NDA@SZTAKI

Drought Stress Distribution Responses of Continental Beech Forests at their Xeric Edge in Central Europe

Salamonné Albert, Éva

Lőrincz, Péter

Pauler, G.

Bartha, DĂŠnes

HorvĂĄth, Ferenc

2016

SD Forestry / erdőgazdaság

In order to develop adequate adaptation measures for environmental vulnerability, we need
detailed knowledge on the climatic performance of forest ecosystems. In this study, we aim to explore
climate function variability of lowland beech forest distribution at a landscape scale. We also construct
the response proles of these forests near their xeric limit under wet continental climatic conditions.
We studied distribution responses using presence-absence forest records and 18 bioclimatic variables.
We performed exploratory factor analysis and frequency estimation to evaluate climate function
distribution responses. We found that temperature adjusted precipitation measures during summer
were the most important, followed by winter rainfall indices. The relative Drought Response
Range (rDRR) in the response prole presented the climate limitation function of the distribution.
According to our results, higher level of climate function variability is associated with lower level
of rDRR, presenting an ecological trade-off. Our results suggest that distribution functions of the
rDRR, especially the Ombrothermic index, can be used as landscape indicators of drought stress.
Consequently, rDRR could be a useful measure to assess regional climatic vulnerability of forest
occurrence and distribution patterns.

angol

Article

PeerReviewed

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

text

http://real.mtak.hu/48968/1/SalamonAlbertE_etal_HorvathF_Fo...

Salamonné Albert, Éva and Lőrincz, Péter and Pauler, G. and Bartha, Dénes and Horváth, Ferenc (2016) Drought Stress Distribution Responses of Continental Beech Forests at their Xeric Edge in Central Europe. FORESTS, 7 (298). pp. 1-16. ISSN 1999-4907

http://real.mtak.hu/48968/

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/f7120298

MTMT:3144955; doi:10.3390/f7120298