRI) were strongly correlated with both chlorophylls and carotenoids content, suggesting that these indices are good proxies of the shifting pigment composition related to changes in soil moisture, heat stress and senescence. Our work suggests the importance of integrating different methods as a successful approach to understand how changing climatic conditions in the Mediterranean mountain region will impact on forest conditions and functionality.
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•Hot and dry summer impaired carbon fluxes in a beech forest.•Chlorophyll indices are good proxies of changes in NEE during stress periods.•Carotenoid indices track plant physiological status and response to stress.•Methodological integrated approach explains forest conditions and functionality.
In the context of global decline in old‐growth forest, historical ecology is a valuable tool to derive insights into vegetation legacies and dynamics and develop new conservation and restoration ...strategies. In this cross‐disciplinary study, we integrate palynology (Lago del Pesce record), history, dendrochronology, and historical and contemporary land cover maps to assess drivers of vegetation change over the last millennium in a Mediterranean mountain forest (Pollino National Park, southern Italy) and discuss implications in conservation ecology. The study site hosts a remnant beech–fir (Fagus sylvatica–Abies alba) mixed forest, a priority habitat for biodiversity conservation in Europe. In the 10th century, the pollen record showed an open environment that was quickly colonized by silver fir when sociopolitical instabilities reduced anthropogenic pressures in mountain forests. The highest forest cover and biomass was reached between the 14th and the 17th centuries following land abandonment due to recurring plague pandemics. This rewilding process is also reflected in the recruitment history of Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) in the subalpine elevation belt. Our results show that human impacts have been one of the main drivers of silver fir population contraction in the last centuries in the Mediterranean, and that the removal of direct human pressure led to ecosystem renovation. Since 1910, the Rubbio State Forest has locally protected and restored the mixed beech–fir forest. The institutions in 1972 for the Rubbio Natural Reserve and in 1993 for Pollino National Park have guaranteed the survival of the silver fir population, demonstrating the effectiveness of targeted conservation and restoration policies despite a warming climate. Monitoring silver fir populations can measure the effectiveness of conservation measures. In the last decades, the abandonment of rural environments (rewilding) along the mountains of southern Italy has reduced the pressure on ecosystems, thus boosting forest expansion. However, after four decades of natural regeneration and increasing biomass, pollen influx and forest composition are still far from the natural attributes of the medieval forest ecosystem. We conclude that long‐term forest planning encouraging limited direct human disturbance will lead toward rewilding and renovation of carbon‐rich and highly biodiverse Mediterranean old‐growth forests, which will be more resistant and resilient to future climate change.
•A huge dataset was collected from both field and laboratory analysis.•Infinite slope model was modified to include root reinforcement.•A Monte Carlo approach was used to manage the natural ...variability.•Beech communities have proved to be the most stabilizing forest in the tested cases.•The framework is replicable for other comparisons.
It is well known that forests play a crucial role in preventing soil erosion and landslides; however, forests are also subjected to dynamic evolution driven by natural processes and anthropogenic factors. This dynamic evolution affects spruce and chestnut forests in some European regions (e.g., Italian Alps, central and northern Europe), where these species have been forced by management practice to establish over long periods where other species, such as European beech, would be expected to occur as a result of natural processes.
Using a large dataset of field and laboratory measurements of root density and root mechanical properties, the performances of Norway spruce, Sweet chestnut and European beech are analyzed from a slope stability perspective by using a model based on the limit equilibrium principle within a probabilistic framework.
The results showed differences and similarities between the root systems of the analyzed species, both in terms of root distribution and mechanical properties. However, the probabilistic distribution that better fits the root reinforcement values obtained by the experimental work is, in all cases, a lognormal function.
The developed method can be used to estimate the factor of safety for several combinations of geotechnical and hydrological parameters and different root reinforcement probability distributions using Monte Carlo techniques. The obtained values have been evaluated in terms of probability to have a factor of safety of less than 1 for increasing values of slope steepness.
Although each single hillslope should be studied individually to account for local stand conditions that strongly affect root system performance, European beech is generally more efficient than Sweet chestnut and Norway spruce in terms of enhancing slope stability.
