Intra- and Inter-Annual Growth Patterns of a Mixed Pine-Oak Forest under Mediterranean Climate

Abstract

Temperature and precipitation variability throughout the year control the intra-annual dynamics of tree-ring formation. Physiological adaptation of trees to climate change is among the key issues to better understand and predict future forest performance and composition. In this study, we investigated the species’ coexistence and performance of Scots pine and pubescent oak growing in a mixed sub-Mediterranean forest in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. We assessed intra-annual cumulative growth patterns derived from band dendrometers during four consecutive growing seasons and long-term changes in basal area increment for the period 1950–2014. Our results revealed that Scots pine followed an intra-annual bimodal growth pattern. Scots pine growth was mainly limited by water availability at intra-annual, interannual and decadal time scales, which resulted in a negative long-term growth trend. Conversely, oak displayed a unimodal growth pattern, which was less climatically constrained. A significant increase in basal area of oak denotes an overall better potential acclimation to prevailing climatic conditions at the expenses of a higher risk of physiological failure during extreme climate events.