title: Inter- and intra-specific variation in drought sensitivity inAbies spec. and its relation to wood density and growth traits.
abstract: Understanding drought sensitivity of tree species and its intra-specific variation is required to estimate the effects of climate change on forest productivity, carbon sequestration and tree mortality as well as to develop adaptive forest management measures. Here, we studied the variation of drought reaction of six EuropeanAbiesspecies and ten provenances ofAbies albaplanted in the drought prone eastern Austria. Tree-ring and X-ray densitometry data were used to generate early- and latewood measures for ring width and wood density. Moreover, the drought reaction of species and provenances within six distinct drought events between 1970 and 2011, as identified by the standardized precipitation index, was determined by four drought response measures. The mean reaction of species and provenances to drought events was strongly affected by the seasonal occurrence of the drought: a short, strong drought at the beginning of the growing season resulted in growth reductions up to 50%, while droughts at the end of the growing season did not affect annual increment. Wood properties and drought response measures showed significant variation amongAbiesspecies as well as amongA. albaprovenances. WhereasA. albaprovenances explained significant parts in the variation of ring width measures, theAbiesspecies explained significant parts in the variation of wood density parameters. A consistent pattern in drought response across the six drought events was observed only at the inter-specific level, whereA. nordmannianashowed the highest resistance andA. cephalonicashowed the best recovery after drought. In contrast, differences in drought reaction among provenances were only found for the milder drought events in 1986, 1990, 1993 and 2000 and the ranking of provenances varied at each drought event. This indicates that genetic variation in drought response withinA. albais more limited than amongAbiesspecies. Low correlations between wood density parameters and drought response measures suggest that wood density is a poor predictor of drought sensitivity inAbies spec.
authors.affiliation: Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW), Department of Forest Genetics, Seckendorff-Gudent-Weg 8, 1131 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Jan-Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape (BFW), Department of Forest Genetics, Seckendorff-Gudent-Weg 8, 1131 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schueler
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Konrad-Lorenz-Straβe 24, 3430 Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karanitsch-Ackerl
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Konrad-Lorenz-Straβe 24, 3430 Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Silviculture, Peter-Jordan-Straβe 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Raphael T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Klumpp
authors.affiliation: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Wood Science and Technology, Konrad-Lorenz-Straβe 24, 3430 Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grabner
keywords: Conifer; Drought response; Growth reduction; Silver fir; Wood density