Climate Sensitivity of Thinleaf Alder Growth in Interior Alaska: Implications for N-Fixation Inputs to River Floodplains

Dana Nossov1,2, Roger Ruess1, and Teresa Hollingsworth3

1 Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks2 Boreal Ecology Cooperative Research Unit, University of Alaska Fairbanks

3 Boreal Ecology Cooperative Research Unit, USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station

AcknowledgementsWe thank Dorothy Walker, Steve Brown, Brian Charlton, and Laura Gutierrez for their generous assistance in the field and in the lab, and Steve Winslow, Glenn Juday, Andi Lloyd, and Knut Kielland for their constructive feedback. Funding for the research was provided by the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research program (funded jointly by NSF grant DEB-0620579 and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station grant PNW01-JV11261952-231), by a University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Center for Global Change Student Award to D.R. Nossov, and by NSF grant DEB-0641033 to R.W. Ruess.

ConclusionsWe found that thinleaf alder radial growth was likely sensitive to moisture limitation at two key points in the growing season. During June and August, meteorological drought may occur while the river level and the height of hyporheic flow are low, relative to their seasonal peaks. Alder growth was positively correlated with river level during these months, suggesting that fluctuation in hyporheic flow plays a large part in either alleviating or exacerbating drought stress, especially on lower terraces where the availability of subsurface water is greater. The sensitivity of alder growth to meteorological drought was heightened with increasing terrace elevation, due to the greater distance to hyporheic flow. The long-term meteorological and hydrologic trends in this region suggest that drought will become more common and severe, likely resulting in reductions in alder-mediated ecosystem N inputs through further growth suppression.

Results

Methods 547 alder disks from 27 sites along an 80-km reach of the

Tanana River floodplains in interior Alaska were sampled to construct standardized alder tree ring-width chronologies at site and landscape levels.

(1) Correlation analyses between the landscape-level ring-width chronology and air temperature, precipitation, river discharge, and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) were conducted.

(2) To address the spatial variation in alder climate sensitivity in relationship to the distance to hyporheic flow (ie, terrace height above river level), we correlated site-level ring-width chronologies with monthly meteorological and hydrological variables, and regressed the resulting site-level correlation coefficients against terrace height.

(3) Long-term trends in the meteorological and hydrological variables that were correlated with alder radial growth were then assessed using simple linear regression.

Month

JUN JUL AUG SEP

Cor

rela

tion

coef

ficie

nt-0.2

0.0

0.2

0.4Temperature Precipitation Discharge PDSI

** *

p < 0.05p < 0.10*

JUNE

Site terrace height (m)

7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Co

rre

latio

n c

oe

ffic

ien

t

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

Temperature trends

Year

1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Te

mpe

ratu

re (C

)

8

10

12

14

16

18

20Juner2 = 0.139p < 0.001

August

r2 = .122p < 0.01

Precipitation trends

Year

1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pre

cipita

tion (

mm

)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

August

r2 = 0.093p < 0.01

PDSI trends

Year

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

PD

SI

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

JuneAugust

June

r2 = 0.108p < 0.05

River discharge trends

Year

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Dis

cha

rge

(m

3 /s)

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Influence of meteorological and hydrological

variation on alder growth: Alder radial growth was positively correlated with inter-annual variation in river discharge and PDSI in June, and with river discharge in August

Spatial variation in climate sensitivity of alder growth: In June and August, both the negative relationship between temperature and ring width, and the positive relationship between precipitation and ring width, were strengthened with increasing terrace height above river level

Long term trends in climate and hydrology: Mean June and August temperatures increased with time. Mean precipitation decreased for August, but showed no pattern for June. June PDSI declined linearly, suggesting a long-term trend of increasing drought severity, while August PDSI showed no trend. No significant change in Tanana river discharge rates for June or August were detected.

Fig. 1. Correlation of standardized alder ring-widths with monthly mean temperature, precipitation, discharge, and PDSI from June-September. Pearson product-moment correlations, n = 39 years.

Fig. 2. Correlations of alder radial growth with meteorological and hydrological inter-annual variation during (a) June and (b) August, as they varied by terrace height. Pearson product-moment correlations, n = 8 years; Regressions of correlation coefficients with terrace height, n = 27 sites. Points above the upper and below the dashed lower dotted reference lines are statistically significant correlations.

Fig. 3. Long-term trends in June and August (a) temperature, (b) precipitation, (c) Tanana River discharge, (d) and PDSI near Fairbanks, Alaska. Statistically significant regression lines are solid with regression statistics displayed. Dashed lines show regressions which were not statistically significant.

AUGUST

Site terrace height (m)

7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Co

rre

latio

n c

oe

ffic

ien

t

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

Introduction Increased summer air temperatures in

interior Alaska have led to a net reduction in soil moisture, causing drought stress and growth suppression in several boreal tree species. The response of thinleaf alder (Alnus tenuifolia) to a warming climate could substantially impact ecosystem function because this

The goal of this study was to understand the patterns in the growth sensitivity of thinleaf alder to climate warming in order to assess the importance of potentially long-term controls on N-fixation inputs in the Tanana River floodplains. Our specific objectives were to:

(1) determine the influence of inter-annual variation in monthly meteorological and hydrological variables on annual alder radial growth,

(2) assess the variability in alder climate sensitivity across the landscape due to variations in the vertical distance to hyporheic flow (terrace height), and

(3) explore the long-term trends in climate and hydrology and the implications for future alder growth and N-fixation inputs.

species plays a keystone role as the dominant N-fixer in interior Alaskan floodplains, with dense stands contributing up to 60 kg N ha-1 year-1. Because symbiotic N-fixation is controlled by plant N demand, alder growth rate and N-fixation rate are directly related.