Article
Environmental Sciences
Dominick M. Ciruzzi, Steven P. Loheide II
Summary: Tree ring patterns can be used to reconstruct long-term groundwater and lake level histories, providing important insights into the influence of groundwater on tree growth. This research helps improve understanding of climate-induced tree mortality and reduce uncertainty in forest productivity models.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Marin Pompa-Garcia, Jan Altman, Daniela Sarahi Paez-Meraz, Jose Alexis Martinez Rivas
Summary: Understanding past forest disturbances through tree-ring analysis is crucial for appropriate forest management. In this study, we analyzed ring-width data from 15 species of young Mexican conifers to identify spatiotemporal patterns of forest disturbances. We found variations in occurrence and severity of disturbances across different species and locations. Our results highlight the need for further analysis of the drivers behind these disturbances, which are essential for understanding contemporary species dynamics.
Article
Forestry
Sheng-chun Xiao, Xiao-mei Peng, Quan-yan Tian, Ai-jun Ding
Summary: The study investigated the climate response of Sabina vulgaris in three sampling sites in the northern border of the middle Qilian Mountains, Northwest China, finding that its radial growth is mainly limited by rainfall and low temperatures. A 274-year drought record was constructed by calibrating growth-ring data, showing consistency in the changes between drought, normal, and wet periods with previous conifer ring series results in the study area.
Article
Forestry
Benjamin R. Lockwood, Justin T. Maxwell, Scott M. Robeson, Tsun Fung Au
Summary: Research suggests that simply summing tree-ring widths to estimate diameter can lead to underestimations of tree diameter, resulting in inaccurate estimates of forest productivity metrics BAI and biomass. To reduce this bias, researchers developed a regression model to adjust diameter for more accurate estimations of BAI and biomass, providing more reliable productivity estimates.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Katariina E. M. Vuorinen, Gunnar Austrheim, Jean-Pierre Tremblay, Isla H. Myers-Smith, Hans Hortman, Peter Frank, Isabel C. Barrio, Fredrik Dalerum, Mats P. Bjorkman, Robert G. Bjork, Dorothee Ehrich, Aleksandr Sokolov, Natalya Sokolova, Pascale Ropars, Stephane Boudreau, Signe Normand, Angela L. Prendin, Niels Martin Schmidt, Arturo Pacheco-Solana, Eric Post, Christian John, Jeff Kerby, Patrick F. Sullivan, Mathilde Le Moullec, Brage B. Hansen, Rene van der Wal, Ashild O. Pedersen, Lisa Sandal, Laura Gough, Amanda Young, Bingxi Li, Runa Magnusson, Ute Sass-Klaassen, Agata Buchwal, Jeffrey Welker, Paul Grogan, Rhett Andruko, Clara Morrissette-Boileau, Alexander Volkovitskiy, Alexandra Terekhina, James D. M. Speed
Summary: Global warming affects tundra vegetation, but the impact of ungulates on plant growth may depend on regional climatic conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Yifan Wu, Yu Liu, Qiang Li, Qiufang Cai, Meng Ren, Huiming Song, Changfeng Sun, Tongwen Zhang, Mao Ye
Summary: This study used tree-ring data from the Yili Basin to reconstruct the drought index variations over the past 346 years. The results showed distinct drought periods around 1770 and 1920, as well as a significant wetting trend since the 1980s. Solar activity, North Atlantic Oscillation, and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation were found to jointly influence the moisture variation in the region.
Article
Forestry
Ouya Fang, Qi-Bin Zhang, Yann Vitasse, Roman Zweifel, Paolo Cherubini
Summary: Forests' resistance and sensitivity to extreme climatic events are influenced by their ability to learn from past droughts. Factors such as geographical location, drought frequency, and previous droughts affect tree resistance and sensitivity to extreme drought events. This study helps us understand the vulnerability of high-elevation forest ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau and is important for sustainable development under a changing climate.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Charlotte C. Reed, Sharon M. Hood
Summary: This study provides an in-depth exploration of tree mortality caused by drought and bark beetle outbreaks, showing that different tree species have different risk factors for mortality. It is difficult to find generalizable patterns of mortality when bark beetle outbreaks and long, hot droughts occur simultaneously. While physiological differences and beetle-related selection and variability in defenses may influence mortality susceptibility for ponderosa pine, beetle dynamics may play a more prominent role in mortality patterns for white fir and pinyon pine. In contrast, incense cedar mortality appears to be attributable to long-term effects of growth suppression.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Rafael P. Albuquerque, Arno F. N. Brandes, Leonardo B. Nascimento, Jeronimo B. B. Sansevero, Andrea Sanchez-Tapia, Warlen S. Costa, Claudia F. Barros
Summary: Fire-resistant species, such as Moquiniastrum polymorphum, play a crucial role in the natural regeneration of degraded landscapes. Through dendrochronology, this study analyzed the growth trajectories of M. polymorphum in a fire-disturbed area and examined the relationship between post-fire effects and climate. The results showed that M. polymorphum maintains its growth even after fire events and exhibits a positive correlation with precipitation and a negative correlation with temperature.
Article
Plant Sciences
Silviu-Laurentiu Badea, Oana Romina Botoran, Roxana Elena Ionete
Summary: This work reviews the challenges and advancements in stable isotope investigation, highlighting cellulose as a preferred material for paleoclimatic studies and the difficulties in cellulose isotope analysis. Recent development of automated isotope analysis methods based on high temperature pyrolysis of cellulose shows promise, especially in analyzing the combined isotope delta C-13 and delta O-18. The role of delta H-2 values and new methods for hydrogen isotope analysis are still to be explored.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Marin Pompa-Garcia, Eduardo D. Vivar-Vivar, Jose A. Sigala-Rodriguez, Jaime R. Padilla-Martinez
Summary: Forest structure and composition are changing rapidly worldwide, with a trend towards more younger trees. This study investigates the radial growth of twelve conifer species in a diverse region and finds that climate affects species differently based on elevation. The results show that forests at mid-elevations are more impacted by drought and have greater restrictions on growth.
Article
Forestry
Kathryn M. Flinn, Madison N. Dolnicek, Abigail L. Cox
Summary: Investigating the disturbance regimes of unharvested forests helps us understand their past, present, and future trajectory and gives us a model for forest management. This study used tree rings to examine the recruitment patterns, growth dynamics, and disturbance chronologies of three tree species in an old-growth forest in Ohio, USA. The results showed differences in recruitment and growth between the species, as well as the impact of human-introduced invasive species on the forest.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Jia-Yang Langzhen, Qi-Bin Zhang, Hengfeng Jia, Jiacheng Zheng, Jiangping Fang
Summary: This study used dendroecological techniques to identify forest decline events in a juniper forest near Lhasa, Tibet, China, in the past five and a half centuries. They found that the most severe decline event occurred in the years AD 1875-1883, which was driven by weakened Indian monsoon and resulted in extreme droughts. The study suggests that future juniper forest declines in central Tibetan plateau will be related to extreme droughts amplified by warming.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Teresa Bohner, Jeffrey Diez
Summary: The research shows that tree growth reductions increase correspondingly with different drought intensities, while recovery rates are lower following drought years. There is little variation in growth reductions during drought events among species, but significant differences in post-drought recovery. Trees in drier regions are more susceptible to large growth reductions, which may signal strong sensitivity to drought intensity or exposure to extreme drought conditions.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Tim Rademacher, Bijan Seyednasrollah, David J. Basler, Jian Cheng, Tessa Mandra, Elise Miller, Zuid Lin, David A. Orwig, Neil Pederson, Hanspeter Pfister, Donglai Wei, Li Yao, Andrew D. Richardson
Summary: Ecological data collection and sharing are accelerating, but often in inconsistent and untraceable forms, while wood images contain valuable information. WIAD is an open-source application that provides user-friendly tools for visual analysis and archiving of wood samples, aiming to enhance transparency and reproducibility in ecological studies utilizing visual characteristics of wood.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Amaru Magnin, Cristian Torres, Marina Stecconi, Ricardo Villalba, Javier Puntieri
Summary: The study found that trunk forking in Nothofagus pumilio trees has an impact on radial growth, but not on height growth. Trees with forked trunks may have a competitive advantage and influence dominance relationships among trees.
NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Camila Abarca, Marcelo Barrera, Marcelo Arturi, Natalia Allegrucci, Maria Silvana Velazquez
Summary: The arrival of invasive plants can have drastic effects on ecosystems, including displacement of native plant communities and disruption of ecological functions. In the forests of central-western Argentina, the expansion of Ligustrum lucidum has led to changes in soil properties and mycorrhizal fungal communities. The invaded sites showed significant changes in tree structure, organic matter, and nitrogen concentrations, as well as alterations in fungal species abundance and diversity.
