Influence of larval outbreaks on the climate reconstruction potential of an Arctic shrub |
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| Institution: | 1. Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Soldmannstr. 15, 17487 Greifswald, Germany;2. Department of Environmental Security, Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, nám. T.G. Masaryka 5555, 760 01 Zlín, Czech Republic;1. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, 50192, Zaragoza, Spain;2. Centro de Interpretación Espacio Salto de Roldán, Ctra. Sabayés s/n, 22150, Huesca, Spain;1. Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Soldmannstr. 15, 17487 Greifswald, Germany;2. Professor Emeritus of Forest Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Extension, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 99775, USA;1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Protection and Utilization, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;2. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;3. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China;4. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA;5. Mianyang Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning, Mianyang, Sichuan 621000, China;1. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RAS, Ekaterinburg, Russia;2. Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany;3. Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic;4. Technical University Munich, Freising, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Arctic shrubs have a strong potential for climate and environmental reconstructions in the chronically understudied regions of the high northern latitudes. The climate dynamics of these regions are important to understand because of large-scale feedbacks to the global climate system. However, little is known about other factors influencing shrub ring growth, possibly obscuring their climate signal. For example, as of yet we are not able to differentiate between herbivory or climatically induced growth depressions. Here, we use one of the most common Arctic shrubs, Alnus viridis as a test case to address this question. We sampled Alnus in Kobbefjord, Greenland, measured shrub-ring width and cell wall thickness and built site chronologies of each parameter. We analysed climate-growth relationships, tested their stability over time and employed a pointer-year analysis to detect growth depressions. We employed bootstrapped transfer function stability tests (BTFS) to assess the suitability of our shrub chronologies for climate reconstruction. Correlations with climate data showed strong significantly positive and stable correlations between summer temperature and ring-width with the exception of the recent decade. A climate reconstruction model failed stability tests, when the complete period of record was used for calibration and verification. Wood anatomy analysis uncovered the occurrence of unusual cell structure (very thin cell walls) in the exceptionally narrow ring of 2004, a recorded insect outbreak year in other parts of Greenland. When excluding the affected ring and a recovery period, the reconstruction model passed all tests, suggesting that the unusual 2004 ring was not climate driven, but rather the result of an insect attack. When combining anatomical analysis with traditional ring-width measurements, we move a step further in potentially distinguishing small rings caused by insect attacks from small rings formed in climatically challenging years. While this study does not provide unambiguous evidence, it does provide potential useful methodological combinations to enable more robust climate reconstructions in areas where climatic records are extremely sparse. |
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| Keywords: | Cell wall thickness Greenland Herbivory Insect attack Plant-climate interaction Shrub rings Tundra |
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