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      Climate, intrinsic water-use efficiency and tree growth over the past 150 years in humid subtropical China

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          Abstract

          Influence of long-term changes in climate and CO 2 concentration on intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), defined as the ratio between net photosynthesis ( A) and leaf conductance ( g), and tree growth remain not fully revealed in humid subtropical China, which is distinct from other arid subtropical areas with dense coverage of broadleaf forests. This study presented the first tree-ring stable carbon isotope (δ 13C) and iWUE series of Pinus massoniana from 1865 to 2013 in Fujian province, humid subtropical China, and the first tree-ring width standard chronology during the period of 1836–2013 for the Niumulin Nature Reserve (NML). Tree-ring width growth was limited by precipitation in July-August (r = 0.40, p < 0.01). The tree-ring carbon isotope discrimination (Δ 13C) was mainly controlled by the sunshine hours (r = -0.66, p < 0.001) and relative humidity (r = 0.58, p < 0.001) in September-October, a season with rapid latewood formation in this area. The iWUE increased by 42.6% and the atmospheric CO 2 concentration ( c a ) explained 92.6% of the iWUE variance over the last 150 years. The steady increase in iWUE suggests an active response with a proportional increase in intercellular CO 2 concentration ( c i) in response to increase in c a. The contribution of iWUE to tree growth in the study region is not conspicuous, which points to influences of other factors such as climate.

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          Fingerprinting the impacts of global change on tropical forests.

          Recent observations of widespread changes in mature tropical forests such as increasing tree growth, recruitment and mortality rates and increasing above-ground biomass suggest that 'global change' agents may be causing predictable changes in tropical forests. However, consensus over both the robustness of these changes and the environmental drivers that may be causing them is yet to emerge. This paper focuses on the second part of this debate. We review (i) the evidence that the physical, chemical and biological environment that tropical trees grow in has been altered over recent decades across large areas of the tropics, and (ii) the theoretical, experimental and observational evidence regarding the most likely effects of each of these changes on tropical forests. Ten potential widespread drivers of environmental change were identified: temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, climatic extremes (including El Niño-Southern Oscillation events), atmospheric CO2 concentrations, nutrient deposition, O3/acid depositions, hunting, land-use change and increasing liana numbers. We note that each of these environmental changes is expected to leave a unique 'fingerprint' in tropical forests, as drivers directly force different processes, have different distributions in space and time and may affect some forests more than others (e.g. depending on soil fertility). Thus, in the third part of the paper we present testable a priori predictions of forest responses to assist ecologists in attributing particular changes in forests to particular causes across multiple datasets. Finally, we discuss how these drivers may change in the future and the possible consequences for tropical forests.
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            Rapid warming accelerates tree growth decline in semi-arid forests of Inner Asia.

            Forests around the world are subject to risk of high rates of tree growth decline and increased tree mortality from combinations of climate warming and drought, notably in semi-arid settings. Here, we assess how climate warming has affected tree growth in one of the world's most extensive zones of semi-arid forests, in Inner Asia, a region where lack of data limits our understanding of how climate change may impact forests. We show that pervasive tree growth declines since 1994 in Inner Asia have been confined to semi-arid forests, where growing season water stress has been rising due to warming-induced increases in atmospheric moisture demand. A causal link between increasing drought and declining growth at semi-arid sites is corroborated by correlation analyses comparing annual climate data to records of tree-ring widths. These ring-width records tend to be substantially more sensitive to drought variability at semi-arid sites than at semi-humid sites. Fire occurrence and insect/pathogen attacks have increased in tandem with the most recent (2007-2009) documented episode of tree mortality. If warming in Inner Asia continues, further increases in forest stress and tree mortality could be expected, potentially driving the eventual regional loss of current semi-arid forests. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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              Increased water-use efficiency does not lead to enhanced tree growth under xeric and mesic conditions.

              Higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations (c(a)) can under certain conditions increase tree growth by enhancing photosynthesis, resulting in an increase of intrinsic water-use efficiency (i WUE) in trees. However, the magnitude of these effects and their interactions with changing climatic conditions are still poorly understood under xeric and mesic conditions. We combined radial growth analysis with intra- and interannual δ(13)C and δ(18)O measurements to investigate growth and physiological responses of Larix decidua, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus nigra and Pseudotsuga menziesii in relation to rising c(a) and changing climate at a xeric site in the dry inner Alps and at a mesic site in the Swiss lowlands. (i)WUE increased significantly over the last 50 yr by 8-29% and varied depending on species, site water availability, and seasons. Regardless of species and increased (i)WUE, radial growth has significantly declined under xeric conditions, whereas growth has not increased as expected under mesic conditions. Overall, drought-induced stomatal closure has reduced transpiration at the cost of reduced carbon uptake and growth. Our results indicate that, even under mesic conditions, the temperature-induced drought stress has overridden the potential CO2 'fertilization' on tree growth, hence challenging today's predictions of improved forest productivity of temperate forests.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                9 February 2017
                2017
                : 12
                : 2
                : e0172045
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Geography, Key Laboratory of Humid Subtropical Eco-Geographical Process (Ministry of Education), College of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China
                [2 ]Regional Climate Group, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
                [3 ]Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
                [4 ]Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
                Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                • Conceptualization: KF DL.

                • Formal analysis: DL DC XL CX FS.

                • Funding acquisition: KF.

                • Investigation: DL Yingjun Li GG Yanping Li.

                • Methodology: DL XL CX.

                • Software: Yingjun Li FZ ZD.

                • Supervision: KF.

                • Writing – original draft: DL KF.

                • Writing – review & editing: DL KF DC XL CX FS.

                Article
                PONE-D-16-33561
                10.1371/journal.pone.0172045
                5300276
                28182751
                cc4ec4f4-d4bc-4a26-a2dd-7209d480649e
                © 2017 Li et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 22 August 2016
                : 30 January 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 8, Tables: 0, Pages: 19
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809, National Natural Science Foundation of China;
                Award ID: 41471172
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809, National Natural Science Foundation of China;
                Award ID: U1405231
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: The Fellowship for Distinguished Young Scholars of Fujian Province
                Award ID: 2015J06008
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Minjiang Special-term Professor fellowship
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate of Sweden
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education
                Award Recipient :
                This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41471172 and U1405231) ( http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/), the Fellowship for Distinguished Young Scholars of Fujian Province (2015J06008) and the Minjiang Special-term Professor fellowship. Support from Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate of Sweden ( http://www.becc.lu.se/) and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education ( http://www.stint.se/en/scholarships_and_grants/initiation_grants) are also appreciated. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Plants
                Trees
                Earth Sciences
                Atmospheric Science
                Meteorology
                Physical Sciences
                Chemistry
                Chemical Compounds
                Carbon Dioxide
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Biochemistry
                Plant Biochemistry
                Photosynthesis
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Plant Science
                Plant Biochemistry
                Photosynthesis
                Earth Sciences
                Atmospheric Science
                Meteorology
                Humidity
                Earth Sciences
                Atmospheric Science
                Climatology
                Climate Change
                Earth Sciences
                Seasons
                People and Places
                Geographical Locations
                Asia
                China
                Custom metadata
                The series of tree-ring stable carbon isotope and width chronologies are available from Supporting Information.

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                Uncategorized

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