Drought Resistance of Major Tree Species in Central Europe

• DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4524632
• Publication Date: 2023-07-28T20:30:32Z
• Authors: Yumei Jiang; William Marchand; Miloš Rydval; Radim Matula; Pavel Janda; Krešimir Begović; Dominik Thom; Alexandre Fruleux; Arne Buechling; Jakob Pavlin; Juliana Nogueira; Martin Dušátko; Jakub Málek; Tomáš Kníř; Miroslav Svoboda
• Keywords: Drought Resistance; Tree (set theory)

In recent decades, Central Europe has been affected by extreme droughts, altering forest structure and function with significant socio-economic consequences. Most European forests are used for timber production provide various ecosystem services as well habitat forest-dwelling species. To what extent these have impacted weather extremes poorly quantified. Moreover, drivers of drought resistance remain uncertain, potentially misleading predictions future development. this study, we analyzed the impacts droughts on growth managed in Czech Republic based tree-ring width five common commercially important species: beech (Fagus sylvatica), Norway spruce (Picea abies), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), sessile oak (Quercus petraea), pedunculate robur). We assessed 2015-2019 'dry period', which contains two droughts. unraveled reductions during three major (2003, 2015, 2018) within period 1995-2019, including effects tree age, size, altitude, intensity. identified drought-induced all species period' compared 2005-2009 'reference exhibited highest to (-13% growth), showed sensitivity (-30% growth). While broadleaves was higher conifers. The age size varied trees at lower altitudes were significantly more negatively from altitudes. Our results indicate that a highly variable response across intensities can be expected climate continues change. Under warmer drier conditions, might most pronounced drought-sensitive (i.e., less resistant) altitudes, threatening sustainable supply other services.