Document Type
Article
Version
Final Published Version
Publication Title
Ecology
Volume
97
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
Predicting long-term trends in forest growth requires accurate characterisation of how the relationship between forest productivity and climatic stress varies across climatic regimes. Using a network of over two million tree-ring observations spanning North America and a space-for-time substitution methodology, we forecast climate impacts on future forest growth. We explored differing scenarios of increased water-use efficiency (WUE) due to CO2-fertilisation, which we simulated as increased effective precipitation. In our forecasts: (1) climate change negatively impacted forest growth rates in the interior west and positively impacted forest growth along the western, southeastern and northeastern coasts; (2) shifting climate sensitivities offset positive effects of warming on high-latitude forests, leaving no evidence for continued ‘boreal greening’; and (3) it took a 72% WUE enhancement to compensate for continentally averaged growth declines under RCP 8.5. Our results highlight the importance of locally adapted forest management strategies to handle regional differences in growth responses to climate change.
Publisher's Statement
Copyright by the Ecological Society of America, 2016.
Citation
Sydne Record, Richard K Kobe, Corine F Vriesendorp (2016). Seedling survival responses to conspecific density, soil nutrients, and irradiance vary with age in a tropical forest Ecology 97(9): 2406-2415.
DOI
http://www.doi.org/