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Milagros Rodriguez-Caton, Laia Andreu-Hayles, Valerie Daux, Mathias Vuille, Arianna M. Varuolo-Clarke, Rose Oelkers, Duncan A. Christie, Rosanne D'Arrigo, Mariano S. Morales, Mukund Palat Rao, Ana M. Srur, Francoise Vimeux, Ricardo Villalba
Summary: The climate variability in tropical South America is regulated by the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM). In this study, stable oxygen isotopes from tree rings were used to analyze past precipitation changes and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability in the Chilean and Bolivian Altiplano. The results showed that the tree rings can effectively register summer precipitation and ENSO variability, making it a novel climate proxy for the southern tropical Andes.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Zoology
Augusto Salas, Marcelo D. Barrera, Maria F. Achinelly
Summary: A study was conducted to investigate the abundance, frequency, diversity, and distribution of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN) in horticultural soils in La Plata, Argentina. The results revealed significant differences in PPN communities under different management systems, with organic and agroecological crops showing similar richness and diversity, while conventional crops treated with methyl bromide had the lowest PPN diversity.
Article
Plant Sciences
V Aschero, A. M. Srur, C. Guerrido, R. Villalba
Summary: This study investigated the effects of elevation and drought on the establishment of Nothofagus pumilio forests in the Southern Andes. The results showed interacting effects of elevation and drought, with positive and negative drought effects at high and low elevations, respectively. Predicted increase of extreme drought events in the future could be detrimental for N. pumilio establishment at dry, low-elevation forests.
Article
Forestry
Lidio Lopez, Ricardo Villalba, David Stahle
Summary: This study investigates the temporal and spatial patterns of climate variability using annual growth rings of Amburana cearensis trees in South America. The results show that the tree growth is influenced by precipitation and temperature, and it can also capture subtle differences in regional precipitation trends.
Article
Geography, Physical
Pierre Pitte, Mariano Masiokas, Hernan Gargantini, Lucas Ruiz, Etienne Berthier, Lidia Ferri Hidalgo, Laura Zalazar, Ines Dussaillant, Maximiliano Viale, Valentina Zorzut, Ernesto Corvalan, Juan Pablo Scarpa, Gustavo Costa, Ricardo Villalba
Summary: The Desert Andes have a large number of ice masses, but only a few are currently monitored. This study focuses on the small mountain glacier Agua Negra and other glaciers in the Jachal river basin. Remote-sensing data shows that Agua Negra glacier lost 23% of its area from 1959 to 2019. Glaciological measurements indicate an average annual mass balance of -0.52 m w.e. a(-1) for Agua Negra glacier, with winter and summer balances of 0.80 and -1.33 m w.e. a(-1) respectively. The study also shows a doubling of the loss rate for Agua Negra glacier from 2000-2013 to 2013-2019. The ice losses for the entire Jachal river basin appear less negative compared to Agua Negra glacier. The observed glacier mass balance changes are likely driven by regional warming trend and reduced snow accumulation.
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Pieter A. Zuidema, Flurin Babst, Peter Groenendijk, Valerie Trouet, Abrham Abiyu, Rodolfo Acuna-Soto, Eduardo Adenesky-Filho, Raquel Alfaro-Sanchez, Jose Roberto Vieira Aragao, Gabriel Assis-Pereira, Xue Bai, Ana Carolina Barbosa, Giovanna Battipaglia, Hans Beeckman, Paulo Cesar Botosso, Tim Bradley, Achim Braeuning, Roel Brienen, Brendan M. Buckley, J. Julio Camarero, Ana Carvalho, Gregorio Ceccantini, Librado R. Centeno-Erguera, Julian Cerano-Paredes, Alvaro Agustin Chavez-Duran, Bruno Barcante Ladvocat Cintra, Malcolm K. Cleaveland, Camille Couralet, Rosanne D'Arrigo, Jorge Ignacio del Valle, Oliver Duenisch, Brian J. Enquist, Karin Esemann-Quadros, Zewdu Eshetu, Ze-Xin Fan, M. Eugenia Ferrero, Esther Fichtler, Claudia Fontana, Kainana S. Francisco, Aster Gebrekirstos, Emanuel Gloor, Daniela Granato-Souza, Kristof Haneca, Grant Logan Harley, Ingo Heinrich, Gerd Helle, Janet G. Inga, Mahmuda Islam, Yu-mei Jiang, Mark Kaib, Zakia Hassan Khamisi, Marcin Koprowski, Bart Kruijt, Eva Layme, Rik Leemans, A. Joshua Leffler, Claudio Sergio Lisi, Neil J. Loader, Giuliano Maselli Locosselli, Lidio Lopez, Maria Lopez-Hernandez, Jose Luis Penetra Cerveira Lousada, Hooz A. Mendivelso, Mulugeta Mokria, Valdinez Ribeiro Montoia, Eddy Moors, Cristina Nabais, Justine Ngoma, Francisco de Carvalho Nogueira Junior, Juliano Morales Oliveira, Gabriela Morais Olmedo, Mariana Alves Pagotto, Shankar Panthi, Gonzalo Perez-De-Lis, Darwin Pucha-Cofrep, Nathsuda Pumijumnong, Mizanur Rahman, Jorge Andres Ramirez, Edilson Jimmy Requena-Rojas, Adauto de Souza Ribeiro, Iain Robertson, Fidel Alejandro Roig, Ernesto Alonso Rubio-Camacho, Ute Sass-Klaassen, Jochen Schongart, Paul R. Sheppard, Franziska Slotta, James H. Speer, Matthew D. Therrell, Benjamin Toirambe, Mario Tomazello-Filho, Max C. A. Torbenson, Ramzi Touchan, Alejandro Venegas-Gonzalez, Ricardo Villalba, Jose Villanueva-Diaz, Royd Vinya, Mart Vlam, Tommy Wils, Zhe-Kun Zhou
Summary: According to a pantropical tree-ring network, dry-season climate variability is a primary driver of tropical tree growth. The study found that woody biomass growth increases with dry-season precipitation and decreases with dry-season maximum temperature. The strength of these dry-season climate responses varies among sites and is influenced by drier, hotter, and more climatically variable regions.
