Tree-ring distinctness, dating potential and climatic sensitivity of laurel forest tree species in Tenerife Island

作者：María A. García‐López, Vicente Rozas, José Miguel Olano, Gabriel Sangüesa‐Barreda, Miguel García‐Hidalgo, Susana Gómez‐González, Roberto López‐Rubio, José María Fernández‐Palacios, Ignacio García‐González, Ana I. García‐Cervigón · 发表于：Dendrochronologia · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.dendro.2022.126011 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Tree-ring climate responses、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Hydrology and Drought Analysis

Macaronesian laurel forests are the only remnants of a subtropical palaeoecosystem dominant during the Tertiary in Europe and northern Africa. These biodiverse ecosystems are restricted to cloudy and temperate insular environments in the North Atlantic Ocean. Due to their reduced distribution area, these forests are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances and changes in climatic conditions. The assessment of laurel forest trees’ response to climate variation by dendrochronological methods is limited because it was assumed that the lack of marked seasonality would prevent the formation of distinct annual tree rings. The aims of this study were to identify the presence of annual growth rings and to assess the dendrochronological potential of the most representative tree species from laurel forests in Tenerife, Canary Islands. We sampled increment cores from 498 trees of 12 species in two well-preserved forests in Tenerife Island. We evaluated tree-ring boundary distinctness, dating potential, and sensitivity of tree-ring growth to climate and, particularly, to drought occurrence. Eight species showed clear tree-ring boundaries, but synchronic annual tree rings and robust tree-ring chronologies were only obtained for Laurus novocanariensis, Ilex perado subsp. platyphylla, Persea indica and Picconia excelsa, a third of the studied species. Tree-ring width depended on water balance and drought occurrence, showing sharp reductions in growth in the face of decreased wa...