Linkage between growth phenology and climate-growth responses along landscape gradients in boreal forests

Boreal forests represent an important carbon sink and, therefore, significantly contribute to climate change mitigation. Tree-ring width series of boreal species reflect climate variation at the moment of tree-ring formation but also lagged climatic effects from dormancy preceding tree-ring formation and antecedent growing seasons. However, little is known about how the growth sensitivity to climate in specific intra-annual periods varies across the landscape. Here, we assessed growth responses to climate variation during the 45 months preceding the tree-ring formation for nine boreal stands of Picea glauca and Picea mariana distributed along the gradients of elevation and slope aspect. We combined process-based modeling of wood formation and remote sensing data to determine growth phenology at each site. Next, we classified intra-annual seasons with significant climate-growth correlations based on the timing of dormancy and growth periods. Both the phenology and the climate-growth relationships systematically shifted with elevation and, to a lower extent, also with slope orientation at the treeline. The mean duration of the growing season varied between 100 days at treelines above 900 m and 160 days at lowlands below 500 m. The growth at treelines was stimulated by temperature in the summer of the tree-ring formation year and two years before tree-ring formation. The period of significant climate-growth correlations during the current summer did not exceed three months in agreement with the local duration of the growing season. The growth of trees in lower elevations was instead stimulated by high temperature during the dormancy periods but restricted by high temperature in antecedent summer seasons. In conclusion, our study highlights the linkage between the timing of climate-growth sensitivity and growth phenology, primarily determined by proximity to the treeline. Consequently, accounting for landscape gradients in growth phenology is crucial for upscaling the climatic limits of boreal stands' growth as climate change progresses.