[A-CG43] Science in the Arctic Region

[ACG43-13] Spatio-temporal variation in vulnerability and resilience of tree radial growth to climate changes in Eastern Siberia

*Shunsuke Tei¹ (1.Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute)

Keywords:International Tree-ring Data Bank, Tree radial growth, Eastern Sibeira, Climate change, Vulnerability

The recent worldwide increase in forest decline may be driven by climate change, especially as a result of extreme climate events such as severe drought and heavy rain. The ecosystem may be adversely affected in some cases, which has significant climate-feedback potential. However, little is known about forest vulnerability to tree decline under recent climate changes. Our knowledge of vulnerability and resilience of tree radial growth to climate changes must be improved. In particular, it is important to determine their spatio-temporal variability. In this study, I focused on ecosystems in eastern Siberia that are considered crucial to the climate system and global carbon cycle and are particularly vulnerable to climate change, but are poorly investigated.
I evaluate the response of tree radial growth to climate changes over past decades in ITRDB (International Tree-ring Data Bank) sites over Eastern Siberia. Especially, I focus on the extreme events that show remarkable decline in tree growth, their frequency and the recovery process of tree growth from the decline events, i.e., resilience. The frequency of the extreme events varied from site to site, with more frequent events observed in the Arctic sites. In terms of the magnitude of the extreme events, they also tended to be more severe in the Arctic sites. In this presentation, I would also like to discuss the temporal change for the extreme events, which is expected to vary from region to region.