Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 164, Issue -, Pages 132-141Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2012.01.026
Keywords
Acidic precipitation; Drought; Global warming; Soil acidification; Tree-ring width
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Funding
- Stemmler Foundation
- scope of the Stifterverband program Biodiversity and Ecology in National Parks (BEN)
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Tree-ring width of Picea abies was studied along an altitudinal gradient in the Harz Mountains, Germany, in an area heavily affected by SO2-related forest decline in the second half of the 20th century. Spruce trees of exposed high-elevation forests had earlier been shown to have reduced radial growth at high atmospheric SO2 levels. After the recent reduction of the SO2 load due to clean air acts, we tested the hypothesis that stem growth recovered rapidly from the SO2 impact. Our results from two formerly damaged high-elevation spruce stands support this hypothesis suggesting that the former SO2-related spruce decline was primarily due to foliar damage and not to soil acidification, as the deacidification of the (still acidic) soil would cause a slow growth response. Increasing temperatures and deposited N accumulated in the topsoil are likely additional growth-promoting factors of spruce at high elevations after the shortfall of SO2 pollution. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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