Growth rate overrides the benefit of extended growing season from boreal to semiarid conifers
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Climate warming lengthens the productive season in extratropical forests. Yet there is inconclusive evidence on whether this in turn elicits enhanced tree growth and forest carbon sequestration. In this study, we used cellular observations of conifer wood formation spanning boreal to semiarid forests to quantify the relative importance of cambial growth rate versus season length in driving annual cell production, the key process underlying woody growth. We found that rate is the primary driver of annual cell production. Furthermore, whereas the growing season lengthens with annual temperature, growth rate exhibited an optimum at ~6°C, beyond which increasingly dry conditions compromise wood production gains. The negative impact of warming on intra-annual growth dynamics can thus largely offset the benefit of longer growing season on future forest carbon storage.
Source: Science
Authors: Antoine Cabon, Patrick Fonti, Georg von Arx, Franco Biondi, J. Julio Camarero, Filipe Campelo, Marco Carrer, Katarina Čufar, Henri Cuny, Annie Deslauriers, Marek Fajstavr, Marina Fonti, David Frank, Alessio Giovannelli, Andreas Gruber, Jožica Gričar, Vladimír Gryc, Aylin Güney, Minhui He, Petr Horáček, Jianguo Huang, Malcolm Hughes, Yuan Jiang, Hans-Peter Kahle, Gregory King, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Elena Larysch, Xiaoxia Li, Eryuan Liang, Martín de Luis, Harri Mäkinen, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Sergei Mikhailov, Tobias Walter Miller, Kiyomi Morino, Cristina Nabais, Walter Oberhuber, Momchil Panayotov, Richard L. Peters, Peter Prislan, Sergio Rossi, Seyedehmasoumeh Saderi, Antonio Saracino, Luigi Saulino, Roberto Silvestro, Thomas Seifert, Anne Sophie Sergent, Dominik Florian Stangler, Marko Stojanović, Vaclav Treml, Hanuš Vavrčík, Joana Vieira, Wenjin Wang, Gerhard Wieser, Bao Yang, Yiping Zhang, Emanuele Ziaco, Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber
Institutions: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, University of Bern, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Nevada, Reno, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, University of Coimbra, University of Padua, University of Ljubljana, Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute, Mendel University in Brno, University of Arizona, National Research Council, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Ricerca sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri, Universität Innsbruck, Slovenian Forestry Institute, Izmir Kâtip Çelebi University, Zhejiang University, Beijing Normal University, University of Freiburg, University of Alberta, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Federal University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Universidad de Zaragoza, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, University of Forestry, Technical University of Munich, AgroParisTech, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Silva, Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières, Université de Lorraine, University of Naples Federico II, Stellenbosch University, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Charles University, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, CoLAB ForestWISE, Nanjing University, Henan University of Science and Technology
Language: English
Topic: Tree-ring climate responses
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Recherches Avancées sur la Biologie de l’Arbre et les Ecosystèmes Forestiers, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Austrian Science Fund, Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province
Awards: G1020969988, Coupling stem water flow and structural carbon allocation in a warming climate: the Lötschental study case (LOTFOR), INtra-seasonal Tree growth along Elevational GRAdients in the European ALps (INTEGRAL), Subalpine forest development in Bulgarian Mountain Forests under climate change, G1667329420, Source and sink drivers of tree carbon allocation and turnover, G1938038259, Conifer radial stem growth in response to drought, G2176500040, G272563425, Wood and lignocellulosic composites, G2961452745, G3473809622, G3706121514, Mixed Carbon Source and Sink controls on tree growth, G4353097915, G5349159684, Forest-wood value chain and climate change: transition to circular bioeconomy, Carbon allocation and growth of Scots pine, Collaborative Research: P2C2--Growth Dynamics in the Climate Control of Tree-Ring Variability for Paleoclimatology, Calibrating Earth Observation-based impacts of drought on mountain forests by monitoring Carbon fixation and transpiration: from individual tree responses to regional scale extrapolation – CALEIDOSCOPE, G7772997527
OpenAlex ID: W7212141009