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Prof. Franco Biondi
University of Nevada, Reno

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Dendrochronology
0 Forest Ecology
0 Tree physiology
0 Wood anatomy
0 Tree rings

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Dendrochronology
Tree rings
Wood anatomy
Forest Ecology

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Short Biography

Prof. Franco Biondi is an environmental scientist with a specialty in dendroecology. His main interests are climate and forest dynamics, ecohydrological changes, wildfire and drought history, particularly in mountain watersheds. He holds an Italian doctorate in forestry from the Università di Firenze, and MS and PhD degrees in watershed management and geosciences from the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is currently Professor and DendroLab Director in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is also a member of four interdisciplinary graduate programs: Environmental Sciences; Hydrologic Sciences; Atmospheric Sciences; and Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. Together with his students and colleagues, he has conducted research in tree-dominated landscapes of the North American West, Mexico, and southern Europe on how climate (especially drought) impacts wood formation and tree-ring chronologies.

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Journal article
Published: 26 March 2021 in Forest Ecology and Management
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Semiarid forests may face future challenges because of climate change-exacerbated soil droughts. Because the risk and rate of tree mortality from soil drying can vary widely between co-occurring species, inter-specific differences in tree response need to be evaluated for designing science-driven best-management strategies specifically tailored to iconic sky-island ecosystems. We analyzed sap flow of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) for five consecutive years (2014–2018) at a remote, high-elevation site in the North American Great Basin. Our results revealed species-specific responses of sap flow to declining soil moisture. For quaking aspen, multi-year sap-flow trajectories mimicked growing-season depletion of soil moisture. Ample cool-season precipitation in 2017 diminished the summer drought impact on sap flow of Engelmann spruce and limber pine, indicating that the two conifers could tap a deeper soil water reservoir than the deciduous species. Since species-specific transpiration response to soil droughts was driven by shifting precipitation regimes, our findings suggest niche partitioning in the rhizosphere among coexisting tree species. In addition, spruce and pine rapidly downregulated canopy conductance with decreasing soil water availability, whereas aspen canopy conductance was insensitive to soil drying. This physiological characteristic allows quaking aspen to maximize resource acquisition when growing conditions are favorable, but poses a risk of hydraulic failure and subsequent mortality under soil drying. Overall, we found contrasting hydrological niches and physiological strategies between co-occurring tree species in semiarid, high-elevation ecosystems. We also emphasize the value of long-term, in-situ observations to determine species-specific susceptibility to environmental changes in remote mountain areas.

ACS Style

Xinsheng Liu; Franco Biondi. Inter-specific transpiration differences between aspen, spruce, and pine in a sky-island ecosystem of the North American Great Basin. Forest Ecology and Management 2021, 491, 119157 .

AMA Style

Xinsheng Liu, Franco Biondi. Inter-specific transpiration differences between aspen, spruce, and pine in a sky-island ecosystem of the North American Great Basin. Forest Ecology and Management. 2021; 491 ():119157.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Xinsheng Liu; Franco Biondi. 2021. "Inter-specific transpiration differences between aspen, spruce, and pine in a sky-island ecosystem of the North American Great Basin." Forest Ecology and Management 491, no. : 119157.

Review
Published: 11 December 2020 in New Phytologist
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Large, majestic trees are iconic symbols of great age in living organisms. Published evidence suggests that trees do not die because of genetically programmed senescence in their meristems, and rather are killed by an external agent or a disturbance event. Long tree lifespans are therefore allowed by specific combinations of life‐history traits within realized niches that support resistance to, or avoidance of, extrinsic mortality. Another requirement for trees to achieve their maximum longevity is either sustained growth over extended periods of time or at least the capacity to increase their growth rates when conditions allow it. The growth plasticity and modularity of trees can then be viewed as an evolutionary advantage that allows them to survive and reproduce for centuries and millennia. As more and more scientific information is systematically collected on tree ages under various ecological settings, it becomes clear that tree longevity is a key trait for global syntheses of life history strategies, especially in connection with disturbance regimes and their possible future modifications. In addition, we challenge the long‐held notion that shade‐tolerant, late‐successional species have longer lifespans than early‐successional species by pointing out that tree species with extreme longevity do not fit this paradigm. Identifying extremely old trees is therefore the groundwork not only for protecting and/or restoring entire landscapes, but also to revisit and update classic ecological theories that shape our understanding of environmental change.

ACS Style

Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi. On tree longevity. New Phytologist 2020, 231, 1318 -1337.

AMA Style

Gianluca Piovesan, Franco Biondi. On tree longevity. New Phytologist. 2020; 231 (4):1318-1337.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi. 2020. "On tree longevity." New Phytologist 231, no. 4: 1318-1337.

Journal article
Published: 19 August 2020 in Forests
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Information on wildfire impacts and ecosystem responses is relatively sparse in the Great Basin of North America, where subalpine ecosystems are generally dominated by five-needle pines. We analyzed existing vegetation, with an emphasis on regeneration following the year 2000 Phillips Ranch Fire, at a sky-island site in the Snake Range of eastern Nevada. Our main objective was to compare bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva; PILO) post-fire establishment and survival to that of the co-occurring dominant conifers limber pine (Pinus flexilis; PIFL) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii; PIEN) in connection with site characteristics. Field data were collected in 40 circular 0.1 ha plots (17.8 m radius) randomly located using GIS so that half of them were inside (“burned”) and half were outside (“unburned”) the 2000 fire boundary. While evidence of previous burns was also found, we focused on impacts from the Phillips Ranch Fire. Mean total basal area, including live and dead stems, was not significantly different between plots inside the burn and plots outside the fire perimeter, but the live basal area was significantly less in the former than in the latter. Wildfire impacts did not limit regeneration, and indeed bristlecone seedlings and saplings were more abundant in plots inside the 2000 fire perimeter than in those outside of it. PILO regeneration, especially saplings, was more abundant than PIFL and PCEN combined, indicating that PILO can competitively regenerate under modern climatic conditions. Surviving PILO regeneration in burned plots was also taller than that of PIFL. By contrast, PCEN was nearly absent in the plots that had been impacted by fire. Additional research should explicitly address how climatic changes and disturbance processes may interact in shaping future vegetation dynamics.

ACS Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick; Franco Biondi. Post-Wildfire Regeneration in a Sky-Island Mixed- Conifer Ecosystem of the North American Great Basin. Forests 2020, 11, 900 .

AMA Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick, Franco Biondi. Post-Wildfire Regeneration in a Sky-Island Mixed- Conifer Ecosystem of the North American Great Basin. Forests. 2020; 11 (9):900.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick; Franco Biondi. 2020. "Post-Wildfire Regeneration in a Sky-Island Mixed- Conifer Ecosystem of the North American Great Basin." Forests 11, no. 9: 900.

Journal article
Published: 05 August 2020 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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Wood formation consumes around 15% of the anthropogenic CO2emissions per year and plays a critical role in long-term sequestration of carbon on Earth. However, the exogenous factors driving wood formation onset and the underlying cellular mechanisms are still poorly understood and quantified, and this hampers an effective assessment of terrestrial forest productivity and carbon budget under global warming. Here, we used an extensive collection of unique datasets of weekly xylem tissue formation (wood formation) from 21 coniferous species across the Northern Hemisphere (latitudes 23 to 67°N) to present a quantitative demonstration that the onset of wood formation in Northern Hemisphere conifers is primarily driven by photoperiod and mean annual temperature (MAT), and only secondarily by spring forcing, winter chilling, and moisture availability. Photoperiod interacts with MAT and plays the dominant role in regulating the onset of secondary meristem growth, contrary to its as-yet-unquantified role in affecting the springtime phenology of primary meristems. The unique relationships between exogenous factors and wood formation could help to predict how forest ecosystems respond and adapt to climate warming and could provide a better understanding of the feedback occurring between vegetation and climate that is mediated by phenology. Our study quantifies the role of major environmental drivers for incorporation into state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs), thereby providing an improved assessment of long-term and high-resolution observations of biogeochemical cycles across terrestrial biomes.

ACS Style

Jian-Guo Huang; Qianqian Ma; Sergio Rossi; Franco Biondi; Annie Deslauriers; Patrick Fonti; Eryuan Liang; Harri Mäkinen; Walter Oberhuber; Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber; Roberto Tognetti; Václav Treml; Bao Yang; Jiao-Lin Zhang; Serena Antonucci; Yves Bergeron; J. Julio Camarero; Filipe Campelo; Katarina Čufar; Henri E. Cuny; Martin De Luis; Alessio Giovannelli; Jožica Gričar; Andreas Gruber; Vladimír Gryc; Aylin Güney; Xiali Guo; Wei Huang; Tuula Jyske; Jakub Kašpar; Gregory King; Cornelia Krause; Audrey Lemay; Feng Liu; Fabio Lombardi; Edurne Martinez del Castillo; Hubert Morin; Cristina Nabais; Pekka Nöjd; Richard L. Peters; Peter Prislan; Antonio Saracino; Irene Swidrak; Hanuš Vavrčík; Joana Vieira; Biyun Yu; Shaokang Zhang; Qiao Zeng; Yaling Zhang; Emanuele Ziaco. Photoperiod and temperature as dominant environmental drivers triggering secondary growth resumption in Northern Hemisphere conifers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2020, 117, 20645 -20652.

