Specificity of Individual Response Radial Increment of Scots Pine in the Voronezh Biosphere Reserve on the Differentiated Forest Conditions

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to assess the individual variability of the response to climatic conditions of the radial increment of Pinus sylvestris L. trees aged 100–140 years. The studied pine stand grows in the conditions of a site with a heterogeneous microrelief in the Voronezh Reserve. The calculated coefficients of synchronicity and correlation of radial increment of a sample of individual Scots pine trees (wood cores). It has been established that in the radial increment of pine trees in the Voronezh Reserve, there is a significant diversity in the reflection of the climatic signal, which, as a rule, manifests itself in certain years that are not extreme in terms of climatic conditions. The reasons for the differentiated reaction of trees to climate are the differentiated conditions of the microrelief, and also, probably, the genetic diversity of forest stands. In natural stands there are individual trees showing very low values of synchronicity coefficients (GLK, %) or correlation coefficients (CC, %) with stand average values. Intrapopulation differences in the response of pine forest stands to fluctuations in climatic factors are one of the forms of protective mechanisms for the survival of a species that have developed as a result of evolutionary development. As our study showed, intrapopulation differences are large in stands of natural origin and not subject to anthropogenic impacts.

Keywords

• radial increment
• different response
• coefficients of synchronicity
• climatic signal
• heterogeneous microrelief