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Due to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, the ratio of carbon fixed by assimilation to water lost by transpiration through stomatal conductance (intrinsic water-use efficiency, iWUE) shows a long-term increasing trend globally. However, the drivers of short-term (inter-annual) variability in iWUE of tropical trees are poorly understood. We studied the inter-annual variability in iWUE of three South Asian tropical moist forest tree species (Chukrasia tabularis A.Juss. Toona ciliata M. Roem. and Lagerstroemia speciosa L.) derived from tree-ring stable carbon isotope ratio (δ13C) in response to variations of environmental conditions. We found a significantly decreasing trend in carbon discrimination (Δ13C) and an increasing trend in iWUE in all the three species, with a species-specific long-term trend in intercellular CO2 concentration (C i). Growing season temperatures were the main driver of inter-annual variability of iWUE in C. tabularis and L. speciosa , whereas previous year temperatures determined the iWUE variability in T. ciliata. Vapor pressure deficit was linked with iWUE only in C. tabularis. Differences in shade tolerance, tree stature and canopy position might have caused this species-specific variation in iWUE response to climate. Linear mixed effect modeling successfully simulated iWUE variability, explaining 41–51% of the total variance varying with species. Commonality analysis revealed that temperatures had a dominant influence on the inter-annual iWUE variability (64–77%) over precipitation (7–22%) and atmospheric CO2 concentration (3–6%). However, the long-term variations in iWUE were explicitly determined by the atmospheric CO2 increase (83–94%). Our results suggest that the elevated CO2 and concomitant global warming might have detrimental effects on gas exchange and other physiological processes in South Asian tropical moist forest trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Increasing water-use efficiency, due to rising atmospheric CO2, did not stimulate radial growth in tropical trees, probably because negative impacts of changing climate on tree growth have overridden the small positive influence of rising atmospheric CO2. Global environmental changes affect tree growth and physiological behavior across the major biomes around the world. However, it is not yet clear how tree growth and physiology of tropical trees responded to global environmental changes in a long term, yet such information is critical to get insight into how tropical trees will respond to future global changes. The main objective of this review article is to explore the long-term trends in tree growth, carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), and intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) across the tropics and subtropics. We distinguished between data generated on plot levels or on species or tree individual levels. Stand-level growth trends were not consistent across the studies and plots, although recent studies indicated a declining growth trend. Ci and iWUE consistently increased during the past decades, while Δ13C remained nearly constant. Increased iWUE either caused by higher photosynthetic capacity or reduced stomatal conductance did not translate into tree- and species-level radial growth, probably because assimilated carbon was allocated more to the root development to facilitate water absorption from moisture-limited soils rather than to basal area growth or xylem cell differentiation and maturation processess were impared by cavitation induced hydraulic limitations. Thus, higher temperature or drought-induced soil moisture deficit might have strongly impaired radial growth which has probably overridden the small positive effect of atmospheric CO2. Yet, disentangling the role of multiple drivers in explaining stem radial growth variation and their interactive effects on tropical trees under natural field conditions are not adequately studied and hence future research should focus on this aspect. Tree hydraulics should be taken into account in future research when predicting radial growth variability in tropical trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Intra-annual tree-ring parameters of Quercus brantii contain high-resolution intra-annual climate signals which enable us to trace seasonal aspects of climate change and to reconstruct high-resolution climate data for the semi-arid region.Abstract: Environmental conditions affect growth potential and wood-anatomical features of tree species. Hence, valuable climate signals can be extracted from intra-annual tree-ring features. In this study, we evaluated the potential of intra-annual wood parameters of Quercus brantii Lindel growing in the semi-arid southern Zagros Mountains, Iran. We analyzed earlywood width (EWW), latewood width (LWW), total ring-width (TRW), and several vessel features of the oak species. Standard chronologies have been developed for ring-width and vessel parameters using dendrochronological and quantitative wood-anatomical approaches. Correlations with local climate data showed that precipitation during the pre-growing and growing seasons had positive effects on EWW, LWW, TRW, and latewood vessel size. In contrast, earlywood vessel size showed positive correlations with precipitation in the active growing period (January-April). EWW, LWW, and TRW showed negative correlations with temperature during the pre-growing and growing seasons. Earlywood and latewood vessel features showed stronger negative correlations with mean monthly temperatures during the vessel formation period. Our results revealed that EWW, LWW, and earlywood and latewood anatomical variables of the trees contain valuable climatic signals complementing each other over different seasons. Despite the often low common signal strength of the anatomical variables shared between trees, they showed strong climate-growth relationships which can be useful for the reconstruction of seasonally resolved climate parameters in a multi-parameter tree-ring approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical hydroclimate records derived from tree-ring parameters are scarce in the core region of East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) in China, limiting our understanding of the inter-decadal hydroclimate variability of this region and its possible connections with the EASM. In this study, standard chronologies of total tree-ring width (TRW), earlywood width (EWW), and latewood width (LWW) were created using tree-ring samples of Pinus tabulaeformis in the eastern Qinling Mountains, Central China. The strongest growth-climate relationship was found