Snow dynamics influence tree growth by controlling soil temperature in mountain pine forests

Abstract

Snow dynamics are key to understanding tree growth in mountain forests and future response to climate change. However, precise monitoring of microclimate conditions and variables related to tree growth and functioning are lacking. To advance on those issues, snow cover and microclimate conditions, tree phenology, xylogenesis, intra-annual radial growth and the concentration of sapwood and needle non-structural carbohydrates were intensively monitored in four Pinus uncinata forests along an altitudinal gradient over three years in a Pyrenean valley (NE Spain). Snow dynamics exerted strong influence on soil temperature and moisture, particularly before and during the early growing season. Soil temperature was the most relevant microclimate variable during the overall xylogenesis, mainly influencing the production of mature tracheids. Large snow accumulation resulted in later snow depletion and a consequent delay in soil warming onset. Low soil temperatures in the spring, related to prolonged snow persistence, retarded cambial reactivation and led to lower growth rate. Despite strong spatial variability among plots, wood production was determined by snow dynamics in three out of the four studied plots. This study highlights the major role played by early and late growing season soil temperatures on radial growth of mountain conifers. The results of this study suggest that a future shallower and more transitory snowpack in the studied forests, together with warmer soil and air temperatures, may increase radial growth and productivity of similar mid-latitude, young mountain forests.