The influence of temperature and precipitation on the increment of black pine (Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold): A case study from the area of Mt. Rudnik

Abstract

The influence of temperature and precipitation on the growth of artificially established black pine trees in the area of Mountain Rudnik was studied in this paper. For that purpose, we bored 50 series of radial increment from 25 dominant trees. The aforementioned influence was analyzed by applying three procedures: a correlation between seasonal values of temperature and precipitation and RES chronologies of radial increment, a correlation between monthly temperature and precipitation data and RES chronologies, and response function analysis. The results have shown that black pine was very sensitive towards the precipitation in summer months in the given conditions, in the way that higher amounts of summer precipitation resulted in significantly higher radial increment values. The variations of radial increment were less conditioned by temperature oscillations, whereby the week negative influence of July temperatures on the increment values was detected. It was concluded that the reaction of black pine in the investigated site in terms of increment and its dependence on climate was similar to the reaction of this species in Serbia and other neighbouring countries characterized by similar climate conditions. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development: Forest plantations in the function of increasing the forests of Serbia]

Keywords

• climate
• tree growth
• dendroclimatology
• black pine
• Serbia