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The alpine dwarf shrub Cassiope fastigiata in the Himalayas: does it reflect site-specific climatic signals in its annual growth rings?

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This is the first time to show that alpine Cassiope fastigiata shrubs form distinct annual growth rings and record climatic signals.

Abstract

Cassiope species grow as dwarf shrubs at high latitudes and high elevations. Unlike in the High Arctic, not much is known about their age and growth on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas. There, Cassiope fastigiata could potentially serve as indicator species for climate change. The objective of our study, therefore, was to investigate its dendroecological potential. For this purpose, 20 shoots were collected both on the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau (site 1) and in the central Himalayas (site 2). Cross-sections of 8–10 μm in thickness were cut and the widths of the clearly distinguishable growth rings were measured. No missing outer rings were detected at the shoot base when serial sectioning was applied. Of the 40 shoots, 19 at site 1 and 10 at site 2 showed similar growth patterns. The remaining shoots were excluded from further analyses. C. fastigiata formed up to 30 annual growth rings whose width varied from 13 to 150 μm. Its growth at both sites was positively associated with temperature in late winter/early spring, and at site 2 additionally with precipitation in late autumn of the preceding year and spring of the current year. Our study confirmed that C. fastigiata forms distinct annual growth rings. The growth response to precipitation at site 1 and the lack thereof at site 2 result from differences in hydrology between the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau and the central Himalayas.

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Author contribution statement

Eryuan Liang: funding, experimental design, fieldwork, data analysis, development and writing of the manuscript, review and discussion of the manuscript. Wenwen Liu: processing samples and data analysis, review and discussion of the manuscript. Ping Ren: processing samples and data analysis, review and discussion of the manuscript. Binod Dawadi: fieldwork, review and discussion of the manuscript. Dieter Eckstein: data analysis, writing of the manuscript, review and discussion of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41471158, 41130529) and the National Basic Research Program of China (2012FY111400). We appreciate the great support from the Southeast Tibet Station for Alpine Environment, Observation and Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We thank the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the government of Nepal for granting permission to carry out this research in the Sagarmatha national park, the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Meteorological Station (5,050 m a.s.l.) for sharing climatic data, and two reviewers for their valuable comments.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Eryuan Liang, Wenwen Liu, Ping Ren & Binod Dawadi

  2. Central Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Binod Dawadi

  3. Centre of Wood Sciences, Wood Biology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Dieter Eckstein

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wenwen Liu & Ping Ren

Authors
  1. Eryuan Liang
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  2. Wenwen Liu
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  4. Binod Dawadi
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  5. Dieter Eckstein
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Correspondence to Eryuan Liang.

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Communicated by A. Braeuning.

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Liang, E., Liu, W., Ren, P. et al. The alpine dwarf shrub Cassiope fastigiata in the Himalayas: does it reflect site-specific climatic signals in its annual growth rings?. Trees 29, 79–86 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1128-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1128-5

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