Wild Apple Growth and Climate Change in Southeast Kazakhstan

• Published in: Forests
• Main Authors: Panyushkina, Irina, Mukhamadiev, Nurjan, Lynch, Ann, Ashikbaev, Nursagim, Arizpe, Alexis, O’Connor, Christopher, Abjanbaev, Danyar, Mengdіbayeva, Gulnaz, Sagitov, Abay
• Other Authors: Univ Arizona, Tree Ring Res Lab
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017
• Subjects: wild fruit wood forest; Malus sieversii; dendrochronology; climate change; Central Asia; Arctic; Malus; Climate change
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626428; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8110406

Wild populations of Malus sieversii [Ldb.] M. Roem are valued genetic and watershed resources in Inner Eurasia. These populations are located in a region that has experienced rapid and on-going climatic change over the past several decades. We assess relationships between climate variables and wild apple radial growth with dendroclimatological techniques to understand the potential of a changing climate to influence apple radial growth. Ring-width chronologies spanning 48 to 129 years were developed from 12 plots in the Trans-Ili Alatau and Jungar Alatau ranges of Tian Shan Mountains, southeastern Kazakhstan. Cluster analysis of the plot-level chronologies suggests different temporal patterns of growth variability over the last century in the two mountain ranges studied. Changes in the periodicity of annual ring-width variability occurred ca. 1970 at both mountain ranges, with decadal-scale variability supplanted by quasi-biennial variation. Seascorr correlation analysis of primary and secondary weather variables identified negative growth associations with spring precipitation and positive associations with cooler fall-winter temperatures, but the relative importance of these relationships varied spatially and temporally, with a shift in the relative importance of spring precipitation ca. 1970 at Trans-Ili Alatau. Altered apple tree radial growth patterns correspond to altered climatology in the Lake Balkhash Basin driven by unprecedented intensified Arctic Oscillations after the late 1970s. Science Committee of Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan [217, 4165/GF4]; U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Research Joint Venture Agreement [12-JV-11221633-161]; University of Arizona Open Access Journal. This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [e-mail].