Contrasting water-use strategies to climate warming in white birch and larch in a boreal permafrost region

TY - JOUR

T1 - Contrasting water-use strategies to climate warming in white birch and larch in a boreal permafrost region

AU - Qi, Xi

AU - Treydte, Kerstin

AU - Saurer, Matthias

AU - Fang, Keyan

AU - An, Wenling

AU - Lehmann, Marco

AU - Liu, Kunyuan

AU - Wu, Zhengfang

AU - He, Hong S

AU - Du, Haibo

AU - Li, Mai-He

N1 - © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

PY - 2024/6/3

Y1 - 2024/6/3

N2 - The effects of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Ca) with climate warming on intrinsic water-use efficiency and radial growth in boreal forests are still poorly understood. We measured tree-ring cellulose δ13C, δ18O, and tree-ring width in Larix dahurica (larch) and Betula platyphylla (white birch), and analyzed their relationships with climate variables in a boreal permafrost region of northeast China over past 68 years covering a pre-warming period (1951-1984; base period) and a warm period (1985-2018; warm period). We found that white birch but not larch significantly increased their radial growth over the warm period. The increased intrinsic water-use efficiency in both species was mainly driven by elevated Ca but not climate warming. White birch but not larch showed significantly positive correlations between tree-ring δ13C, δ18O and summer maximum temperature as well as vapor pressure deficit in the warm period, suggesting a strong stomatal response in the broad-leaved birch to temperature changes. The climate warming-induced radial growth enhancement in white birch is primarily associated with a conservative water-use strategy. In contrast, larch exhibits a profligate water-use strategy. It implies an advantage for white birch over larch in the warming permafrost regions.

AB - The effects of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Ca) with climate warming on intrinsic water-use efficiency and radial growth in boreal forests are still poorly understood. We measured tree-ring cellulose δ13C, δ18O, and tree-ring width in Larix dahurica (larch) and Betula platyphylla (white birch), and analyzed their relationships with climate variables in a boreal permafrost region of northeast China over past 68 years covering a pre-warming period (1951-1984; base period) and a warm period (1985-2018; warm period). We found that white birch but not larch significantly increased their radial growth over the warm period. The increased intrinsic water-use efficiency in both species was mainly driven by elevated Ca but not climate warming. White birch but not larch showed significantly positive correlations between tree-ring δ13C, δ18O and summer maximum temperature as well as vapor pressure deficit in the warm period, suggesting a strong stomatal response in the broad-leaved birch to temperature changes. The climate warming-induced radial growth enhancement in white birch is primarily associated with a conservative water-use strategy. In contrast, larch exhibits a profligate water-use strategy. It implies an advantage for white birch over larch in the warming permafrost regions.

KW - Larix/growth & development

KW - Permafrost

KW - Betula/growth & development

KW - Water/metabolism

KW - China

KW - Climate Change

KW - Taiga

KW - Global Warming

U2 - 10.1093/treephys/tpae053

DO - 10.1093/treephys/tpae053

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 38769900

VL - 44

JO - TREE PHYSIOL

JF - TREE PHYSIOL

SN - 0829-318X

IS - 6

M1 - tpae053

ER -