Project Overview

Climate change is expected to increase stress to forests. The red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) forests of Maine’s coast are particularly vulnerable to such stress. These forests exist in coastal climate refugia south of their typical range, and it is unclear if the coast will continue to be a refugium as ocean and atmospheric temperatures rise. Despite the ecological, economic, and cultural importance of this forest type, we lack long-term monitoring studies in these unique coastal ecosystems. The goal of this study was to establish a long-term monitoring network focused on sensitive coastal red spruce forests and link patterns of daily and annual radial growth with climate extremes. We conducted forest inventories (10 sites), monitored daily growth (using 100 automated point dendrometers that track small changes in tree diameter), and measured annual tree growth (using 300 xylem increment cores) across six coastal and four inland reference sites representing a broad range of climatic conditions.

Objectives

(i) determine the climate conditions that lead to tree water stress (stem shrinkage) and growth through measurements of daily stem diameter. (ii) determine if the factors that govern daily growth are the same as those that govern annual growth. (iii) establish a long-term coastal spruce forest monitoring network. By combining climate-growth relations with long-term monitoring efforts we will improve our ability to predict how red spruce forests will respond to future climate stressors.

Dataset Availability

Tags

Status - Completed

Start date: 2024-08-01

End date: 2025-08-01

Study Area

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