RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Warmer springs have increased the frequency and extension of late-frost defoliations in southern European beech forests
A1 Sangüesa-Barreda, G., Di Filippo, A., Piovesan, G., Rozas, V., Di Fiore, L., García-Hidalgo, M., García-Cervigón, A. I., Muñoz-Garachana, D., Baliva, M., & Olano
AD  J. M.
AB Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme climate events, causing profound impacts on forestfunction and composition. Late frost defoliation (LFD) events, the loss of photosynthetic tissues due to lowtemperatures at the start of the growing season, might become more recurrent under future climate scenarios.Therefore, the detection of changes in late-frost risk in response to global change emerges as ahigh-priority research topic. Here, we used a tree-ring network from southern European beech (Fagussylvatica L.) forests comprising Spain, Italy and the Austrian Alps, to assess the incidence of LFD events inthe last seven decades. We fitted linear-mixed models of basal area increment using different LFD indicatorsconsidering warmspring temperatures and late-spring frosts as fixed factors.We reconstructed majorLFD events since 1950, matching extreme values of LFD climatic indicators with sharp tree-ring growth reductions.The last LFD events were validated using remote sensing. Lastly, reconstructed LFD events wereclimatically and spatially characterized. Warm temperatures before the late-spring frost, defined by highvalues of growing-degree days, influenced beech growth negatively, particularly in the southernmost populations.The number of LFD events increased towards beech southern distribution edge. Spanish and thesouthernmost Italian beech forests experienced higher frequency of LFD events since the 1990s. Untilthen, LFD events were circumscribed to local scales, but since that decade, LFD events became widespread,largely affecting the whole beech southwestern distribution area. Our study, based on in-situ evidence,sheds light on the climatic factors driving LFD occurrence and illustrates how increased occurrence andspatial extension of late-spring frosts might constrain future southern European beech forests' growth and functionality. Observed alterations in the climate-phenology interactions in response to climate change represent a potential threat for temperate deciduous forests persistence in their drier/southern distributionedge.
PB Elsevier
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/73840
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/73840
LA eng
NO Science of the Total Environment, 775.
DS UVaDOC
RD 05-abr-2025