AMA Style

Jian-Guo Huang, Qianqian Ma, Sergio Rossi, Franco Biondi, Annie Deslauriers, Patrick Fonti, Eryuan Liang, Harri Mäkinen, Walter Oberhuber, Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber, Roberto Tognetti, Václav Treml, Bao Yang, Jiao-Lin Zhang, Serena Antonucci, Yves Bergeron, J. Julio Camarero, Filipe Campelo, Katarina Čufar, Henri E. Cuny, Martin De Luis, Alessio Giovannelli, Jožica Gričar, Andreas Gruber, Vladimír Gryc, Aylin Güney, Xiali Guo, Wei Huang, Tuula Jyske, Jakub Kašpar, Gregory King, Cornelia Krause, Audrey Lemay, Feng Liu, Fabio Lombardi, Edurne Martinez del Castillo, Hubert Morin, Cristina Nabais, Pekka Nöjd, Richard L. Peters, Peter Prislan, Antonio Saracino, Irene Swidrak, Hanuš Vavrčík, Joana Vieira, Biyun Yu, Shaokang Zhang, Qiao Zeng, Yaling Zhang, Emanuele Ziaco. Photoperiod and temperature as dominant environmental drivers triggering secondary growth resumption in Northern Hemisphere conifers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2020; 117 (34):20645-20652.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jian-Guo Huang; Qianqian Ma; Sergio Rossi; Franco Biondi; Annie Deslauriers; Patrick Fonti; Eryuan Liang; Harri Mäkinen; Walter Oberhuber; Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber; Roberto Tognetti; Václav Treml; Bao Yang; Jiao-Lin Zhang; Serena Antonucci; Yves Bergeron; J. Julio Camarero; Filipe Campelo; Katarina Čufar; Henri E. Cuny; Martin De Luis; Alessio Giovannelli; Jožica Gričar; Andreas Gruber; Vladimír Gryc; Aylin Güney; Xiali Guo; Wei Huang; Tuula Jyske; Jakub Kašpar; Gregory King; Cornelia Krause; Audrey Lemay; Feng Liu; Fabio Lombardi; Edurne Martinez del Castillo; Hubert Morin; Cristina Nabais; Pekka Nöjd; Richard L. Peters; Peter Prislan; Antonio Saracino; Irene Swidrak; Hanuš Vavrčík; Joana Vieira; Biyun Yu; Shaokang Zhang; Qiao Zeng; Yaling Zhang; Emanuele Ziaco. 2020. "Photoperiod and temperature as dominant environmental drivers triggering secondary growth resumption in Northern Hemisphere conifers." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 34: 20645-20652.

Journal article
Published: 06 June 2020 in Science of The Total Environment
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We investigated the interaction between soil water supply and atmospheric evaporative demand for driving the seasonal pattern of transpiration in sky-island high-elevation forest ecosystems. Sap flow measurements were collected at 10-minute intervals for five consecutive years (2013–2017) on two co-occurring subalpine conifers, i.e. limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva). Our study site is part of the Nevada Climate-ecohydrological Assessment Network (NevCAN), and is located at 3355 m a.s.l. within an undisturbed mixed-conifer stand. We found that seasonal changes in soil moisture regulated transpiration sensitivity to atmospheric conditions. Sap flow density was mainly limited by evaporative demands under non-water limiting conditions, but was influenced only by soil moisture when water availability decreased. Daily sap flow density increased with radiation and soil moisture in June and July when soil moisture was generally above 10%, but correlated only with soil moisture in August and September when soil drought occurred. Sap flow sensitivity to vapor pressure deficit and solar radiation was therefore reduced under decreasing soil moisture conditions. Transpiration peaked in mid-to-late June during both dry and wet years, with a lower peak in late summer during wet years. Normalized mean daily canopy conductance of both species declined with decreasing soil moisture (i.e., increasing soil drought). Severe soil drying (i.e., soil moisture <7% at 20 cm depth), which was rarely detected in wet summers (2013–2014) but occurred more frequently in dry summers (2015–2017), induced a minimum in crown conductance with unchanged low-level sap flow, which might potentially trigger hydraulic failure. The minimum sap flow level under severe soil drought was higher for limber pine than bristlecone pine, possibly because of wider tracheids in limber compared to bristlecone pine. Our findings provide insights into physiological mechanisms of drought-induced stress for iconic sky-island five-needle pines located at high elevation in xeric environments.

ACS Style

Xinsheng Liu; Franco Biondi. Transpiration drivers of high-elevation five-needle pines (Pinus longaeva and Pinus flexilis) in sky-island ecosystems of the North American Great Basin. Science of The Total Environment 2020, 739, 139861 .

AMA Style

Xinsheng Liu, Franco Biondi. Transpiration drivers of high-elevation five-needle pines (Pinus longaeva and Pinus flexilis) in sky-island ecosystems of the North American Great Basin. Science of The Total Environment. 2020; 739 ():139861.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Xinsheng Liu; Franco Biondi. 2020. "Transpiration drivers of high-elevation five-needle pines (Pinus longaeva and Pinus flexilis) in sky-island ecosystems of the North American Great Basin." Science of The Total Environment 739, no. : 139861.

Journal article
Published: 05 March 2020 in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
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The annual cycle of precipitation in the southwestern United States is characterized by a bimodal distribution. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes influence cool-season precipitation, while the North American Monsoon (NAM) brings warm-season rainfall to the region. Because the covariability of the two seasons may result in both wet and dry water-year anomalies, we evaluated the long-term contribution of cool and warm-season precipitation to water-year totals using newly collected and/or updated tree-ring chronologies. Precipitation reconstructions back to the late 17th century, from 1663 to 2015, were produced using a total of 183 stem increment cores collected from seven ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands located along the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona and New Mexico. Latewood chronologies were most correlated with July–August rainfall brought by the North American Monsoon, while earlywood chronologies were related to November–February precipitation, also matching the time-series variability of the Southern Oscillation Index. Total ring-width chronologies reflected water-year precipitation, and were used to account for precipitation falling outside of either the cool or the warm season. While seasonal variability of precipitation was the main driver of regional climatic extremes, the amount of precipitation falling outside the cool and warm seasons did not play a consistent role in determining frequency and severity of droughts and pluvials. This study highlights how intra-annual paleoclimatic reconstructions help with understanding the contribution of seasonal climate to wet and dry episodes influenced by large-scale climatic modes.

ACS Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Nicholas Miley; Franco Biondi. Reconstruction of seasonal and water-year precipitation anomalies from tree-ring records of the southwestern United States. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 2020, 547, 109689 .

AMA Style

Emanuele Ziaco, Nicholas Miley, Franco Biondi. Reconstruction of seasonal and water-year precipitation anomalies from tree-ring records of the southwestern United States. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 2020; 547 ():109689.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Nicholas Miley; Franco Biondi. 2020. "Reconstruction of seasonal and water-year precipitation anomalies from tree-ring records of the southwestern United States." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 547, no. : 109689.

Concept paper
Published: 27 January 2020 in Forests
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The contribution of tree-ring analysis to other fields of scientific inquiry with overlapping interests, such as forestry and plant population biology, is often hampered by the different parameters and methods that are used for measuring growth. Here I present relatively simple graphical, numerical, and mathematical considerations aimed at bridging these fields, highlighting the value of crossdating. Lack of temporal control prevents accurate identification of factors that drive wood formation, thus crossdating becomes crucial for any type of tree growth study at inter-annual and longer time scales. In particular, exactly dated tree rings, and their measurements, are crucial contributors to the testing and betterment of allometric relationships.

ACS Style

Franco Biondi. From Dendrochronology to Allometry. Forests 2020, 11, 146 .

AMA Style

Franco Biondi. From Dendrochronology to Allometry. Forests. 2020; 11 (2):146.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Franco Biondi. 2020. "From Dendrochronology to Allometry." Forests 11, no. 2: 146.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2019 in Tree-Ring Research
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ACS Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick; James Roberts; Franco Biondi. FIRE HISTORY OF AN OLD-GROWTH PONDEROSA PINE STAND IN THE SHEEP RANGE, DESERT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, NEVADA, USA. Tree-Ring Research 2019, 75, 1 .

AMA Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick, James Roberts, Franco Biondi. FIRE HISTORY OF AN OLD-GROWTH PONDEROSA PINE STAND IN THE SHEEP RANGE, DESERT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, NEVADA, USA. Tree-Ring Research. 2019; 75 (2):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mackenzie Kilpatrick; James Roberts; Franco Biondi. 2019. "FIRE HISTORY OF AN OLD-GROWTH PONDEROSA PINE STAND IN THE SHEEP RANGE, DESERT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, NEVADA, USA." Tree-Ring Research 75, no. 2: 1.

Journal article
Published: 21 July 2019 in Atmosphere
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The seasonal extent of the North American Monsoon (NAM) is highly variable and potentially sensitive to future climate change. Our objective was to determine how regional monsoonal patterns influence mountain precipitation near the NAM northwest boundary. Among the data we analyzed, a unique opportunity was provided by hourly observations collected on the Sheep Range (2300 m asl), in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada, during 2011–2017. Long-term 800-m Parameter-elevation Relationships on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) precipitation time series showed that the site is representative of mountain areas in the NAM northwest region. Based on in situ observations, we divided the water year into three seasons: cool (1 October through 31 March), early warm (1 April through last day with dewpoint

ACS Style

Charles Truettner; Michael D. Dettinger; Emanuele Ziaco; Franco Biondi. Seasonal Analysis of the 2011–2017 North American Monsoon near its Northwest Boundary. Atmosphere 2019, 10, 420 .

AMA Style

Charles Truettner, Michael D. Dettinger, Emanuele Ziaco, Franco Biondi. Seasonal Analysis of the 2011–2017 North American Monsoon near its Northwest Boundary. Atmosphere. 2019; 10 (7):420.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Charles Truettner; Michael D. Dettinger; Emanuele Ziaco; Franco Biondi. 2019. "Seasonal Analysis of the 2011–2017 North American Monsoon near its Northwest Boundary." Atmosphere 10, no. 7: 420.

Journal article
Published: 08 July 2019 in Water Resources Research
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The Truckee/Carson Basin, like other semi‐arid basins in the western United States, faces challenges to water management and planning under a changing climate. We analyzed tree‐ring data, along with instrumental climatic and hydrologic records, to provide a perspective on extreme drought in the 21st century. Drought indices highlighted a recent increase in the average duration of hydroclimatic episodes: in the new millennium average duration was 74% longer for SPI‐24 and 62% longer for PDSI than in the previous century. Average SWE declined 7% per decade from 1965 to 2018. The 2012‐2015 drought, in particular, stood out for its intensity and expression in snowpack, streamflow, and drought indices. Likely because of recent warming, this four‐year drought event had a very low likelihood based on observed Carson River flows from the first half of the 20th century. A 501‐year tree‐ring reconstruction (1500‐2000 CE) of average water‐year streamflow for the Carson River indicated that positive (wet) spells had slightly longer duration (mean of 2.7 years and range from 1 to 10 years) than negative (dry) intervals (mean of 2.4 years and range from 1 to 9 years). The early 1900s pluvial, i.e. 1905‐1911 in this record, was the third strongest episode in the entire reconstruction. The driest years were 1580 and 1934, both well‐known widespread and severe droughts in the western US. Noise‐added reconstructions suggest that 2012‐2015, while not unique in the 401 years prior to the start of the Carson River gaged flows in 1901, was a less than one‐in‐a‐century event.

ACS Style

F. Biondi; D. M. Meko. Long‐Term Hydroclimatic Patterns in the Truckee‐Carson Basin of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, USA. Water Resources Research 2019, 55, 5559 -5574.

AMA Style

F. Biondi, D. M. Meko. Long‐Term Hydroclimatic Patterns in the Truckee‐Carson Basin of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, USA. Water Resources Research. 2019; 55 (7):5559-5574.

Chicago/Turabian Style

F. Biondi; D. M. Meko. 2019. "Long‐Term Hydroclimatic Patterns in the Truckee‐Carson Basin of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, USA." Water Resources Research 55, no. 7: 5559-5574.

Journal article
Published: 02 March 2019 in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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A number of studies have suggested that growing season length determines carbon sequestration of forest ecosystems. Given the possibility that drought-induced growth decline will be caused by a prolonged growing season under a warming climate, we investigated the effect of growth rate and duration of xylem production on annual wood biomass in drought-prone environments. We analyzed the intra-annual dynamics of wood formation in Qilian junipers (Juniperus przewalskii) from the semi-arid north-eastern Tibetan Plateau, China (2009–2014) and in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) from the hyperarid Mojave Desert in Nevada, USA (2015–2016). Most variability in the number of xylem cells (Ncell) was related to growth rate (rm) rather than duration of cell production (Dcell). At the Tibetan sites, 69.9% and 54.7% of variability in Ncell was attributable to rm for the lower and upper treeline, respectively. Within the Mojave Desert site, 53.9% of the variability in Ncell was related to rm. The growth rate in the Tibetan Plateau forest is affected by minimum temperature and precipitation. Thus, rm is a primary control on wood biomass in conifer species of semi-arid forests. Under warmer and drier conditions, a longer growing season will not benefit xylem formation of conifers, and in turn warming-induced drought could limit carbon sequestration by reducing the rate of cell production.

ACS Style

Ping Ren; Emanuele Ziaco; Sergio Rossi; Franco Biondi; Peter Prislan; Eryuan Liang. Growth rate rather than growing season length determines wood biomass in dry environments. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 2019, 271, 46 -53.

AMA Style

Ping Ren, Emanuele Ziaco, Sergio Rossi, Franco Biondi, Peter Prislan, Eryuan Liang. Growth rate rather than growing season length determines wood biomass in dry environments. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 2019; 271 ():46-53.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ping Ren; Emanuele Ziaco; Sergio Rossi; Franco Biondi; Peter Prislan; Eryuan Liang. 2019. "Growth rate rather than growing season length determines wood biomass in dry environments." Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 271, no. : 46-53.

Review article
Published: 01 January 2019 in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
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Environmental processes, including climatic impacts in cold regions, are typically acting at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Hierarchical models are a flexible statistical tool that allows for decomposing spatiotemporal processes in simpler components connected by conditional probabilistic relationships. This article reviews two hierarchical models that have been applied to tree-ring proxy records of climate to model their space–time structure: STEM (Spatio-Temporal Expectation Maximization) and BARCAST (Bayesian Algorithm for Reconstructing Climate Anomalies in Space and Time). Both models account for spatial and temporal autocorrelation by including latent spatiotemporal processes, and they both take into consideration measurement and model errors, while they differ in their inferential approach. STEM adopts the frequentist perspective, and its parameters are estimated through the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, with uncertainty assessed through bootstrap resampling. BARCAST is developed in the Bayesian framework, and relies on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for sampling values from posterior probability distributions of interest. STEM also explicitly includes covariates in the process model definition. As hierarchical modeling keeps contributing to the analysis of complex ecological and environmental processes, proxy reconstructions are likely to improve, thereby providing better constraints on future climate change scenarios and their impacts over cold regions.

