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Map of the Baltic Sea area showing the location of Estonia and the sites of the forests (black dots) and of some architectural monuments (rings)
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In order to build a tree-ring chronology for Estonia, as a dating tool and climatic proxy, we investigated whether the whole country can be considered to be dendrochronologically uniform. Seven sites with living pine trees throughout the country were chosen, and the tree-ring series cross-dated between each site. A principal component analysis of t...
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... area ( Fig. 1) The territory of Estonia covers 45 100 km², extend- ing ca. 270 km from north to south and ca. 390 km from east to west (including the sea islands). It is a low ...
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... forest sites were chosen for sampling old- aged living pine trees (see Fig. 1). Pines of hundreds of years of age also grow in raised bogs, but they were not included since they were never used in building. The forest sites chosen were Järvselja and Kiidjärve in the SE, Raadna in the NE, Karepa in the N, Vormsi in the NW and Häädemeeste in the SW of Estonia (Fig. 1). Järvselja and Kiidjärve represent Rhodococcum ...
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... were chosen for sampling old- aged living pine trees (see Fig. 1). Pines of hundreds of years of age also grow in raised bogs, but they were not included since they were never used in building. The forest sites chosen were Järvselja and Kiidjärve in the SE, Raadna in the NE, Karepa in the N, Vormsi in the NW and Häädemeeste in the SW of Estonia (Fig. 1). Järvselja and Kiidjärve represent Rhodococcum vitis-idaea sites; Raadna, Karepa, Häädemeeste and Vormsi are Rhodococcum vitis-idaea sites on sandy soils. The samples referred to as Verevi have been extracted from recently cut building timber; their site conditions are not well known. On each site, 12 pine trees were cored at breast ...
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... from the 84 living trees, series of 204 pine building timbers from architectural monuments, which had been sampled during the last years, were includ- ed (Läänelaid 1999). The locations of some of the monuments are also shown in Figure 1; two examples of these objects are given in Figure 2a and 2b. All the raw data from the living trees and from the building timbers was merged into one regional tree-ring chro- nology by the dendrochronological overlapping tech- nique; some dendrochronological dating examples have been given by Läänelaid (1996, 1997, 2002). ...
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Here we present similarities and differences between thetree-ring width (RW) and adjusted Δblue
intensity (ΔBIadj) parameters derived from three Scots pine chronologies in central and northern
Sweden. Our results suggest that the ΔBIadj parameter has better skill to portray temperature
variability than RW at all frequency ranges. We also show that...
Citations
... Furthermore, Metslaid et al. (2016) found that high precipitation in June-July and spring temperature positively influence the growth of Scots pine on mined land in Estonia, whilst a high temperature in August negatively affected wood production. Precipitation in June has been reported as the most important climate variable influencing radial growth in Norway spruce in the same country (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003). The key climate signal in Norway spruce in southern Sweden has also been noted to be precipitation in June of the current year (Grundmann et al., 2011;Linderson, 1992). ...
... S3 and S4). Our result is in line with previous studies in southern Sweden and other parts of Europe where early summer precipitation was reported as the main climate signal influencing spruce (D'Andrea et al., 2023;Grundmann et al., 2011;Helama et al., 2016;Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003;Linderson, 1992). The partial dependency plot also revealed that the radial growth of spruce would continue to increase with the rise in June precipitation up to 160 mm. ...
Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) and Picea abies [L.] H. Karst. (Norway spruce) are the most important economic tree species in Sweden. However, like every other tree species, they are affected by climate change, especially drought conditions. In this study, we analysed the effect of climate variability on the radial growth of Scots pine and Norway spruce in Sweden. Sixteen sites of pairwise monospecific stands of Scots pine and Norway spruce distributed across latitudinal gradients in Sweden (55-67 • N) were used. In each site, we sampled at least 15 dominant/codominant Scots pine and Norway spruce trees without any defect in the sampled plots' buffer zone (3-5 m wide). We performed a correlation analysis between climate variables and the radial growth of the species using different timescales; and regressed the coefficients with latitudes. Thereafter, important climate variables for both species were identified. Our results showed that temperature is the main climate factor affecting the radial growth of Scots pine while Norway spruce is more sensitive to early summer precipitation. The impact of summer precipitation on the radial growth of both species transitioned from a positive to a negative trend across a latitudinal gradient. Conversely, a contrasting pattern was noted in the relationship with summer temperature. The radial growth of both species responded positively to spring temperature, particularly at lower latitudes. The resistance of pine and spruce to drought showed a clear linear increase with latitude (p < 0.001). Compared to spruce, pine showed a better capacity to attain pre-drought growth levels (i.e., resilience) and was independent of latitude. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the spatial patterns of the growth-climate relationship of Scots pine and Norway spruce in Sweden; and could offer useful guidance on adaptive forest management in the face of climate change.
... Eckstein continued to support Ważny and other Polish colleagues, until the closure of Eckstein's dendrochronological laboratory in Hamburg ( Figure 6). Eckstein and Läänelaid coauthored a series of articles on Estonian dendrochronology including a pine chronology (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003), the effect of underground mining on pine growth (Läänelaid, 2006;Läänelaid et al., 2009), comparative analyses of pine chronologies around the Baltic Sea , and dendroclimatology of Norway spruce Läänelaid et al., 2015). With the research of Kristina Sohar, the focus shifted to oak dendroclimatology (Sohar et al., 2011;. ...
... Previous dendrochronological studies at sites in northern Europe and at high elevation sites, document a positive relationship between annual ring width and summer temperature (Briffa, Jones, Pilcher, & Hughes, 1988;Düthorn, Holzkämper, Timonen, & Esper, 2013;Grudd et al., 2002), indicating that warmer summer temperatures promote Scots pine tree growth. Contrarily, in the European Lowlands of Germany and Poland late winter/ early spring temperature has been frequently reported to promote growth of Scots pine (Balanzategui et al., 2017;Hordo, Metslaid, & Kiviste, 2009;Koprowski, Przybylak, Zielski, & Pospieszyńska, 2012;Läänelaid & Eckstein, 2003;Pärn, 2009;Vitas, 2006), indicating warm late winter/early spring temperature conditions are important for Scots pine growth in these regions. The spatial transitions separating the disparate climate-growth responses of Scots pine growth in central and northern Europe, and the ecophysiological causal mechanisms, are not well understood or documented. ...
Recent climatic extreme events, such as the 2018-2020 drought period, demonstrate that ongoing climate change has a significant impact on our plant ecosystems, resulting in a variety of consequences such as temporal shifts in the growing season, biodiversity loss, and increased tree mortality. Forest ecosystems are especially endangered because the trees’ long lifecycles and their sessile nature impairs the potential to adapt or evade negative impacts in time. Nonetheless, forests are particularly essential because they accomplish key functions in our economic, ecological, and social lives, such as supplying timber, regulating carbon- and water cycling, or providing recreational benefits. Consequently, we need to investigate and comprehend the climatic impact on forest growth at both temporal and spatial scales. Additionally, we must examine the current state of forest vitality and productivity in order to make predictions about forest growth under changing climate. This thesis adds to our understanding of the climate-growth responses of two economically and ecologically important tree species in Central Europe within their low elevational and central distribution ranges: European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). We examine patterns in climate-driven growth responses at different spatiotemporal scales, ranging from regional to site-specific extents, and from retrospective to near real-time monitoring. In addition, we look at the possibility of employing tree-ring width (TRW) and remote-sensing (RS) data to assess forest vitality and productivity. A deeper knowledge of climate-growth responses in European beech and Scots pine will provide a foundation for decision making and forest management, assisting in the development of a resistant and resilient forest of the future. