Over the coming decades, climate change can decrease forest productivity and stability in many semiarid regions. Tree-ring width (TRW) analysis allows estimation of tree sensitivity to droughts, including resistance (Rt) and resilience (Rc) indexes. It helps to find adaptive potential of individual trees and forest populations. On a forest stand scale, it is affected by habitat conditions and species’ ecophysiological characteristics, and on individual scale by tree genotype, age, and size. This study investigated TRW response to droughts in forest-steppe and sub-taiga of southern Siberia for keystone species Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.), and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.). Chronologies reacted positively to the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) of the previous July–September and current April–July. Depressed tree growth across region and droughts lasting over both intra-seasonal intervals were registered in 1965, 1974, and 1999. TRW-based Rt and Rc for these droughts did not reveal age- or size-related patterns. Higher growth stability indexes were observed for birch in sub-taiga and for conifers in forest-steppe. Larch at all sites had disadvantage against pine for 1965 and 1999 droughts aggravated by pest outbreaks, but adapted better to drought in 1974. Site aridity affected both tree growth stability and intensity of climatic response.

This article presents the results of a comprehensive study aimed at developing automated diagnostic methods for identifying spring wheat phytopathologies using hyperspectral imaging (HSI). The research aimed to create an effective plant disease detection system, including at the early stages, which is critically important for ensuring food security in regions where wheat plays a key role in the agro-industrial sector. The study analyses the spectral characteristics of major wheat diseases, including powdery mildew, fusarium head blight, septoria glume blotch, root rots, various types of leaf spots, brown rust, and loose smut. Healthy plants differ from diseased ones in that they show a mostly uniform tone without distinct spots or patches on hyperspectral images, and their spectra have a consistent shape without sharp fluctuations. In contrast, disease spectra, differ sharply from those of healthy areas and can take diverse forms. Wheat diseases with a light coating (powdery mildew, fusarium head blight) exhibit high reflectance; chlorosis in the early stages of diseases (rust, leaf spot, septoria leaf blotch) exhibits curves with medium reflectance, and diseases with dark colouration (loose smut, root rot) have low reflectance values. These differences in reflectance among fungal diseases are caused by pigments produced by the pathogens, which either strongly absorb light or reflect most of it. The presence or absence of pigment production is determined by adaptive mechanisms. Based on these patterns in the spectral characteristics and optical properties of the diseases, a classification model was developed with 94% overall accuracy. Random Forest proved to be the most effective method for the automated detection of wheat phytopathogens using hyperspectral data. The practical significance of this research lies in the potential integration of the developed phytopathology detection approach into precision agriculture systems and the use of UAV platforms, enabling rapid large-scale crop monitoring for the timely detection. The study’s results confirm the promising potential of combining hyperspectral technologies and machine learning methods for monitoring the phytosanitary condition of crops. Our findings contribute to the advancement of digital agriculture and are particularly valuable for the agro-industrial sector of Central Asia, where adopting precision farming technologies is a strategic priority given the climatic risks and export-oriented nature of grain production.

The ribbon-like pine forests of North Kazakhstan represent the principal territorial intrazonal and azonal biotopes. Integrated bio-geographic studies of the pine forests’ status were performed in the Beskaragai and Chaldai Nature Reserves in the Pri-Irtysh River basin within, at present, the climate–change most susceptible transitional parkland-steppe zone of Central Asia, adjoining the West Siberian Lowland. The investigations followed the regional topographic gradient with a series of mapped sites characterizing the spatial relief patterns of the pristine forest distribution and the associated phytocenoses. The results revealed marked natural arboreal cover restoration differences between the geographically close upland and lowland forest ecosystems. The regional tree growth dynamics show the varying intensity of the pine seedlings’ succession, the tree stands’ biomass productivity and the environmental stability, weakened by the extreme continentality and progressing aridification along with adverse anthropogenic ecological impacts. The specific geomorphic, soil and hydrological conditions are the principal determining factors. The more vital plain and lowland pine forests host the floristically richer fescue-dominated communities compared to the more fragile and precipitation-poorer upland pine settings. The latter forest ecosystems display a higher vulnerability to the current climate change, generating tree drying, forest fires, and to modern human activities such as logging, herding and recreation. The research conclusions provide new insights on the natural ribbon-like pine forests’ sustainability and adaptation to the ongoing continental warming triggering fundamental environmental transformations in Central Asia’s parklands.