ACS Style

Michela Cameletti; Franco Biondi. Hierarchical modeling of space-time dendroclimatic fields: Comparing a frequentist and a Bayesian approach. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 2019, 51, 115 -127.

AMA Style

Michela Cameletti, Franco Biondi. Hierarchical modeling of space-time dendroclimatic fields: Comparing a frequentist and a Bayesian approach. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. 2019; 51 (1):115-127.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Michela Cameletti; Franco Biondi. 2019. "Hierarchical modeling of space-time dendroclimatic fields: Comparing a frequentist and a Bayesian approach." Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 51, no. 1: 115-127.

Letter
Published: 19 September 2018 in Ecology Letters
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Climatically controlled allocation to reproduction is a key mechanism by which climate influences tree growth and may explain lagged correlations between climate and growth. We used continent‐wide datasets of tree‐ring chronologies and annual reproductive effort in Fagus sylvatica from 1901 to 2015 to characterise relationships between climate, reproduction and growth. Results highlight that variable allocation to reproduction is a key factor for growth in this species, and that high reproductive effort (‘mast years’) is associated with stem growth reduction. Additionally, high reproductive effort is associated with previous summer temperature, creating lagged climate effects on growth. Consequently, understanding growth variability in forest ecosystems requires the incorporation of reproduction, which can be highly variable. Our results suggest that future response of growth dynamics to climate change in this species will be strongly influenced by the response of reproduction.

ACS Style

Andrew Hacket-Pain; Davide Ascoli; Giorgio Vacchiano; Franco Biondi; Liam Cavin; Marco Conedera; Igor Drobyshev; Isabel Dorado Liñán; Andrew D. Friend; Michael Grabner; Claudia Hartl; Juergen Kreyling; François Lebourgeois; Tom Levanič; Annette Menzel; Ernst van der Maaten; Marieke van der Maaten-Theunissen; Lena Muffler; Renzo Motta; Catalin-Constantin Roibu; Ionel Popa; Tobias Scharnweber; Robert Weigel; Martin Wilmking; Christian Zang. Climatically controlled reproduction drives interannual growth variability in a temperate tree species. Ecology Letters 2018, 21, 1833 -1844.

AMA Style

Andrew Hacket-Pain, Davide Ascoli, Giorgio Vacchiano, Franco Biondi, Liam Cavin, Marco Conedera, Igor Drobyshev, Isabel Dorado Liñán, Andrew D. Friend, Michael Grabner, Claudia Hartl, Juergen Kreyling, François Lebourgeois, Tom Levanič, Annette Menzel, Ernst van der Maaten, Marieke van der Maaten-Theunissen, Lena Muffler, Renzo Motta, Catalin-Constantin Roibu, Ionel Popa, Tobias Scharnweber, Robert Weigel, Martin Wilmking, Christian Zang. Climatically controlled reproduction drives interannual growth variability in a temperate tree species. Ecology Letters. 2018; 21 (12):1833-1844.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Andrew Hacket-Pain; Davide Ascoli; Giorgio Vacchiano; Franco Biondi; Liam Cavin; Marco Conedera; Igor Drobyshev; Isabel Dorado Liñán; Andrew D. Friend; Michael Grabner; Claudia Hartl; Juergen Kreyling; François Lebourgeois; Tom Levanič; Annette Menzel; Ernst van der Maaten; Marieke van der Maaten-Theunissen; Lena Muffler; Renzo Motta; Catalin-Constantin Roibu; Ionel Popa; Tobias Scharnweber; Robert Weigel; Martin Wilmking; Christian Zang. 2018. "Climatically controlled reproduction drives interannual growth variability in a temperate tree species." Ecology Letters 21, no. 12: 1833-1844.

Journal article
Published: 04 July 2018 in Forests
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We identified intra-annual climatic drivers of stem water relationships and growth in foundation conifers at a subalpine site in the Great Basin Desert and at a montane site in the Mojave Desert (Nevada, USA). Sites were instrumented to represent naturally different levels of heat and drought stress as part of NevCAN (the Nevada Climate and ecohydrological Assessment Network). We analyzed three years (2013–2015) of sub-hourly dendrometer records for limber (Pinus flexilis) and bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) at the subalpine site, and for ponderosa (Pinus ponderosa) and pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) at the montane site. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify relationships with environmental variables measured in-situ. At both sites, stem expansion occurred during the early morning and late afternoon, and irreversible stem increment was concentrated in the early morning hours. In subalpine species, stem growth started in late spring and continued until August, while at the montane site stem growth was episodic, peaking during summer monsoonal rainstorms. Circadian maximum and minimum stem size during the growing season were reversed during the dormant season at the colder/wetter subalpine site but not at the warmer/drier montane one. Knowledge of intra-annual tree-water relationships and stem growth helps understand how sky island forests grow under highly diverse climatic conditions, including severe drought and heat stress.