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the research objectives by situating them in the context of the present state of the art, framing the research objectives, introducing the study design, and finally formulating the research questions for this thesis. For that reason, we employ two tree-ring networks with varying spatial scales: the regional-scale Baltic Sea Network and the site-specific BDF-F-Network. The Baltic Sea Network includes TRW data from 119 pine and 55 beech study sites spread throughout the southern Baltic Sea region, which is distinguished by its predominantly medium nutritious soils, low elevation, and transitional climate ranging from maritime to more continental conditions. The BDF-F-Network, situated within the spatial extents of the Baltic Sea Network, spans along a precipitation gradient in northern Germany. It comprises 54 permanent monitoring plots with substantial information on soil and tree status dating back 40 years. During this PhD project, we extended the exhaustive data base of site-specific information by collecting TRW data for the entire network. As a result, the newly established BDF-F-Network acts as the thesis' centering point. In Chapters 2 and 3, we investigate the spatio-temporal growth responses of beech and pine in their low-elevational and central distribution ranges. Both species exhibit species-specific climate-growth responses with similar patterns at different spatial scales, i.e. when comparing the Baltic Sea and BDF-F-Network. While beech growth is predominantly impacted by summer drought conditions, winter temperature has the greatest impact on pine. We show that the main climatic drivers stay stable across spatial scales, whereas secondary climatic drivers, or climatic drivers with weaker correlations, may vary. Further, we investigate temporal instabilities in climate-growth responses for both networks by applying spatial segregation analyses and comparing growth responses for an early and a later period. We show that during the last few decades, both beech and pine have responded instable to their main climatic drivers, with increased sensitivity to summer drought and winter temperature, respectively. These temporal instabilities are visible at both regional and site-specific scales. Furthermore, Chapter 3 addresses how non-climatic and site-specific soil- and stand characteristics may influence tree growth across the BDF-F-Network's precipitation gradient. We use multilinear regression modeling to examine how stand parameters such as average tree height, diameter at breast height, and TRW differ across the gradient, and if they are impacted by soil water availability or soil type. However, our findings indicate no significant differences in site-specific soil- and stand-characteristics, with the exception of a minor effect on average tree height of European beech. In Chapter 4, we estimate the potential of TRW to assess long-term trends in beech vitality. At 9 sites, we compare the growth trends, climate sensitivities, and drought resistance of 10-20 pairs of vital and non-vital trees that are visually classified by crown condition. Moreover, we use individual heterozygozity as a proxy to determine if differences in growth behavior are caused by genetic predisposition. Surprisingly, growth responses and individual heterozygozity are similar in non-/vital trees. At several study sites, some as vital classified trees exhibit an even greater reduction in TRW than non-vital trees. In summary, we show that TRW is a better proxy for assessing long-term trends in tree vitality, compared to crown condition assessments that are defined by a high year-to-year dynamic. Similarly, Chapter 5 seeks to study the potential of satellite-derived leaf area index (LAI) series to monitor and evaluate forest productivity using European beech as an example. We employ an interdisciplinary approach by combining medium resolution LAI time series derived from two separate satellite sensors (SPOT-VGT/PROBA-V and MODIS), as well as long-term masting monitoring and TRW data from BDF-F-Network sites. By applying site-specific and across-network correlation analysis, we analyze the link between these three target parameters and identify common climatic drivers. While SPOT-VGT/PROBA-V LAI is negatively correlated with masting and positively correlated with TRW, finer resolved MODIS data does not show any significant relationships. We show that RS data from the SPOT-VGT/PROBA-V sensor could be a useful tool for assessing forest vitality and productivity if the LAI time series are sufficiently long. Furthermore, our findings indicate that masting and TRW are both influenced by summer climate conditions, whereas RS LAI appears to be climatically de-coupled. Our findings suggest that RS data has the potential to explore masting and hence forest productivity, but it should always be evaluated in light of the restrictions of different RS products. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the preceding chapters' findings and discusses them in the context of the research questions provided at the beginning of the thesis.
