Drought-induced mortality of Scots pines at the southern limits of its distribution in Europe: causes and consequences

doi:10.3832/ifor0542-003

Drought-induced mortality of Scots pines at the southern limits of its distribution in Europe: causes and consequences

A Giuggiola⁽¹⁾ , TM Kuster⁽¹⁾, S Saha⁽²⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 95-97 (2010)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0542-003
Published: Jul 15, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 SISEF

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Collection/Special Issue: NFZ Summer School 2009 - Birmensdorf (Switzerland)
Long-term ecosystem research: understanding the present to shape the future
Guest Editors: Marcus Schaub (WSL, Switzerland)

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Several severe drought events have been reported in southern Europe during recent decades. Drought has been found to increase the mortality of the southernmost populations of Scots pine forests in Mediterranean countries and in dry inner-alpine valleys. Therefore the ongoing global climate change is likely to endanger Scots pine in future decades. Carbon starvation might be the main cause of the increasing mortality rate due to less carbon uptake and consequently to high susceptibility to biotic attacks. Forest management, in particular, thinning and shrub removal could decrease the intensity of drought stress by decreasing competition for water resources and thus increasing carbon uptake. The ongoing climate change and adaptive forest management will both play an important role for the sustainability of this specie across southern regions of Europe.

Keywords

Scots pine, Drought, Tree mortality, Tree vitality, Europe, Thinning, Shrub removal

Authors’ address

(1)

WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf (Switzerland)

(2)

Institute of Silviculture, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacherstrasse 4, D-79085 Freiburg (Germany)

Corresponding author

A Giuggiola
arnaud.giuggiola@wsl.ch

Citation

Giuggiola A, Kuster TM, Saha S (2010). Drought-induced mortality of Scots pines at the southern limits of its distribution in Europe: causes and consequences. iForest 3: 95-97. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0542-003

Academic Editor

Marcus Schaub

Paper history

Received: May 25, 2010
Accepted: May 31, 2010

First online: Jul 15, 2010
Publication Date: Jul 15, 2010
Publication Time: 1.50 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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