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Cited by 298Tree-ring climate responsesForest ecology and managementPlant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

No growth stimulation of Canada’s boreal forest under half-century of combined warming and CO 2 fertilization

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Girardin, Martin P., Bouriaud, Olivier, Hogg, Edward H., Kurz, Werner, Zimmermann, Niklaus E., Metsaranta, Juha M., de Jong, Rogier, Frank, David C. +4 more·2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1610156113PMC PMC5206510
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Abstract

Significance Limited knowledge about the mechanistic drivers of forest growth and responses to environmental changes creates uncertainties about the future role of circumpolar boreal forests in the global carbon cycle. Here, we use newly acquired tree-ring data from Canada’s National Forest Inventory to determine the growth response of the boreal forest to environmental changes. We find no consistent boreal-wide growth response over the past 60 y across Canada. However, some southwestern and southeastern forests experienced a growth enhancement, and some regions such as the northwestern and maritime areas experienced a growth depression. Growth–climate relationships bring evidence of an intensification of the impacts of hydroclimatic variability on growth late in the 20th century, in parallel with the rapid rise of summer temperature.

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  • The poor understanding of industrial pollution effects is particularly true for the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere.

    “This is particularly true for the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere (Gauthier et al ., 2015; Girardin et al ., 2016)”

    From Ecological and conceptual consequences of Arctic pollution (2020) · cites this paper as Girardin et al ., 2016

    The Abstract says that understanding boreal forests’ responses to environmental changes remains a scientific challenge. That supports the general point about uncertainty, but the paper does not address whether the effects of industrial pollution on boreal forests are poorly understood. (LLM, conf=0.79)

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Cited by

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Authors
Girardin, M. P., Bouriaud, O., Hogg, E. H., Kurz, W., Zimmermann, N. E., Metsaranta, J. M., de Jong, R., Frank, D. C., Esper, J., Büntgen, U., Guo, X. J., & Bhatti, J.
Affiliations
  • Canadian Forest Service (CA)
  • Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH)
  • Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland;
  • University of Arizona (US)
  • Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
  • Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (CH)
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2016-12-12
Volume
113
Issue
52
Pages
E8406-E8414
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1610156113
PMC
PMC5206510
OpenAlex
W2566201594
Cited by
298
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 22
FWCI
16.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.pnas.org/site/misc/userlicense.xhtml (vor)
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DORA WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research) (submittedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Resources Canada (Forest Change, National Forest Inventory)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Tree-ring climate responses
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Forest ecology and management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
Keywords
boreal forest, tree growth, global warming, CO2 fertilization, tree-ring measurements, national forest inventory, climate-growth relationships, hydroclimatic variability, summer temperature, carbon cycle, forest carbon sink
MeSH terms
Canada, Carbon Dioxide, Ecology, Geography, Regression Analysis, Temperature, Time Factors, Trees, Models, Statistical, Biomass, Climate Change, Carbon Cycle, Forests, Taiga

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