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Publication F. Baumgarten

Baumgarten F, Gessler A, Vitasse Y (2023). No risk—no fun: Penalty and recovery from spring frost damage in deciduous temperate trees.https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14243

Publikation F. Baumgarten
Image: F. Baumgarten

Getting the timing right to unfold fresh leaves in spring is a gamble for deciduous trees in seasonal climates that has a long evolutionary history. Too early and the whole investment might be sacrificed to a single frost event; too late and scarce resources like water, nutrients and light might already be consumed by competing neighboring plants. This battle is fought at the juvenile stage with only few getting established and reaching maturity. How much risk a tree should take depends however also on its ability to recover from a damaging frost event. In this study we artificially manipulated the timing of leaf emergence, spanning the whole range that occurs naturally at the study site (Zurich, Switzerland) for 4 deciduous tree species in an experiment with 960 saplings. Subsequent artificial frost treatments (two intensities) at the most critical stage of leaf unfolding allowed to assess the recovery process in comparison to unfrozen control saplings.

We demonstrate that species have different ways to withstand and recover from frost damage, reflecting their risk-taking strategy. While mortality reached up to 30% in hornbeam and 12% in European beech, it was neglectable in cherry and oak. Strategies to recover included a clear prioritization of the recovery of sugar reserves over growth (all species), the deployment of dormant reserve buds (oak), regrowth from the stem basis (cherry) and delayed leaf senescence (beech). The ability to recover from frost damage thus becomes an increasingly important functional trait for species persistence in the coming decades, as the frequency of extreme climatic events such as late spring frosts or droughts is expected to increase for wide areas across Europe.

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Dr Yann Vitasse
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL)
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf
Switzerland