Forest inventory data from Finland and Sweden for: Demographic performance of European tree species at their hot and cold climatic edges, plus ancillary climate data
Authors/Creators
- 1. Leipzig University
- 2. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- 3. Natural Resources Institute Finland
- 4. Universidad de Alcalá*
- 5. Forest Research Institute Baden-Wurttemberg*
- 6. Grenoble Alpes University
Description
1. Species range limits are thought to result from a decline in demographic performance at range edges. However, recent studies reporting contradictory patterns in species demographic performance at their edges cast doubt on our ability to predict climate change demographic impacts. To understand these inconsistent demographic responses at the edges, we need to shift the focus from geographic to climatic edges and analyse how species responses vary with climatic constraints at the edge and species' ecological strategy.
2. Here we parameterised integral projection models with climate and competition effects for 27 tree species using forest inventory data from over 90,000 plots across Europe. Our models estimate size-dependent climatic responses and evaluate their effects on two life trajectory metrics: lifespan and passage time - the time to grow to a large size. Then we predicted growth, survival, lifespan, and passage time at the hot and dry or cold and wet edges and compared them to their values at the species climatic centre to derive indices of demographic response at the edge. Using these indices, we investigated whether differences in species demographic response between hot and cold edges could be explained by their position along the climate gradient and functional traits related to their climate stress tolerance.
3. We found that at cold and wet edges of European tree species, growth and passage time were constrained, whereas at their hot and dry edges, survival and lifespan were constrained. Demographic constraints at the edge were stronger for species occurring in extreme conditions, i.e. in hot edges of hot-distributed species and cold edges of cold-distributed species. Species leaf nitrogen content was strongly linked to their demographic responses at the edge. In contrast, we found only weak links with wood density, leaf size, and xylem vulnerability to embolism.
4. Synthesis. Our study presents a more complicated picture than previously thought with demographic responses that differ between hot and cold edges. Predictions of climate change impacts should be refined to include edge and species characteristics.
Notes
The data provided have blurred geographic coordinates (random number up to 0.02 degree).
When opening the datafiles in Excel be aware that the Swedish plot codes are numeric and Excel can round the numbers.
When determining natural mortality only trees with the tree status 4 (dead and stem present) should be considered as dying due to natural mortality.
Metadata
Three datafiles are provided here:
trees_finland_and_sweden.csv
Tree information from the Finnish and Swedish National Forest Inventories.
|
Field |
Description |
|
treecode |
Unique tree code in the plot |
|
plotcode |
Plot code |
|
treestatus |
The status of the tree: 1 – ingrowth (tree not present in the first survey) 2 – survivor 3 – dead (harvested) 4 – dead (stem present) 5 – dead (stem absent) Note: Only id 4 can be considered as natural mortality as we don't know the reason for the death of id 5 trees |
|
dbh1 |
Diameter at breast height (DBH) first survey in mm |
|
dbh2 |
Diameter at breast height (DBH) second survey in mm |
|
weight1 |
Plot radius in first survey in metres |
|
weight2 |
Plot radius in second survey in metres |
|
country |
Finland Sweden |
plots_finland_and_sweden.csv
Plot information from the Finnish and Swedish National Forest Inventories.
|
Field |
Description |
|
plotcode |
Plot code |
|
country |
Finland Sweden |
|
surveydate1 |
Date of the first survey |
|
surveydate2 |
Date of the second survey |
|
longitude_generalised |
Decimal longitude blurred by up to 0.02 degree |
|
latitude_generalised |
Decimal latitude blurred by up to 0.02 degree |
|
management2 |
Finnish plots: number of years after management was recorded in the plot in the second survey Swedish plots: Was their evidence of management in the plot in the second survey |
climate_wai_sgdd.csv
Climate variables for all the plots in Kunstler et al (2020).
|
Field |
Description |
|
plotcode |
Plot unique ID |
|
country |
Finland Sweden France Germany Spain |
|
wai |
Water availability index. wai was computed using precipitation (P, extracted from E-OBS, Moreno & Hasenauer, 2016) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) from the Climatic Research Unit (Harris, Jones, Osborn, & Lister, 2014) data-set, as (P − PET)/PET. |
|
sgdd |
Sum of growing degree days above 5.5 °C. Daily temperature was extracted from E-OBS, a high resolution (1 km2) downscaled climate data-set (Moreno & Hasenauer, 2016) for the years between the two surveys plus two years before the first survey. |
Funding provided by: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001665
Award Number: ANR-16-SUMF-0002
Funding provided by: FP7*
Crossref Funder Registry ID:
Award Number: 265171
Funding provided by: FP7
Crossref Funder Registry ID:
Award Number: 265171
Files
climate_wai_sgdd.csv
Additional details
Related works
- Is cited by
- 10.1101/801084 (DOI)