Morgane Merlin
Forsker
Sammendrag
In terrestrial ecosystems, forest stands are the primary drivers of atmospheric moisture and local climate regulation, making the quantification of transpiration (T) at the stand level both highly relevant and scientifically important. Stand-level T quantification complements evapotranspiration monitoring by eddy-covariance systems, providing valuable insight into the water use efficiency of forested ecosystems in addition to serving as important inputs for the calibration and validation of global transpiration monitoring products based on satellite observations. Stand level T estimates are typically obtained by scaling up individual tree estimates of water movement within the xylem – or sap flow. This movement affects the radius of a tree stem, whose fluctuations over the diel cycle provide pertinent information about tree water relations which can be readily detected by point (or precision) dendrometers. While sap flow measurements have greatly advanced our understanding of water consumption (T) at the level of individual trees, deploying conventional sap flow monitoring equipment to quantify T at the level of entire forested stands (or ecosystems) can quickly become costly since sap flow measurements from many trees are required to reduce the uncertainty of the upscaling. Using a boreal old-growth Norway spruce stand at an ICOS site in Southern Norway as a case study, we assess the potential of augmenting conventional sap flow monitoring systems with sap flow modeling informed by point dendrometer measurements to reduce the uncertainty of stand level T estimation at the daily resolution. We test the hypothesis that the uncertainty reduction afforded by a boosted tree sample size more than offsets the propagation of uncertainty originating from the point dendrometer-based sap flow estimates.
Sammendrag
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Sammendrag
Forests, especially in the northern latitudes, are vulnerable ecosystems to climate change, and tree-ring data offer insights into growth-climate relationships as an important effect. Using the National Forest Inventory plot network, we analysed these correlations for the two dominant conifer species in Norway – Norway spruce and Scots pine – for the 1960–2020 period. For both species, the June climate was an important driver of radial growth during this period. Countrywide, the climate-growth correlations divided the Norwegian forests into spatial clusters following a broad shift from temperature- to water-sensitivity of growth with latitude and altitude. The clusters were delineated by a mean 1960–2020 June temperature of ca. 12°C for Norway spruce and Scots pine. The annual mean growing season and July temperatures – but not June temperature – has increased by 1.0 °C between the 1960–1990 and 1990–2020 periods, with a slight increase in precipitation. Despite this warming and wetting trend, the long-term growth-climate relationship has remained relatively stable between 1960 and 1990 and 1990–2020 for both species. The threshold between temperature and water-sensitive growth has not changed in the last two 31-year periods, following the stability of the June temperature compared with other months during the growing season. These findings highlight geographically coherent regions in Norway, segregating between temperature- and water-sensitive radial growth for the two major conifer species, temporally stable in the long-term for the 1960–2020 period studied.

Divisjon for skog og utmark
PathFinder
Towards an Integrated Consistent European LULUCF Monitoring and Policy Pathway Assessment Framework

Divisjon for miljø og naturressurser
Precilience: Precision climate resilience for agriculture and forestry sectors in the European boreal regions
Precilience will develop precision solutions with farmers, foresters, landowners, and other actors to increase climate resilience in the Nordic-Baltic regions of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.