Published November 18, 2021 | Version 1.0
Dataset Open

Data from: The 2018 European heatwave led to stem dehydration but not to consistent growth reductions in forests

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Ghent University
  • 2. Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL
  • 3. Wageningen University and Research
  • 4. European Forest Institute
  • 5. University Greifswald
  • 6. CREAF
  • 7. University of Arizona
  • 8. Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research
  • 9. TU Dresden
  • 10. University of Innsbruck
  • 11. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
  • 12. Mendel University
  • 13. Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing (LCRS)
  • 14. Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS
  • 15. Slovak Academy of Sciences
  • 16. Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
  • 17. University of Padua
  • 18. Office National des Forêts
  • 19. University of Helsinki
  • 20. Universite de Bordeaux
  • 21. Czech Academy of Sciences
  • 22. Université Paris-Saclay
  • 23. Lund University
  • 24. University of Hohenheim
  • 25. University of València
  • 26. Charles University
  • 27. Akdeniz University
  • 28. Brandenburg State Forestry Center of Excellence
  • 29. University Freiburg
  • 30. Forest Research Institute
  • 31. Université de Lorraine
  • 32. Eurac Research
  • 33. University College Dublin
  • 34. University of Bonn
  • 35. Trinity College Dublin
  • 36. National Forest Centre-Forest research Institute
  • 37. Technical University in Zvolen
  • 38. National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC
  • 39. Forestry and Game Management Research Institute
  • 40. Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences

Description

Heatwaves exert disproportionately strong and sometimes irreversible impacts on forest ecosystems. These impacts remain poorly understood at the tree and species level and across large spatial scales. Here, we investigate the effects of the record-breaking 2018 European heatwave on tree growth and tree water status using a collection of high-temporal resolution dendrometer data from 21 species across 53 sites. Relative to the two preceding years, annual stem growth was not consistently reduced by the 2018 heatwave but stems experienced twice the temporary shrinkage due to depletion of water reserves. Conifer species were less capable of rehydrating overnight than broadleaves across gradients of soil and atmospheric drought, suggesting less resilience toward transient stress. In particular, Norway spruce and Scots pine experienced extensive stem dehydration. Our high-resolution dendrometer network was suitable to disentangle the effects of a severe heatwave on tree growth and desiccation at large-spatial scales in situ, and provided insights on which species may be more vulnerable to climate extremes.

Notes

Tree-specific point and band dendrometer measurements with a temporal resolution of 15-60 minutes were compiled from 85 monitoring plots across Europe. Plots within a Euclidean distance of 9 km, an elevational difference of less than 300 m, and similar soil water conditions were clustered, resulting in a total of 53 sites. For each site we also extracted time series of daily mean atmospheric temperature (in °C) and vapor pressure deficit (in kPa), obtained from the nearest climate station (search radius = 80 km) using the Global Surface Summary of the Day (GSOD) Weather Data Client. Site-specific soil moisture data were obtained from the ERA-5 land surface model simulations (Layer 3: 28 – 100 cm depth). Relative extractable water was calculated to account for inter-site differences in soil properties and absolute soil moisture levels and to facilitate inter-site comparisons. Accompanied with the study, we provide the following supplementary data: * Data – Daily aggregation.xlsx = Daily aggregated values of the dendrometer derived parameters for each tree included in the dendrometer network and associated climatic information. * Data – Metadata sites.xlsx = Overview of all sites and trees included within the dendrometer network. * Data – Yearly aggregation.xlsx = Yearly aggregated values of the dendrometer derived parameters for each tree included in the dendrometer network and the associated climatic information. * Figure 2 – Boxplot data.xlsx = Basic data for generating Figure 2 of the manuscript. * Figure 3 – PFT response raster.zip = Raster data originating from the linear mixed-effect models explaining the tree water deficit responses to vapour pressure deficit and relative extractable water for the different plant functional types, as presented in Figure 3 of the manuscript. * Figure 4 – Species response raster.zip = Raster data originating from the linear mixed-effect models explaining the species-specific tree water deficit responses to vapour pressure deficit and relative extractable water, as presented in Figure 4 of the manuscript.

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Figure 3 - PFT response raster.zip

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Is cited by
Journal article: 10.1038/s41467-021-27579-9 (DOI)