... In addition, several Scots pine chronologies are available from neighbouring areas in the region that could be used for the dating of Scots pine timber from Lithuania. These chronologies include the Dannenstern House from Rīga (Zunde, 1998), Estonia (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003), Gotland (Bartholin, 1987), Belarus-2 (Grodno and Brest regions in northwestern Belarus), Belarus-3 (Vitebsk region in northern Belarus) (Yermoshkin, 2013), and central and northern Poland (Vistula Valley), namely, the Polpinus-5 (Zielski, 1992), Polpinus (Zielski, 1992), Polskane (Zielski, 1997), and Kujawpom (Zielski and Krąpiec, 2004) chronologies. They clearly show that to date, the material is organised mostly in local or supraregional chronologies but not in regional chronologies that represent the characteristic growth related to regional ecological conditions and which are so important for dendroprovenancing. ...
... Dendroclimatological studies in neighbouring countries (Koprowski et al., 2012;Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003;Yermokhin, 2020;Zunde et al., 2008) have provided similar results that Scots pine is a temperature-sensitive species. However, this contradicts the study by Cedro (2001), who observed a positive influence of summer rainfall for tree-ring widths of Scots pine in Poland. ...
Although two centennial Scots pine chronologies for the dating of timber in Lithuania were constructed in the 2000s, the Baltic countries still lack a network of regional chronologies. To fill this gap, we constructed three Scots pine chronologies for western, central and eastern Lithuania. Here we present chronologies covering the fifteen to the twentieth centuries. Our analysis revealed a strong teleconnection of the compiled chronologies with Scots pine chronologies constructed in Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus. The established link with Belarus chronologies and the fact that some of the timber in Lithuanian buildings could be of Belarus origin is important in the long-distance timber trade during the last 500 years. Dendroclimatological analysis has shown that constructed tree-ring chronologies are sensitive to air temperatures in February and March. Therefore, the constructed chronologies have a potential for climate reconstructions and dendroprovenancing.
... The TRW series of the trunk remnants were additionally tested against a number of other absolute chronologies for pine previously compiled by the author for various sites in western Latvia (Ventspils, Liepāja, Aizpute) and from other regions of the country, as well as the Klaipėda pine ref. chronology from Lithuania (unpublished; author: A. Vitas) and the pine ref. chronology for Estonia (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003). These chronologies together span the period from the 14th century to the present day. ...
Coastal erosion and slumping of the coastal bluff occur at the present day along certain stretches of the Baltic Sea coastal belt in western Latvia. The coast currently being eroded is regarded as consisting partly of a cover of wind-blown sand formed 250–300 years ago, a period that saw intensive landward aeolian sand transport as a result of forest cutting and forest fires in the coastal belt and other factors relating to human activity. Within the frame of a short-term research project, dendrochronological dating work was undertaken on remnants of pine trunks discovered at various locations on the coastal bluff that appeared to be remains of ancient trees exposed by erosion, with the aim of determining where and when these natural processes had occurred. This study did not succeed in demonstrating dendrochronologically that the apparently ancient tree trunk remnants observable along certain stretches of the coast at the present day are remains of pines buried by sand more than 250 years ago. It has been established that certain of these are remnants of pines that died in the 20th century or even just a few years ago, but in the majority of cases an unambiguous old date could not be obtained. In order to ascertain the possible reasons why dendro-dating had produced such limited results, in the further part of the study a comparison was undertaken of the patterns of variation in annual radial trunk growth of pines growing in the dune belt along the whole of the Latvian seaboard at the present day. Also considered are the previous findings of short-term studies in all three Baltic States concerning the influence of specific environmental factors on the radial growth of pine. It has been established that the reasons why dendro-dating was problematic relate to the specific character and variation in the environmental factors significantly affecting tree growth, as well as the slope processes on the coastal bluffs. It is envisaged that the findings obtained and brought together in this study will be useful in future, when undertaking or planning dendro-dating work for the purpose of tracing the history of dune migration or assessing the radial growth of pines growing in dunes.
... Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is one of the most common subjects of dendrochronological analyses, i.a., due to its broad distribution in both Europe and Asia, as well as mass plantings in numerous countries [1][2][3]. The growth-climate relationships for this species are well-known from various locations (distinct climate zones), various substrates (e.g., fens, dunes), and from areas prone to various impacts, both natural (e.g., insect gradations or wildfires) and anthropogenic (e.g., air, soil or groundwater pollution) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Pine-based chronologies spanning multiple centuries are the basis for dating archeological objects, works of art, various types of wooden constructions, and utensils [9,14,[16][17][18][19]. ...
... The growth-climate relationships for this species are well-known from various locations (distinct climate zones), various substrates (e.g., fens, dunes), and from areas prone to various impacts, both natural (e.g., insect gradations or wildfires) and anthropogenic (e.g., air, soil or groundwater pollution) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Pine-based chronologies spanning multiple centuries are the basis for dating archeological objects, works of art, various types of wooden constructions, and utensils [9,14,[16][17][18][19]. In the Southern and Eastern Baltic coast regions, Scots pine is also the main focus of dendrochronological studies, e.g., [12,13,[20][21][22][23], apart from the native oak species (Quercus robur and Q. petrea). ...
... In the Southern and Eastern Baltic coast regions, Scots pine is also the main focus of dendrochronological studies, e.g., [12,13,[20][21][22][23], apart from the native oak species (Quercus robur and Q. petrea). Numerous studies point to late winter and early spring air temperatures (February and March) as the dominant factor shaping tree-ring width in Scots pine [4,8,9,11,[24][25][26]. Climate warming observed in recent decades (especially affecting the winter-spring transition) causes the vegetation season to become extended, and results in improved pine growth ...
This study aims at analyzing growth rate and growth-climate relationship in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing on coastal dunes of different ages on the Southern Baltic coast. Podzols have deloped on these dunes. Depending on dune age, however, podzols are characterized by a different degree of development and richness, which represents the main factor differentiating the studied habitats: the oldest brown dunes (BD), younger yellow dunes (YD), and the youngest white dunes (WD). Samples were taken from 68 trees using Pressler borers. Using classic cross-dating methods, local chronologies were compiled that served as the basis for further analyses. Basic analyses of soil properties were also performed. Trees growing on brown dunes display the widest tree-rings and the highest rate of cumulative radial growth. Both rates are the lowest for trees growing on white dunes (WD). The dominant meteorological factor shaping tree-ring widths is late winter/early spring air temperature (February/March). However, in poorer habitats with inferior soil air-water conditions, rainfall sums and rainfall distribution through the year become progressively more significant factors. On white dunes (WD), the strongest growth-climate correlations are obtained for summer precipitation. These results identify habitat richness as the main factor shaping growth dynamics in Scots pines growing on dunes. Due to the protective function of the studied tree stands (coast protection), and in light of the rising sea levels and increasing storm intensities, further studies are required, aiming at un-derstanding all interrelationships occurring in these valuable ecosystems.
... Dendroclimatological research in Poland using the ring-widths of Scots pine has been widely reported [4,[10][11][12][13][14][15]. Several long-term pine chronologies were constructed for Poland [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and for the neighbouring countries of Germany, Estonia and Lithuania [23][24][25]. The wide spatial distribution and existing ring-width chronologies highlight the potential for future research on this species. ...
Research Highlights: This study used a 99-year time-series of daily climatic data to determine the climate-growth relationship for Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) growing in Northern Poland. The use of daily climatic data improved the calculated climatic response of the trees. Background and Objectives: It was hypothesised that daily temperature and precipitation data would more precisely identify climate–growth relationships than monthly data. We compared our results to a previous study conducted in the 1990s that utilised monthly precipitation and temperature data. Materials and Methods: The chronology construction and data analyses were performed using CooRecorder, CDendro and R packages (dplR, treeclim, dendrotools). Forty-nine cores from 31 trees were included in the final chronology. Results: The precipitation and temperature of March had the strongest influence upon ring-widths. Despite a statistically significant correlation between monthly temperature and ring-widths, reduction of error (RE) and coefficient of efficiency (CE) statistics confirmed that daily data better describe the effect of climate on tree rings width than monthly data. Conclusions: At this site, the growing season of Scots pine has changed with the observed association with precipitation now starting as early as February–March and extending to June–July.
