Tree growth responses to temporal variation in rainfall differ across a continental-scale climatic gradient.

ABSTRACT: Globally, many biomes are being impacted by significant shifts in total annual rainfall as well as increasing variability of rainfall within and among years. Such changes can have potentially large impacts on plant productivity and growth, but remain largely unknown, particularly for much of the Southern Hemisphere. We investigate how growth of the widespread conifer, Callitris columellaris varied with inter-annual variation in the amount, intensity and frequency of rainfall events over the last century and between semi-arid (<500 mm mean annual rainfall) and tropical (>800 mm mean annual rainfall) biomes in Australia. We used linear and polynomial regression models to investigate the strength and shape of the relationships between growth (ring width) and rainfall. At semi-arid sites, grow

SUBMITTER: O'Donnell AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8096069 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature