Impacts of Climate and Insect Defoliators on Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) Mortality and Productivity in Alaskan Boreal Forests
Abstract
Unprecedented rates of climate change have increased tree mortality and growth decline in forested ecosystems worldwide. The boreal forest has experienced a temperature increase of approximately 1.5 ° C since 1970, a trend which is expected to continue. In response to the warming and drying of the boreal forest trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) has experienced recent large-scale die-back. Although die-back is thought to be primarily a result of direct climate changes, insect infestation is another possible driver of aspen mortality and may interact strongly with recent climate. Throughout interior Alaska widespread and consistent foliar damage by the aspen epidermal leaf miner Phyllocnistis populiella has been observed concurrent with some of the warmest and driest growing seasons on record. Here we use tree ring width measurements, tree ring stable carbon isotope signatures, and forest inventory data to study the influence of leaf miner and climate on aspen mortality and productivity decline in the Alaskan boreal forest. In the summer of 2016 we sampled eight Cooperative Alaska Forest Inventory (CAFI) sites established by the US Forest Service in 1994. Since establishment tree status and infestation were recorded every 5 years. Each sampled site was aspen dominated and mortality ranged from 3.5% to 8% within a 5-year sampling period. We collected a total of 24 aspen tree cores and disks from each site: 12 from dead trees and 12 from live trees. In order to assess the influence of leaf miner on radial growth and tree ring stable carbon isotope ratios, cores were also collected from aspen stands surrounding Fairbanks where the size and severity of leaf miner infestation has been recorded since 2003. We expect that prior to mortality trees will show a decline in growth that is correlated to moisture stress and leaf miner infestation. We also expect to see an enriched carbon isotope signal as a result of infestation that will be decoupled from moisture, the growth-limiting climate variable. As leaf miner was present in all plots where mortality events occurred, we believe it could be playing a significant role in aspen mortality. Understanding the compounding effects of climate change and infestation on aspen is essential in order to predict future boreal forest composition, productivity, and climate feedbacks.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.B53G0598B
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0475 Permafrost;
- cryosphere;
- and high-latitude processes;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0480 Remote sensing;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES