Spruce suffers most from drought at low elevations in the Carpathians, though shows high resilience

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

More frequent and severe droughts have affected forest ecosystems throughout Europe in recent decades. In Central Europe, large-scale dieback of Norway spruce has, for example, been observed, whereas Norway spruce decline was so far less widespread in Eastern Europe. To assess the potential future impacts of drought on Norway spruce in the southeastern part of its natural distribution, studies on drought resilience are urgently needed. Here, we use a tree-ring network consisting of more than 3000 trees from 158 managed Norway spruce stands of different ages distributed along elevational gradients in the Eastern Carpathians to assess growth responses to drought. Specifically, we analyzed differences in resilience components (e.g., resistance, recovery, resilience, recovery period) with elevation and tree age, and used the 'line of full resilience' concept to comprehensively assess drought resilience. Our results show that Norway spruce at low elevations (<800 m) is characterized by the lowest resistance to drought, though has a high recovery, while at high elevations (>1400 m), a higher resistance is associated with a low recovery. In general, older trees were found to need more time to recover. Resilience decreases with a higher water deficit, suggesting that Norway spruce is at risk in the Carpathians with ongoing climate change, urging the need for adaptative forest management.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number122201
Number of pages11
JournalForest Ecology and Management
Volume571
Early online dateAug 2024
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85202058726
ORCID /0000-0002-2942-9180/work/168719419
ORCID /0000-0002-5218-6682/work/168720221

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • Climate change, Linear mixed-effect models, Picea abies, Resilience components, Tree-ring width, Water availability