Relationships between climate, radial growth and wood properties of mature loblolly pine in Hawaii and a northern and southern site in the southeastern United States

Production rates of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) in favorable exotic environments indicate that full biological expression of growth potential in loblolly pine has not yet been attained in its native range. In previous work, high productivity in a loblolly pine plantation in Hawaii (HI) was hypothesized to be related to a more favorable climate conducive to year round carbon gain. To better understand the role of climate in limiting loblolly pine growth, relationships between radial growth and climate were examined in mature loblolly pine grown on two sites representing the opposite latitudinal ends of its ecological niche, Mississippi (MS) and North Carolina (NC), and on a third site in Hawaii (HI) representing a more favorable exotic environment. Raw ring widths were detrended and chronologies built for each site. At the northernmost site, ring width index (RWI) was positively correlated to February, April and July temperatures, annual mean temperature of the current and previous year, and annual maximum temperature. In MS trees, the only significant correlation between growth and climate was a positive correlation between RWI and November temperature. Growth at the MS site was likely more impacted by frequent hurricanes. In HI trees, no significant correlations between growth and temperature were observed but RWI was significantly related to precipitation during the dry season, which occurred from May–September. Potential anatomical alterations in the earlywood and latewood transition zones and timing of earlywood and latewood formation were indicated and may account for low ring specific gravity and percent latewood in HI trees. The moderate temperatures at the HI site likely supported high productivity but sensitivity to precipitation in HI trees indicates that reductions in water availability may effect loblolly pine growth even under more moderate temperatures when evaporative demand is low.

[1]  R. P. Schultz.  Loblolly -- the pine for the twenty-first century , 2004, New Forests.

[2]  佐藤 大七郎,et al.  Forest Ecology and Management , 1999 .

[3]  H. Peltola,et al.  Wood properties of Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) grown at elevated temperature and carbon dioxide concentration. , 2003, Tree physiology.

[4]  J. R. Saucier,et al.  Influence of initial planting density, geographic location, and species on juvenile wood formation in southern pine. , 1989 .

[5]  Edward R. Cook,et al.  A time series analysis approach to tree-ring standardization , 1985 .

[6]  R. Schmidtling.  Use of provenance tests to predict response to climate change: loblolly pine and Norway spruce. , 1994, Tree physiology.

[7]  W. James.  Pinus taeda L. , 1961 .

[8]  K. Johnsen,et al.  Ecophysiological comparison of 50-year-old longleaf pine, slash pine and loblolly pine , 2012 .

[9]  T. Karl,et al.  Global climate change impacts in the United States. , 2009 .

[10]  A. L. Friend,et al.  Climatic limitations to growth in loblolly and shortleaf pine (Pinus taeda and P. echinata): A dendroclimatological approach , 1989 .

[11]  S. Ghosh,et al.  EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON LOBLOLLY PINE PLANTATIONS IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES , 2011 .

[12]  L. Donaldson.  Seasonal changes in lignin distribution during tracheid development in Pinus radiata D. Don , 2004, Wood Science and Technology.

[13]  H. Morin,et al.  Climatic control of tracheid production of black spruce in dense mesic stands of eastern Canada. , 2013, Tree physiology.

[14]  L. Nix,et al.  TRACHEID DIFFERENTIATION IN SOUTHERN PINES DURING THE DORMANT SEASON , 2007 .

[15]  M. Kirwan,et al.  Dynamics of an Estuarine Forest and its Response to Rising Sea Level , 2007 .

[16]  R. Teskey,et al.  Effects of elevated temperature and (CO 2 )o n photosynthesis, leaf respiration, and biomass accumulation of Pinus taeda seedlings at a cool and a warm site within the species' current range , 2012 .

[17]  John S. Kush,et al.  Hurricane Katrina winds damaged longleaf pine less than loblolly pine , 2009 .

[18]  Robert A. Mickler,et al.  The Productivity and Sustainability of Southern Forest Ecosystems in a Changing Environment , 1998, Ecological Studies.

