Climatic Response of Conifer Radial Growth in Forest-Steppes of South Siberia: Comparison of Three Approaches

Abstract

We compared three approaches to study climatic signals of Pinus sylvestris and Larix sibirica treering width chronologies from the forest-steppe zone of South Siberia, where both temperature and precipitation limit the conifer tree growth: 1—paired correlation of chronologies with monthly climatic variables; 2— paired and partial correlations with monthly and seasonal series of primary and secondary climatic factors, calculated in the Seascorr program; 3—paired correlation with a 15-day moving average series of climatic variables. The comparison showed that simple paired correlation with monthly series as the simplest approach could be used for a wide range of dendroclimatic studies, both as a main procedure and for preliminary analysis. The Seascorr analysis is the most suitable for assessing climate-growth relationship in extreme growth conditions and for reconstructions of extremes, e.g. droughts, and of their impact periods. The application of the 15-day moving average series is limited by availability of daily climatic data, but it describes the seasonal window of climatic response with high precision. Altogether, the combination of three approaches allowed to explore the spatial-temporal pattern of the conifers radial growth climatic response in South Siberia.