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Tree growth response along an elevational gradient: climate or genetics?

  • Global change ecology - Original research
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Abstract

Environment and genetics combine to influence tree growth and should therefore be jointly considered when evaluating forest responses in a warming climate. Here, we combine dendroclimatology and population genetic approaches with the aim of attributing climatic influences on growth of European larch (Larix decidua) and Norway spruce (Picea abies). Increment cores and genomic DNA samples were collected from populations along a ~900-m elevational transect where the air temperature gradient encompasses a ~4 °C temperature difference. We found that low genetic differentiation among populations indicates gene flow is high, suggesting that migration rate is high enough to counteract the selective pressures of local environmental variation. We observed lower growth rates towards higher elevations and a transition from negative to positive correlations with growing season temperature upward along the elevational transect. With increasing elevation there was also a clear increase in the explained variance of growth due to summer temperatures. Comparisons between climate sensitivity patterns observed along this elevational transect with those from Larix and Picea sites distributed across the Alps reveal good agreement, and suggest that tree-ring width (TRW) variations are more climate-driven than genetics-driven at regional and larger scales. We conclude that elevational transects are an extremely valuable platform for understanding climatic-driven changes over time and can be especially powerful when working within an assessed genetic framework.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by a Swiss National Science Foundation project (no. 121859, INTEGRAL) and NCCR Climate (DE-TREE). We thank: Andrea Plüss, Christoph Sperisen, Pim van der Knaap, Sabine Brodbeck, Daniela Csencsics, Tabea Turrini, Andreas Koller and Anja Gall for existing genetic data and processing the new samples in this study; Stefan Bechet, Anne Verstege, Daniel Nievergelt, Flurin Babst, Ulf Büntgen, Kerstin Treydte for helping with the collection and processing of tree-ring data; Ben Poulter for the gridded climate data; and all of the above for discussion.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903, Birmensdorf, Switzerland

    Gregory M. King, Felix Gugerli, Patrick Fonti & David C. Frank

  2. Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR), University of Bern, Zähringerstrasse 25, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Gregory M. King & David C. Frank

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  1. Gregory M. King
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  2. Felix Gugerli
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Correspondence to Gregory M. King.

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Communicated by Tim Seastedt.

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King, G.M., Gugerli, F., Fonti, P. et al. Tree growth response along an elevational gradient: climate or genetics?. Oecologia 173, 1587–1600 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2696-6

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