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Interpreting Larix principis-rupprechtii radial growth in northern China based on the Vaganov-Shashkin model

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Abstract

Changes in annual radial growth is an important indication of climate change. Dendroclimatology studies in northern China have focused on linear statistical analysis, but lacking studies based on the process of ring formation to clarify the radial growth of trees. Tree-ring width standard chronology (STD) was established using samples of Larix principis-rupprechtii collected at 2303 m altitude on Luya Mountain. Using the Vaganov-Shashkin (VS) model to simulate growth and development, the internal physiological mechanism of radial growth is identified. It was concluded that: (1) the growing season of L. principis-rupprechtii was May to September; (2) soil moisture was a significant factor in the early and late growing seasons, and temperature was the dominant factor in its main growth period; and (3) formation of narrow ring widths was closely related to drought stress, the development of wide ring widths will be restricted by increasing future temperatures. The VS model is applicable for radial growth simulation of subalpine coniferous forests and for guiding the cultivation of local tree species in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710127, People’s Republic of China

    Jiachuan Wang, Shuheng Li, Yili Guo, Yijie Han, Qi Liu & Yiqi Zhao

  2. Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Jiachuan Wang & Qiang Li

  3. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710127, People’s Republic of China

    Shuheng Li, Yili Guo, Yijie Han, Qi Liu & Yiqi Zhao

  4. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710061, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Li

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  1. Jiachuan Wang
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Contributions

SL and JW conceived the ideas and designed the methodology; JW and YG performed the experiment; JW, YG, YH, QL and YZ analyzed data; JW and YG wrote the manuscript; SL and QL reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuheng Li.

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Project funding: This study was supported by Alpine timberline fluctuations and the response to climate change at centennial to millennial time scales in the Qinling Mountains (no. 42371072), a General Program from the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (no. 2014JQ5172), the Open Fund Project of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology (no. SKLLQG1611), and the National Forestry Public Welfare Industry Scientific Research Project of China (no. 201304309).

The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com.

Corresponding editor: Tao Xu.

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Wang, J., Li, S., Li, Q. et al. Interpreting Larix principis-rupprechtii radial growth in northern China based on the Vaganov-Shashkin model. J. For. Res. 35, 47 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-024-01699-6

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