... The effects of climate variables on Scots pine are as diverse as the environmental conditions that exist across the species' great range. The vast majority of the studies were conducted on the distribution in northern Europe and Eurasia such as in the Baltic Sea region (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003;Cedro, 2006;Henttonen et al., 2014;Harvey et al., 2019;Matisons et al., 2019;Matisons et al., 2021), Switzerland (Eilmann et al., 2006), Germany (Bauwe et al., 2013), Scotland (Grace and Norton, 1990), Norway (Kirchhefer, 1999), Poland (Wilczyński and Skrzyszewski, 2002;Koprowski et al., 2010;Misi et al., 2019), Kazakhstan (Kopabayeva et al., 2017), Mongolia (De Grandpré et al., 2011), Russia (Gervais and MacDonald, 2000;Shestakova et al., 2017;Tabakova et al. 2020;Arzac et al., 2021), and the Arctic (Hofgaard et al., 2019). However, there are few studies from the southern limit of the species' range such as Spain (Gutierrez, 1989;Camarero et al., 1998;Bogino et al., 2009) and Turkey (Güner et al., 2016;Martin-Benito et al., 2018). ...
... − 1 • C (Fig. 6). Previous studies (Rigling et al., 2002;Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003;Bogino et al., 2009;Lebourgeois et al., 2010) suggest that late winter/early spring temperatures promote the growth of Scots pine in different habitats, which coincides with our results. Warm temperatures during late winter/early spring trigger earlier cambium reactivation (Rahman et al., 2020), consequently, enhance the length of the vegetation period (Rossi et al., 2016), and if there is a snow-pack, early spring warmth increases water availability. ...
Pinus sylvestris, the most widely distributed pine species, is commonly used in dendrochronological studies. Based on a lack of studies at its southeastern distribution, we analysed the growth responses of P. sylvestris to temperature and precipitation. We selected 13 sites to study the effects of climate on the growth of Scots pine stands throughout a geographic gradient over time. Trees were sampled from pure stands at different elevations and landscape conditions. The linear and non-linear associations between tree-ring widths and climate variables were calculated with locally specific linear correlation analysis and a mixed generalised additive model. Moving window correlation function was also performed to understand the temporal stability of limiting factors on growth from 1930 to 2013. Our findings showed that early spring temperature (March-April) and late spring-early summer precipitation (May-June) are the major drivers of growth at all sites, where high temperature constraints and high precipitation enhances the growth. Moving window correlation analysis highlighted that the response to precipitation was stationary while temperature changed over time. Our non-linear analysis provided a threshold for March-April temperature. The threshold indicates that the relative additional increment sharply increases up to 7 ℃ and then slightly decreases.
... In addition, several Scots pine chronologies are available from neighbouring areas in the region that could be used for the dating of Scots pine timber from Lithuania. These chronologies include the Dannenstern House from Rīga (Zunde, 1998), Estonia (Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003), Gotland (Bartholin, 1987), Belarus-2 (Grodno and Brest regions in northwestern Belarus), Belarus-3 (Vitebsk region in northern Belarus) (Yermoshkin, 2013), and central and northern Poland (Vistula Valley), namely, the Polpinus-5 (Zielski, 1992), Polpinus (Zielski, 1992), Polskane (Zielski, 1997), and Kujawpom (Zielski and Krąpiec, 2004) chronologies. They clearly show that to date, the material is organised mostly in local or supraregional chronologies but not in regional chronologies that represent the characteristic growth related to regional ecological conditions and which are so important for dendroprovenancing. ...
