River regulation causes rapid changes in relationships between floodplain oak growth and environmental variables
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The radial growth of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), a species often ecologically dominating European deciduous forests, is closely tied up with local environmental variables. The oak tree-ring series usually contain a climatic and hydrologic signal that allows assessing the main drivers of tree growth in various ecosystems. Understanding the climate-growth relationship patterns in floodplains is important for providing insights into the species persistence and longevity in vulnerable riverine ecosystems experiencing human-induced hydrology alteration. Here, we use 139 years long instrumental records of local temperature, precipitation, and water levels in the Dnipro River in Kyiv to demonstrate that the implementation of river regulation has decoupled the established relationship between the radial growth of floodplain oak and local hydro-climatic conditions. Before the river flow has been altered by engineering modifications of 1965–1977, the water level in the Dnipro River was the key driver of oak radial growth, as reflected in the tree-ring width and earlywood width. The construction of two dams has altered the seasonal distribution of water level diminishing the positive effect of high water on oak growth and subsequently reversing this trend to negative, resulting from a seasonal ground water surplus. The decrease in the correlation between oak growth indices and the river’s water level in April–June was unprecedentedly rapid and clearly distinguishable among other changes in the growth-to-climate relationship. Our findings further demonstrate that trees growing in areas exposed to urban development are the most susceptible to downside effects of river regulation.
Date Issued
2019-02-05
Date Acceptance
2019-01-21
Citation
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2019, 10, pp.1-11
ISSN
1664-462X
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Plant Science
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Netsvetov, Prokopuk, Puchałka, Koprowski, Klisz and Romenskyy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000457760500001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Plant Sciences
Quercus robur
tree-ring
intra-annual ring-width
temperature
precipitation
water level
floodplain
QUERCUS-ROBUR L.
TREE-RING WIDTH
EARLYWOOD VESSEL SIZE
RIPARIAN ECOSYSTEMS
RADIAL GROWTH
FOREST
CLIMATE
SIGNALS
CHRONOLOGIES
RESPONSES
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 96
Date Publish Online
2019-02-05