[19]  Jennifer Nakamura,et al.  Drought in the Southeastern United States: Causes, Variability over the Last Millennium, and the Potential for Future Hydroclimate Change* , 2009 .

[20]  E. Cook,et al.  THE SMOOTHING SPLINE: A NEW APPROACH TO STANDARDIZING FOREST INTERIOR TREE -RING WIDTH SERIES FOR DENDROCLIMATIC STUDIES , 1981 .

[21]  J. Pierrat,et al.  Effect of sampling effort on the regional chronology statistics and climate-growth relationships estimation , 2013 .

[22]  M. A. Leibold.  The Niche Concept Revisited: Mechanistic Models and Community Context , 1995 .

[23]  R. Schmidtling.  Intensive Culture Increases Growth Without Affecting Wood Quality of Young Southern Pines , 1973 .

[24]  C. Leuschner,et al.  δ13C signature of tree rings and radial increment of Fagus sylvatica trees as dependent on tree neighborhood and climate , 2011, Trees.

[25]  Fritz H. Schweingruber,et al.  Tree-ring width and density data around the Northern Hemisphere: Part 1, local and regional climate signals , 2002 .

[26]  James S. Clark,et al.  Climate change vulnerability of forest biodiversity: climate and competition tracking of demographic rates , 2011 .

[27]  J. Bontemps,et al.  Effect of ring width, cambial age, and climatic variables on the within-ring wood density profile of Norway spruce Picea abies (L.) Karst. , 2013, Trees.

[28]  G. B. Williamson,et al.  Geographic Variation in Wood Specific Gravity: Effects of Latitude, Temperature, and Precipitation , 2002 .

[29]  Keith R. Briffa,et al.  Basic chronology statistics and assessment , 1990 .

[30]  E. Cook,et al.  Modeling the Differential Sensitivity of Loblolly Pine to Climatic Change Using Tree Rings , 1998 .

[31]  C. D. Whitesell,et al.  Stand and tree characteristics and stockability in Pinus taeda plantations in Hawaii and South Carolina , 1994 .

[32]  Philippe Rozenberg,et al.  Clonal variation of indirect cambium reaction to within-growing season temperature changes in Douglas-fir , 2004 .

[33]  Juan A. Blanco,et al.  Relationships between climate and tree radial growth in interior British Columbia, Canada , 2010 .

[34]  C. D. Whitesell,et al.  Stockability: A Major Factor in Productivity Differences between Pinus Taeda Plantations in Hawaii and the Southeastern United States , 1989, Forest Science.

[35]  N. Guttman.  ACCEPTING THE STANDARDIZED PRECIPITATION INDEX: A CALCULATION ALGORITHM 1 , 1999 .

[36]  K. Pernestål,et al.  A simple model for density of annual rings , 1995, Wood Science and Technology.

[37]  FranceschiniTony,et al.  Transient historical decrease in earlywood and latewood density and unstable sensitivity to summer temperature for Norway spruce in northeastern France , 2012 .

[38]  Arvind A. R. Bhuta,et al.  Climate-Radial Growth Relationships of Northern Latitudinal Range Margin Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill.) in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of Southeastern Virginia , 2009 .

[39]  A. J. Panshin,et al.  Textbook of Wood Technology , 1964 .

[40]  E. Cook,et al.  The influence of winter temperatures on the annual radial growth of six northern range margin tree species , 2004 .

[41]  H. Tian,et al.  Drought in the Southern United States over the 20th century: variability and its impacts on terrestrial ecosystem productivity and carbon storage , 2012, Climatic Change.

[42]  A. Clark,et al.  Regional variation in wood specific gravity of planted loblolly pine in the United States , 2008 .

[43]  O. Bouriaud,et al.  Intra-annual variations in climate influence growth and wood density of Norway spruce. , 2005, Tree physiology.

[44]  R. Funada,et al.  A rapid decrease in temperature induces latewood formation in artificially reactivated cambium of conifer stems. , 2012, Annals of botany.

[45]  S. Zhang,et al.  Defining the transition from earlywood to latewood in black spruce based on intra-ring wood density profiles from X-ray densitometry , 2002 .

