Forêt et sécheresse ¶

Ongoing climate change is having profound impacts on the growth and distribution of trees worldwide. However, there remain substantial gaps in our understanding of how environmental factors influence tree-growth responses to climate at larger scales, which is critical for identifying regions susceptible to the impacts of climate change. In this study, we aimed to reveal the main environmental factors that determine the spatial heterogeneity of tree-growth sensitivity to temperature, precipitation, and drought across temperate forests in Northeast Asia (30–45° N, 124–146° E). Utilising an extensive tree-ring network of 101 chronologies of 22 tree species, across 79 sites, we found that local climate, and especially climate water deficit, plays a dominant role in shaping the spatial heterogeneity of tree-growth sensitivity, while geospatial variables were less important. Our analysis revealed a pervasive pattern of increased tree susceptibility to drought across Northeast Asian forests. Specifically, at sites experiencing high climate water deficit, tree growth was consistently reduced across both broadleaved and coniferous species under conditions of low precipitation, elevated temperatures, and increased dryness during the growing season. Our findings suggest that ongoing climate warming may further negatively affect tree-growth performance, especially at drier sites, across Northeast Asian forests.

Persistent multiyear drought (MYD) events pose a growing threat to nature and humans in a changing climate. We identified and inventoried global MYDs by detecting spatiotemporally contiguous climatic anomalies, showing that MYDs have become drier, hotter, and led to increasingly diminished vegetation greenness. The global terrestrial land affected by MYDs has increased at a rate of 49,279 ± 14,771 square kilometers per year from 1980 to 2018. Temperate grasslands have exhibited the greatest declines in vegetation greenness during MYDs, whereas boreal and tropical forests have had comparably minor responses. With MYDs becoming more common, this global quantitative inventory of the occurrence, severity, trend, and impact of MYDs provides an important benchmark for facilitating more effective and collaborative preparedness toward mitigation of and adaptation to such extreme events.

Il monitoraggio e lo studio dei boschi al Sud delle Alpi ci hanno consentito di approfondire le conoscenze sugli effetti di cambiamenti climatici e inquinamento atmosferico: frequenza e intensità di eventi siccitosi sono aumentate; la qualità dell’aria negli ultimi 30 anni è sensibilmente migliorata in seguito all’adozione di misure per la riduzione di emissioni, ma, in certe zone, deposizioni azotate e ozono destano ancora preoccupazione.

Long-term forest ecosystem research south of the Alps: the results
The monitoring and study of forests south of the Alps have enabled us to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of climate change and air pollution: the frequency and intensity of drought events have increased; air quality has improved significantly over the last 30 years as a result of emission reduction measures, but nitrogen deposition and ozone are still a cause for concern in certain areas.

Premise: Tree structure and function are constrained by and acclimate to climatic conditions. Drought limits plant growth and carbon acquisition and can result in "legacy" effects that last beyond the period of water stress. Leaf and twig-level legacy effects of past water abundance, such as that experienced by trees that established under wetter conditions are unknown.
Methods: In an 18-year forest irrigation experiment, we explored the lasting structural impact of past water richness on leaves and twigs of Pinus sylvestris using synchrotron-based X-ray microscopy. We compared 47 anatomical traits among never-irrigated control trees, trees irrigated for 18 years, and formerly irrigated trees, 7 years after their return to control-level water availability in this naturally dry forest.
Results: We found that legacy effects induced by a period of experimental irrigation continue to shape the structure of new leaves and twigs long after a sharp decrease in water availability. Legacy effects shaping twigs were present but dissipating, while leaf traits displayed long-lasting effects on structural strategy, with extreme values for traits associated with high water stress and low productivity.
Conclusions: Mature trees acclimating to an increasingly dry world may be at a disadvantage compared to young trees that have known only chronic drought. However, these young trees may be capable of thriving in sites of drought-related forest decline especially if planted while larger individuals are still present to support tree establishment. Without a legacy of past water abundance, trees in future forests may be better equipped to cope with our rapidly changing climate.

Abies alba Mill. is a prominent European tree species predominantly inhabiting cool and humid montane environments. However, paleoecological evidence reveals that during the Eemian and mid-Holocene, A. alba thrived in much warmer and drier climates. This capacity is nowadays reflected in cryptic meso- and sub-Mediterranean lowland populations. To link A. alba populations across diverse climates spanning from the Mediterranean lowlands to the Alpine timberline, we genotyped 421 specimens from Italy and Switzerland at 190 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Population genetic structure analyses indicate that isolated meso- and sub-Mediterranean lowland populations in Tuscany and Ticino align genetically with higher elevation populations in each region, suggesting that their capacity to thrive in warmer, drier conditions cannot be attributed to plantations with planting stock originating from different climates or to the occurrence of a single warm-adapted lineage showing a disjunct distribution, unless migration between Tuscany and Ticino stands occurred. Genotype–environment associations reveal that temperature seasonality, precipitation during critical seasons, and relative humidity are important for explaining the species' genetic variation. With genotype–environment and genotype–phenotype associations, we identified candidate adaptive genes potentially linked to climatic conditions and drought response. While certain adaptive alleles may have spread from Tuscany and Southern Italy or could be explained by a shared ancestry of Ticino and Tuscan populations, local adaptation may have occurred at specific loci. These findings underscore the importance of considering the hitherto overlooked lowland Mediterranean populations of A. alba to better understand the species' climatic niche and its potential for forest conservation and management under global warming.