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Continental-scale climatic drivers of growth ring variability in an Australian conifer
Citation
Bowman, DMJS and Prior, LD and Tng, DYP and Hua, Q and Brodribb, TJ, Continental-scale climatic drivers of growth ring variability in an Australian conifer, Trees: Structure and Function, 25, (5) pp. 925-934. ISSN 0931-1890 (2011) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2011 Springer-Verlag.
DOI: doi:10.1007/s00468-011-0567-5
Abstract
Callitris is Australia’s most successful and
drought tolerant conifer genus. Callitris species are distributed
across a huge geographical range from rainforest
to arid zones, and hence they provide a rare opportunity to
view plant growth trends across the continent. Here, we
make a continental-scale examination of how climate
influences basal diameter growth in Callitris. We sampled
a total of five species but focused effort (23 of 28 samples)
on the most widespread species, C. columellaris. Cores
from a total of 23 trees were sampled from 15 sites that
spanned a gradient in mean annual rainfall from 225 to
2117 mm and mean annual temperature from 11.5 to
28.2C. Ring production is not annual across much of the
distribution of the genus, so 14C-AMS dating was used to
establish the frequency of ring production for each core.
Ring width, tracheid lumen diameter and number of tracheids
per ring were also measured on each core. Ring
production was close to annual at mesic sites with reliable
alternation of rainfall or temperature regimes but was more
erratic elsewhere. For C. columellaris, ring width significantly
increased with mean annual rainfall (r2 = 0.49) as a
result of wider and more tracheids per ring. For this species
tracheid lumen diameter was correlated with annual rainfall
(r2 = 0.61), with a threefold increase from the driest to the
wettest sites, lending support to the hypothesis that conifers
growing at drier sites will have narrow lumen diameters to
maximise mechanical strength of the xylem.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Callitris columellaris,Tree growth, Rainfall, Tracheids, Lumen diameter |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Plant biology |
| Research Field: | Plant biology not elsewhere classified |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
| Objective Group: | Adaptation to climate change |
| Objective Field: | Ecosystem adaptation to climate change |
| UTAS Author: | Bowman, DMJS (Professor David Bowman) |
| UTAS Author: | Prior, LD (Dr Lynda Prior) |
| UTAS Author: | Tng, DYP (Dr David Tng) |
| UTAS Author: | Brodribb, TJ (Professor Tim Brodribb) |
| ID Code: | 75877 |
| Year Published: | 2011 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 12 |
| Deposited By: | Plant Science |
| Deposited On: | 2012-02-20 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
| Downloads: | 1 View Download Statistics |
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