ACS Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Franco Biondi. Stem Circadian Phenology of Four Pine Species in Naturally Contrasting Climates from Sky-Island Forests of the Western USA. Forests 2018, 9, 396 .

AMA Style

Emanuele Ziaco, Franco Biondi. Stem Circadian Phenology of Four Pine Species in Naturally Contrasting Climates from Sky-Island Forests of the Western USA. Forests. 2018; 9 (7):396.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Franco Biondi. 2018. "Stem Circadian Phenology of Four Pine Species in Naturally Contrasting Climates from Sky-Island Forests of the Western USA." Forests 9, no. 7: 396.

Journal article
Published: 01 June 2018 in Forest Ecology and Management
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Future droughts are expected to become more severe and frequent under future climate change scenarios, likely causing widespread tree mortality in the western USA. Coping with an uncertain future requires an understanding of long-term ecosystem responses in areas where prolonged drought is projected to increase. Tree-ring records are ideally suited for this task. We developed 24 tree-ring chronologies from 20 U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots in the southwestern USA. Climate variables were derived from the PRISM climate dataset (800-m grid cells) to capture the bimodal precipitation regime of winter snow and summer monsoonal rainfall, as well as warm-season vapor-pressure deficit (VPD) and winter minimum temperature. Based on mixed linear models, radial growth from 1948 to 2013 for four conifer species (Pinus edulis, Juniperus osteosperma, Pinus ponderosa, and Picea engelmannii) responded negatively to warm-season VPD and positively to cold-season precipitation. Pinus spp. benefited from warm-season precipitation linked to the North American monsoon, and Pinus spp. and J. osteosperma radial growth increased with warmer cold-season minimum temperature. However, warmer cold-season minimum temperatures countered the beneficial influence of cold-season precipitation for radial growth in Pinus spp. and J. osteosperma, while P. engelmannii was unaffected. Also, enhanced drying effects of warm-season VPD associated with decreased cold-season precipitation negatively affected radial growth of Pinus spp. and P. engelmannii. Of the four conifer species studied, Pinus spp. are most affected by droughts since 1948, while P. engelmannii and J. osteosperma appear to be more resilient. Investigating seasonal climate responses and interaction effects on radial growth in areas impacted by severe drought helps identify species that may be particularly at risk from climate change impacts in the Anthropocene.

ACS Style

Charles Truettner; William R.L. Anderegg; Franco Biondi; George W. Koch; Kiona Ogle; Christopher Schwalm; Marcy E. Litvak; John D. Shaw; Emanuele Ziaco. Conifer radial growth response to recent seasonal warming and drought from the southwestern USA. Forest Ecology and Management 2018, 418, 55 -62.

AMA Style

Charles Truettner, William R.L. Anderegg, Franco Biondi, George W. Koch, Kiona Ogle, Christopher Schwalm, Marcy E. Litvak, John D. Shaw, Emanuele Ziaco. Conifer radial growth response to recent seasonal warming and drought from the southwestern USA. Forest Ecology and Management. 2018; 418 ():55-62.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Charles Truettner; William R.L. Anderegg; Franco Biondi; George W. Koch; Kiona Ogle; Christopher Schwalm; Marcy E. Litvak; John D. Shaw; Emanuele Ziaco. 2018. "Conifer radial growth response to recent seasonal warming and drought from the southwestern USA." Forest Ecology and Management 418, no. : 55-62.

Journal article
Published: 25 May 2018 in MethodsX
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In the process of dating the oldest trees, which are often hollow, we developed a new method that combines tree-ring cross dating and wiggle matching radiocarbon techniques on wood samples extracted from the stem and from exposed roots. The method can be illustrated by the following steps: •crossdated tree-ring series from trunk cores reveal a multi-century tree age, and the hollow section is large enough to contain several more years (decades to centuries)•exposed roots can be cored for acquiring wood samples older than the stem cores and for construction of a floating root average tree-ring series•if synchronization between stem and exposed roots is unclear, proceed to date the root wood samples by radiocarbon wiggle matching; match root and stem tree-ring series within the radiocarbon-dated period to more accurately date the tree. This new multistep dating method allowed for refining the age estimation of the oldest Pinus heldreichii tree in Pollino National Park by 166 years, to 789 CE. This tree, which we named Italus, was 1229 years old in 2017, making it the oldest, scientifically dated, living tree in Europe. Any study that relies on tree age determination for paleo-reconstructions, for biological and genetic research on what controls longevity, or for understanding structural dynamics and succession in old-growth forests, would potentially benefit from the multistep dating method we tested.

ACS Style

Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi; Michele Baliva; Lucio Calcagnile; Gianluca Quarta; Alfredo Di Filippo. Dating old hollow trees by applying a multistep tree-ring and radiocarbon procedure to trunk and exposed roots. MethodsX 2018, 5, 495 -502.