Review
Ecology
Veronica A. El Mujtar, Fernando Chirdo, Antonio Lagares, Luis Wall, Pablo Tittonell
Summary: The importance of soil biodiversity in agriculture and natural resource research is recognized, but traditional assessments are costly and time-consuming. Flow cytometry (FCM) is a powerful technique that can quickly characterize bacterial biodiversity in soil. However, implementing FCM requires prior dispersion, separation, and purification of bacteria and considerations for high-throughput analysis. This review discusses the potential and constraints of using FCM for soil bacterial biodiversity analysis.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Pamela Soto-Rogel, Juan Carlos Aravena, Ricardo Villalba, Christian Bringas, Wolfgang Jens-Henrik Meier, Alvaro Gonzalez-Reyes, Jussi Griessinger
Summary: This study evaluated the growth patterns and climatic response of eight new tree-ring chronologies from Nothofagus species in the southernmost forests of South America, finding that they are sensitive to climate variability and the positive phase of Antarctic Oscillation (AAO).
Article
Agronomy
Reinhardt Brand, Ana Marina Srur, Ricardo Villalba
Summary: The growth of Nothofagus pumilio in the Patagonian Andes is highly sensitive to climate variations. Tree growth trends differ along the precipitation gradient, with increasing tree-ring width from wet to dry treelines. Temperature directly modulates tree growth in wet and mesic areas, but is inversely related to growth in dry sites. Predictive models indicate sustained increases in radial growth rates at wet and mesic sites and decreases at dry treelines under simulated future warming scenarios.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Tiphaine Penchenat, Valereie Daux, Ignacio Mundo, Monique Pierre, Michel Stievenard, Ana Srur, Laia Andreu-Hayles, Ricardo Villalba
Summary: Tree-ring width and isotopic records are important methods to study past climate variations in the Andes region. This study found that tree-rings of Araucaria araucana are mainly composed of carbohydrates from the current growing season and have a strong negative correlation with the previous growing season temperature. The isotopic records of A. araucana are strongly related to current summer temperature, vapor pressure deficit, precipitation, and large-atmospheric drivers of climate variability. These findings are significant for understanding past climate variations in the region.
Article
Forestry
I. A. Mundo, C. Murray, M. Grosso, M. P. Rao, E. R. Cook, R. Villalba
Summary: Dendrochronological methods were used to study a shipwreck site on the Atlantic coast of South America, confirming that the wrecked ship was a 19th-century whaler from the northeastern US. The study found significant correlations between the shipwreck's tree-ring width series and reference chronologies from the eastern US. This pioneering research highlights the feasibility of future dendroarchaeological studies on wooden shipwrecks in the region.
Article
Geography, Physical
Daniel Falaschi, Etienne Berthier, Joaquin M. C. Belart, Claudio Bravo, Mariano Castro, Marcelo Durand, Ricardo Villalba
Summary: This study presents geodetic mass-balance estimates for glaciers around Volcan Domuyo between 1962 and 2020. The overall mass balance for this time period is slightly negative. However, closer inspection reveals an increasingly negative mass balance over time. The observed glacier changes are likely driven by an increase in summer temperatures and a decrease in winter precipitation. The findings suggest that glacier wastage is occurring at a wider geographical scale in the Central Andes.
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
(2023)