Effect of Climate Change on Subalpine Fir Growth and Mortality
Due to changes in climate and increasing physiological stress, forests exhibit unique growth and mortality. This piece of writing examines the effect of climate change on Subalpine Fir growth and mortality and how changes in precipitation will affect the predictions. The changes in growth and mortality will be experienced at different landscape positions (Shanley et al., 2015).
Decline in Growth and Fluctuation of Tree Line
For the subalpine fir, the growth will decline and the tree line will fluctuate due to the increased temperature. Tree establishments will be modified at different scales depending on the topography. There will be a strong effect of climate variability which include decrease of mature fir trees. The number of trees will definitely reduce with the fir populace being younger in the higher elevations compared to the lower elevations. Subalpine fir shows greater sensitivity to climate and is negatively correlated with warm summer temperatures and its growth is declining on east facing landscape (Shanley et al., 2015).
Effects on Tree Distribution and Age
Large trees on the higher topology will greatly decreased in number while the ones on the lower topography will increase along altitudinal gradient and the difference between the age of the trees and size will be weak while the correlation between age and size on the south aspect will be stronger on the north (Shanley et al., 2015). Temperatures will have a serious effect on the tree radial growth with warm temperature expected to reduce winter dormancy level. High temperatures will melt the snow and make the growing season longer particularly and the warmer temperatures during spring promote radial growth. The difference between the South and the North will affect the expected changes where the south has subtropical characteristics that increases carbohydrate production of subalpine conifers while the North is always expected to be warmer. Trees that are at higher topography are expected to be younger compared with those at the lower topography. Fir trees will invade the subalpine environment because of temperature differences and there will be a change in the mortality rate. In a nutshell, there will be climate induced trees and the general growth of the trees will be lengthened in the long run (Turner, Conklin " Bolte, 2015).
Impact of Precipitation on Subalpine Fir Growth
The changes in precipitation will however not have any effect on the fir growth hence cannot correlate with fir radial growth. This means that precipitation is therefore not a primary climatic factor. With the increase in air temperatures due to the increase of global warming, the forest will experience higher evaporation thus leading to scattered distribution of trees (Fernández-de-Uña, Cañellas & Gea-Izquierdo, 2015). At higher elevations the tree growth will be restricted even though the soil moisture will increase. However, on the lower elevations, there is an expected low precipitation which may prevent the tree growth implying an expected drought that will also mean less trees will e expected to remain standing in the near future (Fernández-de-Uña, Cañellas & Gea-Izquierdo, 2015). The changes in precipitation will definitely inhibit the growth of trees with higher precipitations expected to lengthen the tree growth. The effect of precipitation will differ depending on the age of the trees with the young trees showing negative correlation and a further significant effect to the tree-ring growth. The changes in precipitation however should be considered to be asymptotic and will somehow reduce the effect of drought in future that will be derived from higher temperatures or global warming.
References
Fernández-de-Uña, L., Cañellas, I., " Gea-Izquierdo, G. (2015). Stand Competition Determines How Different Tree Species Will Cope with a Warming Climate. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122255. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0122255
Shanley, C. S., Pyare, S., Goldstein, M. I., Alaback, P. B., Albert, D. M., Beier, C. M., . . . Wipfli, M. S. (2015). Climate change implications in the northern coastal temperate rainforest of north America. Climatic Change, 130(2), 155-170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1355-9
Turner, D. P., Conklin, D. R., " Bolte, J. P. (2015). Projected climate change impacts on forest land cover and land use over the Willamette river basin, Oregon, USA. Climatic Change, 133(2), 335-348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1465-4
