10.5061/DRYAD.3B02TB6
Luo, Yong
Lakehead University
McIntire, Eliot J. B.
University of British Columbia
Boivenue, Celine
University of British Columbia
Nikiema, Paul P.
Government of Manitoba
Chen, Han H. Y.
Lakehead University
Data from: Climatic change only stimulated growth for trees under weak
competition in central boreal forests
Dryad
dataset
2019
rising atmospheric CO2
1986-2011
2019-12-01T00:00:00Z
2019-12-01T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13228
21496828 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
1. Global change ecologists have often used trees under weak competition
(e.g., dominant/codominant trees) to examine relationships between
climatic change and tree growth. Scaling up these results to a forest
relies on the assumption that the climatic change-tree growth relationship
is not affected by tree-level competition. 2. Using permanent sample plot
data from the central Canadian boreal region where warming did not result
in water deficit, we tested the above-mentioned assumption by looking at
whether the relationship between climatic change and tree growth varied
with tree-level competition, which was quantified using a modified Hegyi
competition index. 3. We found that tree growth increased over time for
trees under weak competition, but decreased for those under strong
competition. The divergent temporal trends among trees under different
levels of competition led to a non-significant change in growth for our
study plots. Growth increased with regional warming, atmospheric [CO2] and
water availability for trees under weak competition, but not for those
under strong competition. 4. Synthesis. Our results suggest that upscaling
the growth responses of dominant/codominant trees to climate change to a
forest or a region can lead to biased estimates. Tree-level competition
should be taken into account when expressing climatic change and tree
growth relationships.
selected tree data from Manitoba PSPsThe data contains all the tree-level
measurement information, including 1) tree basal area, biomass,
measurement time; 2) climate information.dataforanalyses.csv
Canada
Manitoba