Climate response of tree growth along an altitudinal gradient in the Changbai Mountains, Northeast China

Trees growing at the margins of their species' distributional ranges are considered to be the most sensitive to environmental factors. In tree species distributed across wide elevational gradients and playing vital roles in local ecosystems, altitudinal variation in growth conditions may be of great importance for sustainable forest management. The importance of altitudinal gradients is thus often emphasized. To investigate climate-growth relationships at different elevations, tree-ring width chronologies of Larix olgensis and Pinus koraiensis were developed from four and six sampling sites, respectively, at different elevations of a north-facing slope in the Changbai Mountains of northeastern China. Our results suggest that along the elevational gradient, both species may respond in different ways to local climate change. In both species, lag effects were observed in growth responses to climate forces. Comparing the two species, L. olgensis is cold-tolerant, whereas P. koraiensis is warm-loving. The elevational differences in responses of L. olgensis and P. koraiensis to climate that were uncovered in this study should assist future regional dendroclimatological studies.