Primary tabs

University of Michigan Biological Station

The University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) was founded in 1909.

Social

The comparison of environmental changes effects on growth rate of tree species at different latitudes

Project Abstract: 
Forest trees are exposed to complex environmental stresses and sustained deviation from optimal range can potentially alter tree growth and recruitment. With intensified climate anomalies, it is expected that forest dynamics will change. Current methods used to predict how tree species respond to climate changes use correlative approaches based on their distributions and the associated climate is not spatially accurate enough. In order to make more reliable forecasts of future forest dynamics with finer spatial and temporal resolution, this study aims to identify and quantify the effects of environmental changes at various latitudes on the growth rate of co-occurring tree species.
Methods: 
To acquire this information, a dendrochronological method will be used in this study. Dendrochronology is the most widely used method in forest ecology to assess a tree’s response to environmental variability. In this study, we will collect tree cores from Acer saccharum (sugar maple) and Acer rubra (red maple). The reason why Acer saccharum and Acer rubra are chosen is that they are both common tree species at two different latitudes so the sample size can be guaranteed. All maples in four plots (UMBS_NHW, UMBS_Aspen, UMBS_Pine-Aspen, UMBS_Balsam) will be sampled. At least two tree cores will be collected from each individual tree from two directions. The tree cores collected will be further mounted on wood supports and sanded with sandpaper for further analysis. Then the ring width will be measured to a precision of 0.01mm. The soil moisture and temperature data used in this study are the annual climatic data collected by the environmental sensors set up in UMBS. We also have the annual data for soil nutrients at all sites. In this study, Bayesian statistics will be used to develop models. How a particular tree species is affected by environmental factors mentioned above will be predicted at each latitude.
Funding agency: 
UMBS