RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Tree-ring distinctness, dating potential and climatic sensitivity of laurel forest tree species in Tenerife Island
A1 García López, María Auxiliadora
A1 Rozas Ortiz, Vicente Fernando
A1 Olano Mendoza, José Miguel
A1 Sangüesa Barreda, Gabriel
A1 Hidalgo García, Santiago
A1 Gómez González, Susana
A1 López Rubio, Roberto
A1 Fernández Palacios, José M.
A1 García González, Ignacio
A1 García-Cervigón Morales, Ana Isabel
K1 Climate extremes
K1 Extremos climáticos
K1 Forests
K1 Bosques
K1 Drought
K1 Sequía
K1 Macaronesia
K1 3106 Ciencia Forestal
AB Macaronesian laurel forests are the only remnants of a subtropical palaeoecosystem dominant during the Tertiary in Europe and northern Africa. These biodiverse ecosystems are restricted to cloudy and temperate insular environments in the North Atlantic Ocean. Due to their reduced distribution area, these forests are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances and changes in climatic conditions. The assessment of laurel forest trees’ response to climate variation by dendrochronological methods is limited because it was assumed that the lack of marked seasonality would prevent the formation of distinct annual tree rings. The aims of this study were to identify the presence of annual growth rings and to assess the dendrochronological potential of the most representative tree species from laurel forests in Tenerife, Canary Islands. We sampled increment cores from 498 trees of 12 species in two well-preserved forests in Tenerife Island. We evaluated tree-ring boundary distinctness, dating potential, and sensitivity of tree-ring growth to climate and, particularly, to drought occurrence. Eight species showed clear tree-ring boundaries, but synchronic annual tree rings and robust tree-ring chronologies were only obtained for Laurus novocanariensis, Ilex perado subsp. platyphylla, Persea indica and Picconia excelsa, a third of the studied species. Tree-ring width depended on water balance and drought occurrence, showing sharp reductions in growth in the face of decreased water availability, a response that was consistent among species and sites. Inter-annual tree-ring width variation was directly dependent on rainfall input in the humid period, from previous October to current April. The four negative pointer years 1995, 1999, 2008 and 2012 corresponded to severe drought events in the study area. This study gives the first assessment of dendrochronological potential and tree-ring climate sensitivity of tree species from the Tenerife laurel forest, which opens new research avenues for dendroecological studies in Macaronesian laurel forests.
PB Elsevier
SN 1125-7865
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/55783
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/55783
LA eng
NO Dendrochronologia, 2022, vol. 76, 126011
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 18-nov-2024