Based on our results, in all cases where the stability of slopes represents a concern and spruce and chestnut communities are perishing, the natural colonization by European beech should be evaluated positively and possibly promoted by forest managers. Moreover, the developed method provides a general framework that could be applied to other species and conditions to define the consequences of different forest management scenarios in terms of slope stability.
Beech is one of the most important forest tree species in Europe, hence possible adverse factors affecting its physiology and productivity can have strong ecological and economic impacts. In this ...context, four beech forests along a latitudinal gradient from southern Apennines to middle European lowlands were selected for chronological determinations of carbon isotope composition (δ13C) in tree-ring cellulose. The main objectives of this study were to assess (i) the effect of climate on the carbon signature of tree-ring cellulose (δ13C); (ii) the physiological response to recent CO2 concentration increment and to climatic variation; and (iii) the relationship between intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE, here the average long-term ratio of net photosynthesis to stomatal conductance) and growth of trees in different sites since 1950. Our results demonstrated that site climatic conditions peculiarly affect δ13C. In northern sites, a climatic control of summer precipitation and temperature on stomatal conductance was demonstrated by their opposite correlations with δ13C, negative and positive, respectively. Furthermore, an 'earliness effect' was suggested by a significant relationship between spring temperature and δ13C in the coldest sites and by a positive one between winter temperature and δ13C in the warmest ones. In all the study sites, during the maturity phase, a positive correlation between the increment of CO2 and iWUE was observed, due to an active response of trees to CO2 increment. This increment of CO2 was the main driver of the long term increasing trend of iWUE, resulting by an active response of trees to CO2 fertilization. Moreover, precipitation mostly influences positively and negatively the inter-annual variations of iWUE of the southernmost and northernmost sites, respectively. Overall, we observed a mean increment of 40% of iWUE. Moreover, the sensitivity of iWUE to the increase of CO2 was different between the northernmost and southernmost sites. Increasing iWUE was correlated to growth in the two sites during the release phase and we hypothesize a positive effect of silvicultural treatments.
In temperate trees, the timings of plant growth onset and cessation affect biogeochemical cycles, water, and energy balance. Currently, phenological studies largely focus on specific phenophases and ...on their responses to warming. How differently spring phenology responds to the warming and cooling, and affects the subsequent phases, has not been yet investigated in trees. Here, we exposed saplings of Fagus sylvatica L. to warmer and cooler climate during the winter 2013–2014 by conducting a reciprocal transplant experiment between two elevations (1,340 vs. 371 m a.s.l., ca. 6°C difference) in the Swiss Jura mountains. To test the legacy effects of earlier or later budburst on the budset timing, saplings were moved back to their original elevation shortly after the occurrence of budburst in spring 2014. One degree decrease in air temperature in winter/spring resulted in a delay of 10.9 days in budburst dates, whereas one degree of warming advanced the date by 8.8 days. Interestingly, we also found an asymmetric effect of the warmer winter vs. cooler winter on the budset timing in late summer. Budset of saplings that experienced a cooler winter was delayed by 31 days compared to the control, whereas it was delayed by only 10 days in saplings that experienced a warmer winter. Budburst timing in 2015 was not significantly impacted by the artificial advance or delay of the budburst timing in 2014, indicating that the legacy effects of the different phenophases might be reset during each winter. Adapting phenological models to the whole annual phenological cycle, and considering the different response to cooling and warming, would improve predictions of tree phenology under future climate warming conditions.
Using an original transplant experiment from a 1,000‐m elevation gradient allowing to induce natural warming and cooling to European beech saplings, we showed that spring budburst phenology has a significant but different response to warming and cooling. In particular, we found that beech trees had a greater budburst response to cooling than to warming, that is, 11‐day delay vs. 9‐day advance per degree cooling and warming, respectively. Interestingly, the induced advance or delay in the budburst due to the downward or upward transplantation significantly affects the budset timing in the following autumn. Additionally, this asymmetric effect of warming and cooling is also found on the growing season length (GSL), where cooling reduced the GSL by 14 days whereas warming increased GSL by 28 days. Our study provides evidences in natural conditions of the carryover effect of spring phenophases over following phenophases in a temperate tree.
