Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Tree growth in Switzerland is increasingly constrained by rising evaporative demand
 
research article

Tree growth in Switzerland is increasingly constrained by rising evaporative demand

Trotsiuk, Volodymyr
•
Babst, Flurin
•
Grossiord, Charlotte  
Show more
May 1, 2021
Journal of Ecology

The response of trees to intra-annual environmental constraints varies temporally throughout a growing season and spatially across landscapes. A better understanding of these dynamics will help us anticipate the impacts of short-term climate variability and medium-term climate change on forests. Using the process-based 3-PG forest ecosystem model, we assessed the spatial manifestation and seasonal variation in environmental constraints [vapour pressure deficit (VPD), air temperature and soil water availability] on tree growth for the potential distribution range of seven widespread Central European tree species. We focused our analyses on Switzerland, where large climatic gradients occur within a comparatively small geographic area. On average, over the last 60 years, simulated forest growth during the May–August growing season was limited by high VPD (67% of the forested area), low air temperature (29%) or low soil water availability (4%). But this response varied among species and across elevations. When comparing the period 1961–1990 with 1991–2018, we observed major shifts from former temperature limitation to recent VPD limitation across 12% of the area (3%–25%, depending on species), mainly at mid-elevations (700–1,200 m a.s.l.). At the same time, forest growth at lower elevations (i.e. below 700 m a.s.l.) became more limited by available soil water at the end of the growing season. Synthesis. Our results highlight how the relative impact of environmental growth constraints has shifted in the last three decades, and show that the importance of VPD as a dominant environmental growth constraint has increased for tree species in Swiss and Central European forests. Understanding the spatial and temporal variability in environmental growth constraints will help to generate accurate species-specific risk maps for forest managers to identify areas with elevated drought and heat stress in the near future.

  • Files
  • Details
  • Metrics
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name

1365-2745.13712.pdf

Type

Publisher's Version

Version

http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85

Access type

openaccess

License Condition

CC BY

Size

6.43 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

296e2d6bf346f66b64cd242000774f63

Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés