A new study reveals plasticity of Italian beech forests in response to varying environmental conditions.
The latest research of Puchi et al. carried out in the framework of the project Waterstem funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and led by National Research Council, investigates Italian beech forests’ resilience to the increasing tree mortality from drought and heat stress.
By analysing basal area growth (BAI, Figure 1) and the water use efficiency (iWUE), the study uncovers regional climate impacts and potential dieback risks.
Puchi et al. analyzed the growth and iWUE patterns across the Italian Peninsula to predict mortality risk in apparently healthy stands. The findings elucidate the plasticity of iWUE responses to varying environmental conditions and the negative impact of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) on stomatal conductance inducing the decreasing of growth (strongly in the northern sites). Notably, while some populations exhibited increased iWUE in response to rising VPD, others showed differing sensitivities and water-use strategies.
Early warning signals post-extreme events (drought 2003) showed a loss of resilience, urging a deeper understanding of intraspecific variations in drought response.
The observed increase in growth and iWUE in southern regions might be attributed to an acclimation response.
The study, is a new step forward toward an advanced early prediction of mortality risk in healthy beech stands under climate change conditions highlighting a high degree of plasticity in terms of water-use strategies to changing environmental conditions.
The study has been just published on Scientific Report and can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57293-7 and was also supported by OptFor-Eu, NBFC, Multifor and Wafer @CNR project.
Figure 1: Basal area index (BAI) variation in time for the different stands across the Italian latitudinal gradient.