[46]  K. Johnsen,et al.  Maximum growth potential in loblolly pine: results from a 47-year-old spacing study in Hawaii , 2010 .

[47]  W. Seidling,et al.  Climate responses and interrelations of stem increment and crown transparency in Norway spruce, Scots pine, and common beech , 2012 .

[48]  Alexander Clark,et al.  Formation and Properties of Juvenile Wood in Southern Pines: A Synopsis , 2001 .

[49]  Andrew G. Bunn,et al.  A dendrochronology program library in R (dplR) , 2008 .

[50]  M. Abrams,et al.  Dendroecological analysis of a mature loblolly pine-mixed hardwood forest at the George Washington birthplace National Monument, eastern Virginia. , 2000 .

[51]  C. D. Whitesell,et al.  Growth and development of loblolly pine in a spacing trial planted in Hawaii , 2000 .

[52]  Harold C. Fritts,et al.  Tree Rings and Climate. , 1978 .

[53]  M. Ivković,et al.  A method for describing and modelling of within-ring wood density distribution in clones of three coniferous species , 2004 .

[54]  T. Wigley,et al.  On the Average Value of Correlated Time Series, with Applications in Dendroclimatology and Hydrometeorology , 1984 .

[55]  H. Lee Allen,et al.  The Development of Pine Plantation Silviculture in the Southern United States , 2007 .

[56]  T. Martin,et al.  Water availability and genetic effects on wood properties of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) , 2010 .

[57]  A. Clark,et al.  Specific gravity responses of slash and loblolly pine following mid-rotation fertilization , 2009 .

[58]  R. M. Lanner.  The phenology and growth habits of pines in Hawaii , 1966 .

[59]  Keith R. Briffa,et al.  Interpreting High-Resolution Proxy Climate Data — The Example of Dendroclimatology , 1995 .

[60]  Thomas C. Hennessey,et al.  Growth and wood quality of young loblolly pine trees in relation to stand density and climatic factors , 1988 .

[61]  David M. Fox,et al.  The School of Renewable Natural Resources , 2006 .

[62]  R. Holt.  Bringing the Hutchinsonian niche into the 21st century: Ecological and evolutionary perspectives , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[63]  H. Storch,et al.  Analysis of climate variability : applications of statistical techniques : proceedings of an autumn school organized by the Commission of the European Community on Elba from October 30 to November 6, 1993 , 1995 .

[64]  James S. Clark,et al.  Predicting biodiversity change: outside the climate envelope, beyond the species-area curve. , 2006, Ecology.

[65]  A. Clark,et al.  Modeling the longitudinal variation in wood specific gravity of planted loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) in the United States , 2010 .

[66]  J. Vose,et al.  Growing season temperatures limit growth of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings across a wide geographic transect , 2009, Trees.

[67]  A. Clark,et al.  Juvenile/Mature Wood Transition in Loblolly Pine as Defined by Annual Ring Specific Gravity, Proportion of Latewood, and Microfibril Angle , 2006 .

[68]  Ge Sun,et al.  Response of carbon fluxes to drought in a coastal plain loblolly pine forest , 2010 .

[69]  S. Running,et al.  Impacts of climate change on natural forest productivity – evidence since the middle of the 20th century , 2006 .

[70]  F. Lebourgeois.  Climatic signals in earlywood, latewood and total ring width of Corsican pine from western France , 2000 .

[71]  C. Gough,et al.  Seasonal Photosynthesis in Fertilized and Nonfertilized Loblolly Pine , 2004 .

[72]  Timothy A. Martin,et al.  Production dynamics of intensively managed loblolly pine stands in the southern United States: a synthesis of seven long-term experiments , 2004 .

[73]  R. Daniels,et al.  A Comparison of earlywood–latewood Demarcation Methods – A case study in Loblolly PINE , 2012 .

[74]  M. Adams,et al.  Experimental forests and ranges of the USDA Forest Service , 2004 .

[75]  E. Cook,et al.  Methods of Dendrochronology - Applications in the Environmental Sciences , 1991 .