uncovering the anatomical archive of annual RINGS to understand abiotic and biotic drivers of SHRUB growth at the range BORDER

Project Information

BoRiS

Grant agreement ID: 895233

DOI

10.3030/895233

Project closed

EC signature date 18 March 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 207 312,00

EU contribution

€ 207 312,00

Coordinated by

AARHUS UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BoRiS (uncovering the anatomical archive of annual RINGS to understand abiotic and biotic drivers of SHRUB growth at the range BORDER)

Reporting period: 2020-10-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Climate change is observed and predicted to profoundly affect Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems. These ecosystems, at the border of woody plant growth, change at a faster rate than the global average. Growth responses of Arctic-alpine shrubs to climate change are variable and influenced by different factors. A detailed analysis of growth, from the intra-individual to the community level, is key to understand the plasticity of responses to climate change. How variation in growth and wood anatomical traits across environmental gradients occurs at intra-individual, intraspecific, and interspecific level is currently unexplored.
BoRiS aims at uncovering the information archived in annual rings to gain novel insight on how responses scale from individuals to communities. Specifically, the objectives of BoRiS are to: i) provide fundamental knowledge on how individuals, species, and communities of shrubs living at the border of woody plant growth respond to climate change; ii) quantify the value of wood anatomical traits from Arctic-alpine woody species as indicators of biotic disturbances and climatological proxies, as well as test if their value as proxies varies across sites and environmental conditions; iii) provide improved spatio-temporal projections of the magnitude of change in Arctic shrub communities under ongoing and future change.
We analysed how abiotic (e.g. environmental variability temperature, precipitation, nutrient availability, soil moisture) and biotic (e.g. defoliator insects) affected shrub xylem formation processes at different time scales (from years to centuries) and across environmental gradients. We verified the potential of shrubs growth as climatological proxy and quantified structural adjustments to altered growing conditions testing plants acclimation. We reviewed state-of-the-art dendroecological studies of Arctic shrub dynamics and identified the main research gaps and potential solutions to upscale responses from local to landscape/regional scale. Finally, combining dendroecological and remote sensing time-series, we revealed dynamics in willow biomass across ice-free Greenland.
The findings from BoRiS significantly advance our understanding on how Arctic-alpine shrubs will respond to climate change and will improve forecasts of vegetation dynamics and associated ecological impacts. This knowledge can also support sustainable management of tundra ecosystems under the ongoing global change scenario.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work activities within BoRiS included: i) preparation of micro-sections from multiple species collected at multiple sites across Greenland; ii) ring-width measurements; iii) development of ring-width chronologies, quantification of wood anatomical traits, and development of anatomical traits time series; iv) acquisition of satellite-based and in-situ climatic and environmental data; v) establishment of climate/environment-growth/wood structure relationships. All activities were performed in collaboration with staff and technicians at Aarhus University, as well as international collaborators.
Results were communicated through scientific manuscripts (2 published, 1 accepted, 4 in preparation), posters (3 as first author) and oral presentations at conferences (5) and workshops (4), seminars and meetings (e.g. Vegegetation Dynamics, ArcticHub, Changes in Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity(CHARTER) and Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE) group meetings, Q-NET seminars). Moreover, MSc and PhD projects were integrated into BoRiS and students were actively involved in the project's research. The establishment of new collaborations allowed to explore novel research directions that resulted in 3 additional publications. Finally, several workshops on quantitative wood anatomy (Q-NET) with speakers from different countries and almost hundred participants were organized on-line. Supervision activities included co-supervision of BSc (10),MSc (2) and PhD (1) students. Training activities such as multiple courses, training school, and workshops allowed to acquire new scientific and transferable skills, for instance on teaching, project management, communication and dissemination.
The implementation of BoRiS has been affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at various levels (research, training of the researcher, dissemination and communication of project results). Nevertheless, major milestones and objectives of the project could be achieved with minor deviations. Remaining objectives will be finalized in the near future (see project website below for future updates).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

BoRiS provides a novel integration of dendrochronology, dendroclimatology, quantitative wood anatomy and ecophysiology with in-situ measurements and Earth Observations. BoRiS project activities and results represent an important step forward for dendroecological studies in Arctic and alpine environments. The novel integration of multiple proxies and an interdisciplinary approach allowed to enhance cross-scale ecological understanding and can be of great interest for the scientific community. The success of BoRiS is reflected by several publications in high-rank journals and manuscripts in preparation; frequent participation of students/researchers in seminars, meetings and workshops; poster or oral contributions at conferences; and an expanded network (e.g. scientists involved in CHARTER, BIOCHANGE, Association of tree ring research, OIKOS-DK and the Biology department at Aarhus University).The published results from BoRiS represent highly innovative and relevant advances in the current understanding of environmental and climatic influence on plant growth dynamics at the transition of ecosystems across space and time. In particular, we find that that higher nutrient availability due to past human activities plays a role in Arctic vegetation growth and should be considered when assessing both the future impact of plants on archaeological sites and the general greening in landscapes with contrasting nutrient availability. In another study from the Southern Alps, ring-width records show that the duration of current snow cover is 36 days shorter than the long-term mean, a decline that is unprecedented over the last six centuries in the area. The substantial reduction in snow amount and duration in the Southern Alps highlights the urgent need to develop adaptation strategies for the most sensitive environmental and socio-economic sectors.
Overall, our findings based on Arctic-alpine shrub responses across organizational scales from the individual to the community have provided insight into spatio-temporal vegetation-environment interaction at unprecedented detail. Integrating new technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in dendroecological research could provide key opportunities to close important knowledge gaps in the understanding of scale-dependencies, as well as intra- and inter-specific variation, in vegetation responses across the Arctic and alpine environment, allowing for more precise forecast of tundra vegetation dynamics. The outputs from BoRiS should therefore support decision makers in environmental and conservation management in ensuring an environmentally and economically sustainable management of tundra ecosystems.

Example of wood anatomical cross section of Batula nana (WP2 BoRiS)

Example of old juniper individual targeted in BoRiS