•Three years of soil water deficit delayed bud-burst and advanced leaf-yellowing.•Three years of annual experimental defoliations had no impact on leaf phenology.•Leafy season length varied among ...populations along a small latitudinal gradient.•Populations presented different leaf phenology response to soil water deficit.
Bud-burst and leaf-senescence determine the length of the growing season for deciduous trees and therefore the duration of potential carbon assimilation with consequences on biomass production. In Fagus sylvatica L., leaf phenology depends on both photoperiod and temperature. The future climate is expected to induce more frequent soil water deficits and biotic attacks (possibly resulting in severe defoliation). The aim of the study is to assess whether these constrains may alter leaf phenology. In a common garden, we sowed seeds collected from six beech forests along a small latitudinal gradient (140 km) in North-Eastern France. In 2014, after seven years growth, a rain exclusion was installed above the trees to test how recurrent soil water deficits impacted bud-burst (BB) and leaf-yellowing (LY) over three years. We also analyzed the response of leaf phenology to annual defoliation, aiming at affecting carbon and nitrogen availability in trees. Delayed BB and early LY were observed, reducing the growing season (GS) until 14 days in response to soil water deficit whereas no influence of defoliation was detected. These time lags were not in relation with leaf nitrogen content. In the control treatment, BB occurred earlier and LY later in the northernmost populations than in the southernmost without clear relationships with local climate. A significant treatment x population interaction was observed revealing a plasticity in the leaf phenology response to soil water deficit among populations. These results suggest that beech trees present a genetic differentiation of leaf phenology even within a small latitudinal gradient but that these differentiations could be disrupted by soil water deficit that is predicted to increase in the future.
Rising temperature and altered precipitation regimes will lead to severe droughts and concomitant extreme events in the future. Forest ecosystems have shown to be especially prone to climate change. ...In assessing climate change impacts, many studies focus on high altitude or ecological edge populations where a climate signal is supposedly most pronounced. While these studies represent only a fraction of the forest ecosystems throughout Europe, findings on climate sensitivity of lowland core populations remain comparatively underrepresented.
By using tree-ring widths of a large region-wide network of European beech and Scots pine populations along a precipitation gradient in northeastern Germany, we identify main climatic drivers and spatio-temporal patterns in climate sensitivity. Further, we analyze the resistance of tree growth towards drought. Detailed data on soil characteristics was used to interpret climate-growth relationships.
Beech was found to be most sensitive to summer drought during early summer at dry sites, whereas pine displayed highest sensitivity for winter temperature at wet sites. The resistance to extreme drought was lower for beech. By splitting the observation period (1964–2017) into an early and late period, we found non-stationary climate-growth relationships for both study species with beech showing an increase in drought sensitivity and pine in winter temperature sensitivity.
Overall, beech populations seem to be especially endangered by prospective climate changes, whereas climate-growth relationships of pine seem more ambiguous with a possible trade-off between enhanced photosynthetic activity caused by early photosynthesis in late winter and reduced activity due to summer drought.
•The analyzed beech seeds oil has been classified as oleic-linoleic acids oil.•Beech seeds oil contains gamma-linolenic (GLA) acid effective in treating inflammation.•Unique characteristic is the ...high content of γ- and δ-tocopherol.•Content of carotenoids is at high level in comparison with other cold-pressed oils.•PCA analysis may help to determine the authenticity of beech seeds oil.
A physicochemical characteristic of the cold-pressed oil obtained from seeds of common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) has been presented. This plant may be considered as unconventional oilseeds crops because of relatively high content of fat (27.25%). The analyzed beech seeds oil has been classified as oleic-linoleic acids oil with more than 76% percentage share of those species. Beech seeds oil contains 4.2% of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Unique characteristic is the high content of γ-tocopherol (75.4mg/100g) and δ-tocopherol (34.05mg/100g). γ-Tocopherol is effective scavengers of reactive nitrogen species and prevents DNA bases nitration, what makes beech seeds oil interesting raw material in the production of cosmetics. Additionally the content of carotenoids, very effective photooxidation inhibitors, is at high level in comparison with other cold-pressed oils. It was demonstrated that PCA analysis may help to determine the authenticity of oil obtained from beech seeds.
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