between EWW and May-July self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (MJJ scPDSI). Therefore, a linear regression model, which explained 50.3 % of the variance in MJJ scPDSI (1951-2005), was developed to estimate the past MJJ scPDSI variations using EWW. The time series of MJJ scPDSI was extended back to the year 1866, and validated by independent hydroclimate series from nearby regions. Before the mid-1950s, the variations of MJJ scPDSI were in-phase with those of EASM intensity on decadal and longer timescales, suggesting that wet conditions would occur in the eastern Qinling Mountains when EASM was strengthened. Since the mid-1950s, however, the relationship has been out-of-phase. This phase change may be associated with an intensified dipole pattern of EASM precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though tree-ring chronologies are annually resolved, their dating has never been independently validated at the global scale. Moreover, it is unknown if atmospheric radiocarbon enrichment events of cosmogenic origin leave spatiotemporally consistent fingerprints. Here we measure the 14C content in 484 individual tree rings formed in the periods 770-780 and 990-1000 CE. Distinct 14C excursions starting in the boreal summer of 774 and the boreal spring of 993 ensure the precise dating of 44 tree-ring records from five continents. We also identify a meridional decline of 11-year mean atmospheric radiocarbon concentrations across both hemispheres. Corroborated by historical eye-witness accounts of red auroras, our results suggest a global exposure to strong solar proton radiation. To improve understanding of the return frequency and intensity of past cosmic events, which is particularly important for assessing the potential threat of space weather on our society, further annually resolved 14C measurements are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed the first tree-ring width chronology from Quercus brantii Lindel for the period 1796–2015 in the southern Zagros Mountains, Iran, using standard dendrochronological procedures. Climate-growth relationships revealed that DecemberöFebruary precipitation has strong positive effects (r = 0.66; P < 0.01) on the species’ growth while mean temperature during the growing season has strong negative effects. Spatial correlations with Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and gridded precipitation data revealed that the chronology contains regional climate signals and tree growth variations may represent precipitation fluctuations over large areas of the Middle East. The linear regression model accounts for 44% of the actual DecemberöFebruary precipitation variance. The reconstructed precipitation revealed that over the period 1850–2015 extreme dry years occurred in 1870-71, 1898, 1960 and 1963-64, and extreme wet years occurred in 1851, 1885, 1916 and 1921 in the southern Zagros region. The longest dry period lasted 16 years and occurred from 1958 to 1973. Two-year consecutive wet and dry events showed the highest frequencies and the average length of dry and wet events were 2.9 and 3.6 years over the reconstructed period. Correlations between the long-term reconstructed precipitation and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) confirmed the effects of teleconnection patterns on precipitation in the southern Zagros region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric circulations influence local and regional weather conditions and, thus, tree growth. To identify summer weather types relevant for tree growth, and their associated synoptic-scale circulation patterns, an atmospheric circulation tree ring index (ACTI) dataset, derived from 414 tree-ring sites across Asia spanning the period 1871-2010, was created. Modes of common variability in the ACTI dataset were compared with leading modes of observed summertime 500-hPa geopotential height. The first four ACTI modes (explaining 88%of the total variance) were associated with pressure centers over Eurasia, the tropics, and the PacificOcean. The high spatiotemporal resemblance between the leading circulationmodes, derived from both tree rings and 500-hPa geopotential height fields, indicates a strong potential for reconstructing large-scale circulation patterns from tree rings in Asia. This would allow investigations of natural atmospheric circulation variability prior to anthropogenic climate change and provide a means to validate model simulations of climate predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response of the growing season to the ongoing global warming has gained considerable attention. In particular, how and to which extent the growing season will change during this century is essential information for the Tibetan Plateau, where the observed warming trend has exceeded the global mean. In this study, the 1960-2014 mean length of the tree-ring growing season (LOS) on the Tibetan Plateau was derived from results of the Vaganov-Shashkin oscilloscope tree growth model, based on 20 composite study sites and more than 3000 trees. Bootstrap and partial correlations were used to evaluate the most significant climate factors determining the LOS in the study region. Based on this relationship, we predicted the future variability of the LOS under three emission scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 2.6, 6.0, and 8.5, representing different concentrations of greenhouse gasses) derived from 17 Earth system models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). The averaged LOS on the Tibetan Plateau is 103 days during the period 1960-2014, and April-September minimum temperature is the strongest factor controlling the LOS. We detected a general increase in the LOS over the twenty-first century under all the three selected scenarios. By the middle of this century, LOS will extend by about 3 to 4 weeks under the RCPs 2.6 and 6.0, and by more than 1 month (37 days) under the RCP 8.5, relative to the baseline period 1960-2014. From the middle to the end of the twenty-first century, LOS will further extend by about 3 to 4 weeks under the RCPs 6.0 and 8.5, respectively. Under the RCP 2.6 scenario, however, the extension reaches a plateau at around 2050 and about 2 weeks LOS extension. In total, we found an average rate of 2.1, 3.6, and 5.0 days decade−1 for the LOS extension from 2015 to 2100 under the RCPs 2.6, 6.0, and 8.5, respectively. However, such estimated LOS extensions may be offset by other ecological factors that were not included into the growth model. The estimated lengthening of the growing season could substantially affect carbon sequestration and forest productivity on the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]