The subalpine zones on the mountains south of the Tohoku mountains in the Japanese Islands are normally occupied by coniferous forests dominated by Abies mariesii, A. veitchii, Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis and Tsuga diversifolia. But there are many mountains where the subalpine coniferous forest does not exist; the thermometrical subalpine zones on such mountains are replaced by subalpine an...

The swelling/shrinkage of spruce wood samples (Picea Abies) is documented with high resolution XRay Tomography and advanced image analysis tools. We report the reversible moisture-induced global and local deformations at the cellular and sub-cellular scales. In particular, we present sophisticated methods for detecting local deformations in the cell wall. Insight is given on the hygromechanical...

We analyzed growth responses to climate of 24 tree-ring width and four maximum latewood density chronologies from the greater Tatra region in Poland and Slovakia. This network comprises 1183 ring-width and 153 density measurement series from four conifer species (Picea abies (L.) Karst., Larix decidua Mill., Abies alba (L.) Karst., and Pinus mugo (L.)) between 800 and 1550 m a.s.l. Individual s...

We monitored dynamics of stem water deficit (ΔW) and needle water potential (Ψ) during two consecutive growing seasons (2011 and 2012) in a dry inner Alpine environment (750 m above sea level, Tyrol, Austria), where Pinus sylvestris, Picea abies and Larix decidua form mixed stands. ΔW was extracted from stem circumference variations, which were continuously recorded by electronic band dendromet...

Drought entails important effects on tree physiology, which may result in short- to long-term radial growth decreases. While the majority of studies have focused on annual drought-related variability of growth, relatively little is known about sustained growth decreases following drought years. We apply a statistical framework to identify climatic factors that induce abrupt growth decreases and...

Susceptibility to photoinhibition of the evergreen conifers Abies alba Mill., Picea abies (L.) Karst. and Pinus mugo Turra was investigated in an unheated greenhouse during winter and spring 2003. Photosynthetic performance of the seedlings was assessed by chlorophyll a fluorescence and analyses of chlorophyll and total carotenoid concentrations in needles. During winter months, maximum quantum...

The recent sequencing of several gymnosperm genomes has greatly facilitated studying the evolution of their genes and gene families. In this study, we examine the evidence for expression-mediated selection in the first two fully sequenced representatives of the gymnosperm plant clade (Picea abies and Picea glauca). We use genome-wide estimates of gene expression (>50,000 expressed genes) to stu...