... Dendroclimatological studies in neighbouring countries (Koprowski et al., 2012;Läänelaid and Eckstein, 2003;Yermokhin, 2020;Zunde et al., 2008) have provided similar results that Scots pine is a temperature-sensitive species. However, this contradicts the study by Cedro (2001), who observed a positive influence of summer rainfall for tree-ring widths of Scots pine in Poland. ...
Klaipėda is a town in western Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. Oak timber was actively used to construct buildings in this town until the 17th century. Archaeological investigations began in Klaipėda’s old town in 1979, but it has not been possible to use oak timbers for dating due to the lack of regional chronologies. The goal of this study was to fill this gap by developing a well-replicated oak chronology from timber collected in Klaipėda between 1979 and 1987. The resulting oak chronology from Klaipėda spans 306 years from 1247 to 1552 and includes 62 oak timber cross-sections. The study suggests that the timber was felled in the same local woodland, and that tree-ring widths series from Klaipėda are temperature-sensitive. The negative pointer years mostly coincide with negative anomalies of reconstructed April‒September temperature from elsewhere in Europe. The constructed chronology was compared with local chronologies (Vilquro, Smarhoń, Gdańsk) and with oak chronologies made from imported oak timber of southeast Baltic origin (Baltic 1–3, Dutch). We assessed whether it is possible to determine the origins of the Baltic 1, Baltic 3 and Dutch oak chronologies compiled from imported timber. Based on available chronologies, it could be hypothesised that Baltic 1 and Dutch chronologies are originated from western Lithuania and Baltic 3 from eastern Lithuania.
... However, the impact of climate change on forests can be more comprehensively assessed by studying climate-tree radial growth variation in a multian nual period, i.e. by dendroclimatological research. Besides oaks, pines are probably the most investigated tree species from the aspect of dendroclimatology in Europe (Lebourgeois 2000, Läänelaid and Eckstein 2003, Leal et al. 2008, Hordo et al. 2009, Popa and Kern 2009, Mazza et al. 2014, Smiljanić et al. 2014, Levanič et al. 2015, Bojaxhi and Toromani 2017, Kalbarczyk et al. 2018. It is evident that pines show different growth-climate relationships depending on species, location and climate conditions (Akkemik 2000, Miina 2000, Nöjd and Hari 2001, Panayotov and Yurukov 2007, Mazza et al. 2014, Levanič et al. 2015, Stajić and Kazimirović 2018. ...
In order to assess the impact of climate variations on Austrian pine forest in the Belgrade area, the radial growth of artificially-established Austrian pine trees and its dependence on temperature and precipitation was studied using dendroclimatological methods. The site is classified as Quercetum-frainetto cerris Rudski. Standard and residual chronologies were established and several common statistics were calculated. A dendroclimatic study was carried out using the correlation and response function analysis. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the chronology indices and 13 seasonal (3-month period) precipitation and temperature data were calculated for the period from 1959 to 2014. The applied response function analysis included 24 precipitation and temperature variables from October of the prior year to September of the current year. The results of the correlation analysis pointed out that there was a strong tendency towards a positive response to the summer and late summer/early autumn precipitation and a weak significant negative response to the spring and summer temperatures. Climate-growth relationships were further first studied using the response functions for the significant seasons that were detected from the correlation analysis and then for individual months from previous October to current September. These results also highlighted the findings that higher precipitation in the current summer months has a beneficial effect on the tree-ring width. The conducted correlation between the residual chronology and the Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index indicated that a high summer value of this drought index had a positive impact on the pine growth and reinforced the previously detected relevance of September as an important month for the Austrian pine growth. These preliminary results point out that some additional climate-Austrian pine growth studies (application of various tree-ring features, growth data with a much longer time span, more sites/stands, etc.) should be performed to obtain new and valuable knowledge important for the sustainable management of Austrian pine forests.
