Different drought recovery strategy between Larix spp. and Quercus mongolica in temperate forests

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 938; p. 173521
• Main Authors: Du, Mingchao, Xu, Chen, Wang, Ao, Lv, Pengcheng, Xu, Zhongqi, Zhang, Xianliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15-08-2024
• Subjects: China; Compensatory growth; Drought Resistance; Droughts; Forests; Larix - physiology; Larix olgensis Henry; Larix principis-rupprechtii; Legacy effect; Quercus - growth & development; Quercus - physiology; Quercus mongolica; Trees - physiology; China; Larix principis-rupprechtii; Larix olgensis Henry; Compensatory growth; Droughts; Quercus mongolica; Legacy effect
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173521

Forests are experiencing increasingly severe drought stress worldwide. Although most studies have quantified how tree growth was affected by extreme droughts, how trees recover from different drought intensities are still poorly understood for different species. We used a network of tree-ring data comprising 731 Quercus mongolica trees across 29 sites, 312 Larix olgensis Henry trees from 13 sites, and 818 Larix principis-rupprechtii trees from 34 sites, covering most of their distribution range in northern China, to compare the influences of drought intensity on post-drought recovery. The results showed that summer droughts had strong negative influences on tree growth. Post-drought growth varied with drought intensity for the three species. Larix species exhibited strong legacy effects after severe droughts, which is related to the lack of compensatory growth. In contrast, the compensatory growth of Q. mongolica reduced drought legacy effect. However, the compensatory growth of Q. mongolica gradually weaken with increasing drought intensity and disappeared during severe drought. Our findings indicated that influence of drought on Q. mongolica growth mainly shown in drought years, but Larix species suffered from long-term drought legacy effects, implying Q. mongolica rapidly recovered from droughts but Larix species need several years to recover from droughts, thus the two genera have different recovery strategy.
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•Oak tree showed no drought legacy effect even after severe droughts.•Post-drought growth reduced about 20 % from severe droughts for larch.•Oak had strong compensatory growth after mild and moderate drought.•Larch shows no drought legacy effect after mild and moderate drought.•Larch has weaker adaption to drought than oak with increasing drought intensity.