• It has long been hypothesized that species are limited to the north by minimum temperature and to the south by competition, resulting in a trade-off between freezing tolerance and growth rate. We investigated the extent to which the climatic origins of populations from four live oak species (Quercus series Virentes) were associated with freezing tolerance and growth rate, and whether species ...

Abstract. Natural populations of Carpinus orientalis Mill. Shrub lands occur mainly in high and middle altitudes of the Hyrcanian forests, N. Iran, particularly on steep rocks and forest outcrops. There are some discrepancies on the intra-specific delimitation of this important woody species. The aim of the current study was to examine the anatomical variation of stems and leaves of sixteen pop...

Most dendrochronological studies focus on cores sampled from standard positions (main stem, breast height), yet vertical gradients in hydraulic constraints and priorities for carbon allocation may contribute to different growth sensitivities with position. Using cores taken from five positions (coarse roots, breast height, base of live crown, mid-crown branch and treetop), we investigated how r...

Whether there is a general allometry law across plant species with different sizes and under different environment has long been controversial and shrubs are particularly useful to examine these questions. Here we sampled 939 individuals from 50 forest shrub species along a large altitudinal gradient. We tested several allometry models with four relationships simultaneously (between stem diamet...

Annual stem length growth of the circumarctic dwarf shrub Cassiope tetragona has proven to be a reliable proxy for past and ongoing climate change in the Arctic. This reliability is based on its strong linear relationship with monthly climate parameters. Monthly means are however coarse units for prediction of growth in marginal regions with short growing seasons. Growing degree-days (GDD) are ...

Observed recent and expected future increases in frequency and intensity of climatic extremes in central Europe may pose critical challenges for domestic tree species. Continuous dendrometer recordings provide a valuable source of information on tree stem radius variations, offering the possibility to study a tree's response to environmental influences at a high temporal resolution. In this stu...

Besides water relations, nutrient allocation, and stoichiometric traits are fundamental feature of shrubs. Knowledge concerning the nutrient stoichiometry of xerophytes is essential to predicting the biogeochemical cycling in desert ecosystems as well as to understanding the homoeostasis and variability of nutrient traits in desert plants. Here, we focused on the temperate desert species Reaumu...

Opportunities for dual restoration and carbon benefits from naturally regenerating woody ecosystems in agricultural landscapes have been highlighted recently. The restoration capacity of woody ecosystems depends on the magnitude and duration of ecosystem modification, i.e., the "agricultural legacy." However, this legacy may not influence carbon sequestration in the same way as restoration beca...