The forests of Central Asia are biodiversity hotspots at risk from rapid climate change, but they are understudied in terms of the climate–growth relationships of trees. This classical dendroclimatic case study was performed for six conifer forest stands near their semiarid boundaries across Kazakhstan: (1–3) Pinus sylvestris L., temperate forest steppes; (4–5) Picea schrenkiana Fisch. & C.A. Mey, foothills, the Western Tien Shan, southeast; (6) Juniperus seravschanica Kom., montane zone, the Western Tien Shan, southern subtropics. Due to large distances, correlations between local tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies are significant only within species (pine, 0.19–0.50; spruce, 0.55). The most stable climatic response is negative correlations of TRW with maximum temperatures of the previous (from −0.37 to −0.50) and current (from −0.17 to −0.44) growing season. The strength of the positive response to annual precipitation (0.10–0.48) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (0.15–0.49) depends on local aridity. The timeframe of climatic responses shifts to earlier months north-to-south. For years with maximum and minimum TRW, differences in seasonal maximal temperatures (by ~1–3 °C) and precipitation (by ~12–83%) were also found. Heat stress being the primary factor limiting conifer growth across Kazakhstan, we suggest experiments there on heat protection measures in plantations and for urban trees, alongside broadening the coverage of the dendroclimatic net with accents on the impact of habitat conditions and climate-induced long-term growth dynamics.

Tree-ring width chronologies of Pinus sibirica Du Tour from near the upper treeline in the Western Sayan, Southern Siberia are found to have an exceptional (below mean–3SD) multi-year drop near 1700 CE, highlighted by the seven narrowest-ring years in a 1524–2022 regional chronology occurring in the short span of one decade. Tree rings are sometimes applied to reconstruct seasonal air temperatures; therefore, it is important to identify other factors that may have contributed to the growth suppression. The spatiotemporal scope of the “nosedive” in tree growth is investigated with a large network of P. sibirica (14 sites) and Larix sibirica Ledeb. (61 sites) chronologies, as well as with existing climatic reconstructions, natural archives, documentary evidence (e.g., earthquake records), and climate maps based on 20th-century reanalysis data. We conclude that stress from low summer temperatures in the Little Ice Age was likely exacerbated by tree damage associated with weather extremes, including infamous Mongolian “dzuds”, over 1695–1704. A tropical volcanic eruption in 1695 is proposed as the root cause of these disturbances through atmospheric circulation changes, possibly an amplified Scandinavia Northern Hemisphere teleconnection pattern. Conifer tree rings and forest productivity recorded this event across all of Altai–Sayan region.

Исследование направлено на получение новых данных хронологий сосны обыкновенной (Pinus sylvestris L.) в засушливых условиях в лесостепи северного Казахстана, а именно в северной части на территории ГНПП «Бурабай». Были выбраны 2 участка, чтобы сравнить, как влияют различные фак[1]торы на прирост древесины. Анализ обобщенных древесно-кольцевых хронологий показал, что в пре[1]делах района исследования произрастает большое количество деревьев возрастом более 170–220 лет. Значения автокорреляции 1-го порядка варьируются от 0,68 до 0,78. Коэффициент чувствительности показал присутствие небольшого климатического сигнала. Краткосрочный прогноз климата показы[1]вает, что в ближайшие 10 лет ожидается небольшое повышение температуры и понижение количества осадков теплого сезона.