0000000000283162
AUTHOR
Andreas Rothe
Old World Megadroughts and Pluvials During the Common Era
An atlas of megadroughts in Europe and in the Mediterranean Basin during the Common Era provides insights into climate variability.
Patterns of drought tolerance in major European temperate forest trees: climatic drivers and levels of variability
The future performance of native tree species under climate change conditions is frequently discussed, since increasingly severe and more frequent drought events are expected to become a major risk for forest ecosystems. To improve our understanding of the drought tolerance of the three common European temperate forest tree species Norway spruce, silver fir and common beech, we tested the influence of climate and tree-specific traits on the inter and intrasite variability in drought responses of these species. Basal area increment data from a large tree-ring network in Southern Germany and Alpine Austria along a climatic cline from warm-dry to cool-wet conditions were used to calculate indi…
Uniform climate sensitivity in tree-ring stable isotopes across species and sites in a mid-latitude temperate forest.
Tree-ring stable isotopes, providing insight into drought-induced eco-physiological mechanisms, are frequently used to reconstruct past changes in growing season temperature and precipitation. Their climatic response is, however, still not fully understood, particularly for data originating from non-extreme, mid-latitude environments with differing ecological conditions. Here, we assess the response of δ(13)C, δ(18)O and tree-ring width (TRW) from a temperate mountain forest in the Austrian pre-Alps to climate and specific drought events. Variations in stem growth and isotopic composition of Norway spruce, common beech and European larch from dry, medium and moist sites are compared with re…
Vulnerability of Norway spruce to climate change in mountain forests of the European Alps
Mountain forests offer a range of socio-economic and ecological services, e.g. provid- ing wood harvest products, serving as hotspots of biodiversity and fulfilling protective functions. In the European Alps, where these environments are dominated by drought-sensitive Norway spruce, it has been questioned whether these services can be secured in the substantially warmer and drier climates predicted for the mid-to-late 21st century. Here, we compile a tree-ring width network of 500 spruce trees from the Northern Limestone Alps to assess growth reactions to drought events and evaluate the long-term impact of the recent temperature shift through ana - lyses along elevational transects. Our dat…
Effects of host abundance on larch budmoth outbreaks in the European Alps
Outbreaks of the larch budmoth (LBM) in the European Alps are among the most documented population cycles and their historical occurrence has been reconstructed over 1200 years. Causes and consequences of cyclic LBM outbreaks are poorly understood and little is known about populations near the margin of the host's distribution range. In the present study, we quantify historical LBM outbreaks and associated growth reductions in host trees (European larch). Tree-ring data collected from 18 sites between approximately 500 and 1700 m a.s.l. in the Northern pre-Alps are compared with data from the Western Alps and Tatra Mountains, as well as with nonhost Norway spruce. Highly synchronized host a…