气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Is the growth of birch at the upper timberline in the Himalayas limited by moisture or by temperature?

CCPortal

DOI	10.1890/13-1904.1
	Is the growth of birch at the upper timberline in the Himalayas limited by moisture or by temperature?
	Liang, Eryuan; Dawadi, Binod; Pederson, Neil; Eckstein, Dieter
通讯作者	Liang, EY (通讯作者)
发表日期	2014
ISSN	0012-9658
EISSN	1939-9170
起始页码	2453
结束页码	2465
卷号	95 期号:9
英文摘要	Birch (Betula) trees and forests are found across much of the temperate and boreal zones of the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, despite being an ecologically significant genus, it is not well studied compared to other genera like Pinus, Picea, Larix, Juniperus, Quercus, or Fagus. In the Himalayas, Himalayan birch (Betula utilis) is a widespread broadleaf timberline species that survives in mountain rain shadows via access to water from snowmelt. Because precipitation in the Nepalese Himalayas decreases with increasing elevation, we hypothesized that the growth of birch at the upper timberlines between 3900 and 4150 m above sea level is primarily limited by moisture availability rather than by low temperature. To examine this assumption, a total of 292 increment cores from 211 birch trees at nine timberline sites were taken for dendroecological analysis. The synchronous occurrence of narrow rings and the high interseries correlations within and among sites evidenced a reliable cross-dating and a common climatic signal in the tree-ring width variations. From March to May, all nine tree-ring-width site chronologies showed a strong positive response to total precipitation and a less-strong negative response to temperature. During the instrumental meteorological record (from 1960 to the present), years with a high percentage of locally missing rings coincided with dry and warm pre-monsoon seasons. Moreover, periods of below-average growth are in phase with well-known drought events all over monsoon Asia, showing additional evidence that Himalayan birch growth at the upper timberlines is persistently limited by moisture availability. Our study describes the rare case of a drought-induced alpine timberline that is comprised of a broadleaf tree species.
关键词	TREE-RING WIDTH ALPINE TIMBERLINE TIBETAN PLATEAU BETULA-UTILIS QINGHAI PROVINCE CLIMATE-CHANGE RADIAL GROWTH NORTHERN LINE PRECIPITATION
英文关键词	alpine timberline; Betula utilis; central Himalayas; climate sensitivity; dendroecology; drought; missing ring; Nepal; precipitation; pre-monsoon season; tree-ring width; warming
语种	英语
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS记录号	WOS:000342340200009
来源期刊	ECOLOGY
来源机构	中国科学院青藏高原研究所
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/258375
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Liang, Eryuan,Dawadi, Binod,Pederson, Neil,et al. Is the growth of birch at the upper timberline in the Himalayas limited by moisture or by temperature?[J]. 中国科学院青藏高原研究所,2014,95(9).
APA	Liang, Eryuan,Dawadi, Binod,Pederson, Neil,&Eckstein, Dieter.(2014).Is the growth of birch at the upper timberline in the Himalayas limited by moisture or by temperature?.ECOLOGY,95(9).
MLA	Liang, Eryuan,et al."Is the growth of birch at the upper timberline in the Himalayas limited by moisture or by temperature?".ECOLOGY 95.9(2014).