Extreme droughts are anticipated to have detrimental impacts on forest ecosystems, especially in water-limited regions, due to the influence of climate change. However, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the patterns in species-specific responses to extreme droughts. Here, we conducted a study integrating dendrochronology and remote sensing methods to investigate the mosaic-distributed maple-oak (native) natural forests and poplar plantations (introduced) in the Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China. We assessed the impacts of extreme droughts on tree performances by measuring interannual variations in radial growth and vegetation index. The results showed that precipitation and self-calibrated palmer drought severity index (scPDSI) are the major factors influencing tree-ring width index (RWI) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The severe droughts between 2000 and 2004 resulted in reduced RWI in the three studied tree species as well as led to NDVI reductions in both the maple-oak natural forests and the poplar plantations. The RWI reached the nadir during the 2000–2004 severe droughts and remained at low levels two years after the severe drought, creating a legacy effect. In contrast to the lack of significant correlation between RWI and scPDSI, NDVI exhibited a significant positive correlation with scPDSI indicating the greater sensitivity of canopy performance to droughts than radial growth. Furthermore, interspecific differences in RWI and NDVI responses were observed, with the fast-growing poplar species experiencing a more significant RWI decrease and more negative NDVI anomaly during severe droughts than native species, highlighting the species-specific trade-offs between drought resilience and growth rate. This study emphasizes the importance of combining tree-level radial growth with landscape-scale canopy remote sensing to understand forest resilience and response. Our study improves our understanding of forest responses to extreme drought and highlights species differences in climate responses, offering crucial insights for optimizing species selection in sustainable afforestation and forest management in water-limited regions under the influence of climate change.
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Open Access
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Open Access
Research Article
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The spring phenology and growth strategy of temperate tree species can be strongly linked to their sensitivity to frosts, which deserve more profound investigations under the background of climate warming particularly considering the advancement of spring phenology as well as the increase in frequency and intensity of spring cold waves.
Spring phenologies, stem radial growth characteristics, frost sensitivity of leaves and stem hydraulic systems were studied in five diffuse-porous and five ring-porous temperate tree species under a common garden condition.
The results showed that the spring leaf phenology of the diffuse-porous species was one to two weeks earlier than that of the ring-porous species. The ring-porous species had significantly higher stem hydraulic conductivity than the diffuse-porous species (1.81 and 0.95 kg·m−1·s−1·MPa−1, P < 0.05) but were more vulnerable to freeze-thaw induced xylem embolism than the latter. After a simulated freeze-thaw event, the average percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity in the current year shoots increased from 26.0% (native embolism) to 86.7% in the ring-porous species, while it only increased from 21.3% to 38.3% in the diffuse-porous species. The spring phenology was clearly correlated with vulnerability to freeze-thaw induced embolism, with the more vulnerable ring-porous species exhibited substantially delayed phenology to reduce risks of catastrophic hydraulic dysfunction during spring frosts. Nevertheless, ring-porous species can offset the postponed onset of growth and gained even higher annual growth due to significantly higher hydraulic efficiency and leaf gas exchange rates.
Contrasts between ring-porous and diffuse-porous species in resistance to freeze-thaw induced embolism suggest that they face different selective pressures from early spring frosts, which may at least be partially responsible for their divergence in spring phenology and growth strategy and can potentially lead to different responses to climate regime shifts.
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