Environmental drivers interactively affect individual tree growth across temperate European forests

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Forestry
• Climate Change Science

Background:

• Tree growth is influenced by global-change drivers like climate change and atmospheric deposition, alongside local land-use practices.
• Large-scale studies on interactive growth responses to multiple global-change drivers, especially considering management, are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the interactive effects of temperature, precipitation, and nitrogen deposition on the growth of three key European tree species.
• To investigate how past forest management, specifically coppicing, modulates these growth responses.

Main Methods:

• Collected increment cores from 267 trees across 151 plots in 19 European forest regions.
• Analyzed tree growth along spatial environmental gradients, considering factors like tree size, competition, soil, and elevation.
• Accounted for historical forest management effects on Quercus species.

Main Results:

• Species-specific interactive responses to combined global-change drivers were observed.
• Fraxinus excelsior growth was enhanced by high precipitation and deposition, while Quercus growth was negatively impacted.
• Fagus sylvatica showed a stronger growth response to warming under higher precipitation, indicating drought stress.
• Coppicing history in Quercus plots correlated with stronger growth responses to increased temperatures.

Conclusions:

• Tree growth is interactively determined by multiple global-change drivers, with significant species-specific variations.
• Past forest management practices can significantly modulate tree growth responses to environmental changes.
• Accurate prediction of future tree growth requires consideration of interacting drivers and historical land-use effects.