title: Diverging shrub and tree growth from the Polar to the Mediterranean biomes across the European continent.
abstract: Climate warming is expected to enhance productivity and growth of woody plants, particularly in temperature-limited environments at the northernmost or uppermost limits of their distribution. However, this warming is spatially uneven and temporally variable, and the rise in temperatures differently affects biomes and growth forms. Here, applying a dendroecological approach with generalized additive mixed models, we analysed how the growth of shrubby junipers and coexisting trees (larch and pine species) responds to rising temperatures along a 5000-km latitudinal range including sites from the Polar, Alpine to the Mediterranean biomes. We hypothesize that, being more coupled to ground microclimate, junipers will be less influenced by atmospheric conditions and will less respond to the post-1950 climate warming than coexisting standing trees. Unexpectedly, shrub and tree growth forms revealed divergent growth trends in all the three biomes, with juniper performing better than trees at Mediterranean than at Polar and Alpine sites. The post-1980s decline of tree growth in Mediterranean sites might be induced by drought stress amplified by climate warming and did not affect junipers. We conclude that different but coexisting long-living growth forms can respond differently to the same climate factor and that, even in temperature-limited area, other drivers like the duration of snow cover might locally play a fundamental role on woody plants growth across Europe.
authors.affiliation: Deaparment of TeSAF, Università Degli Studi di Padova, Legnaro, I-35020, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6836-8141
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pellizzari
authors.affiliation: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza, 50059, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesus Julio
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Camarero
authors.affiliation: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza, 50059, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gazol
authors.affiliation: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza, 50059, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Granda
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, 17487, Germany.
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shetti
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, 17487, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilmking
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UD RAS, Yekaterinburg, 620144, Russia.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moiseev
authors.affiliation: Deaparment of TeSAF, Università Degli Studi di Padova, Legnaro, I-35020, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pividori
authors.affiliation: Deaparment of TeSAF, Università Degli Studi di Padova, Legnaro, I-35020, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carrer
mesh_terms: D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D018653:Juniperus; D013696:Temperature; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development*
keywords: climate warming; dendroecology; junipers; latitudinal transect; thermal uncoupling; tree growth