AMA Style

Gianluca Piovesan, Franco Biondi, Michele Baliva, Lucio Calcagnile, Gianluca Quarta, Alfredo Di Filippo. Dating old hollow trees by applying a multistep tree-ring and radiocarbon procedure to trunk and exposed roots. MethodsX. 2018; 5 ():495-502.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi; Michele Baliva; Lucio Calcagnile; Gianluca Quarta; Alfredo Di Filippo. 2018. "Dating old hollow trees by applying a multistep tree-ring and radiocarbon procedure to trunk and exposed roots." MethodsX 5, no. : 495-502.

The scientific naturalist
Published: 16 May 2018 in Ecology
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Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi; Michele Baliva; Emanuele Presutti Saba; Lucio Calcagnile; Gianluca Quarta; Marisa D'Elia; Giuseppe De Vivo; Aldo Schettino; Alfredo Di Filippo. The oldest dated tree of Europe lives in the wild Pollino massif: Italus , a strip-bark Heldreich's pine. Ecology 2018, 99, 1682 -1684.

AMA Style

Gianluca Piovesan, Franco Biondi, Michele Baliva, Emanuele Presutti Saba, Lucio Calcagnile, Gianluca Quarta, Marisa D'Elia, Giuseppe De Vivo, Aldo Schettino, Alfredo Di Filippo. The oldest dated tree of Europe lives in the wild Pollino massif: Italus , a strip-bark Heldreich's pine. Ecology. 2018; 99 (7):1682-1684.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gianluca Piovesan; Franco Biondi; Michele Baliva; Emanuele Presutti Saba; Lucio Calcagnile; Gianluca Quarta; Marisa D'Elia; Giuseppe De Vivo; Aldo Schettino; Alfredo Di Filippo. 2018. "The oldest dated tree of Europe lives in the wild Pollino massif: Italus , a strip-bark Heldreich's pine." Ecology 99, no. 7: 1682-1684.

Journal article
Published: 03 April 2018 in Water
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This study investigated near surface hydrologic processes and plant response over a 1600 m mountain-valley gradient located in the Great Basin of North America (Nevada, U.S.A.) as part of a long-term climate assessment study. The goal was to assess shifts in precipitation, soil water status and associated drainage with elevation and how this influenced evapotranspiration and plant cover/health estimated by a satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), all to better understand how water is partitioned in a mountain valley system. Data were acquired during a three-year period from meteorological stations located in five plant communities ranging in elevation from 1756 m (salt desert shrubland zone) to 3355 m (subalpine zone). The analysis also included groundwater depths measured at the Salt Desert Shrub West site, mine water flow near the Pinyon-Juniper West site and drainage estimates using drainage flux meters at the four higher elevation sites. Annual precipitation increased with elevation in a linear fashion (R2 = 0.93, p < 0.001) with an average increase of 2.9 cm for every 100 m in elevation. Reference evapotranspiration (ETref) declined in a highly linear fashion with elevation (R2 = 0.95, p < 0.001) with an average 4.0 cm decline for every 100 m rise in elevation. Drainage occurred only at the Montane West and Subalpine West sites and not at the lower elevations. No drainage occurred after Julian day 160. Growing degree days were found to be negatively associated with the time of peak drainage (R2 = 0.97, p < 0.001), the date drainage first occurred (R2 = 0.90, p < 0.001), drainage duration (R2 = 0.79, p < 0.001) and total drainage volume (R2 = 0.59, p < 0.001). It was estimated that 27% of precipitation at the Montane West site (years 1, 2 and 3) and 66 % at the Subalpine West site (40% without year 1) contributed to drainage at the local site level, indicating possible strong recharge contribution from the higher elevation plant communities. Percent vegetation cover and ETref accounted for 94% of the variation in NDVI and 90% of the variation in ET totals when data from all sites were combined. Such data will be extremely valuable to collect and compare over time to assess shifts associated with potential climate warming and/or basin water diversion.

ACS Style

Dale Devitt; Brian Bird; Brad Lyles; Lynn Fenstermaker; Richard Jasoni; Scotty Strachan; Jay Arnone Lll; Franco Biondi; Scott Mensing; Laurel Saito. Assessing Near Surface Hydrologic Processes and Plant Response over a 1600 m Mountain Valley Gradient in the Great Basin, NV, U.S.A. Water 2018, 10, 420 .

AMA Style

Dale Devitt, Brian Bird, Brad Lyles, Lynn Fenstermaker, Richard Jasoni, Scotty Strachan, Jay Arnone Lll, Franco Biondi, Scott Mensing, Laurel Saito. Assessing Near Surface Hydrologic Processes and Plant Response over a 1600 m Mountain Valley Gradient in the Great Basin, NV, U.S.A. Water. 2018; 10 (4):420.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dale Devitt; Brian Bird; Brad Lyles; Lynn Fenstermaker; Richard Jasoni; Scotty Strachan; Jay Arnone Lll; Franco Biondi; Scott Mensing; Laurel Saito. 2018. "Assessing Near Surface Hydrologic Processes and Plant Response over a 1600 m Mountain Valley Gradient in the Great Basin, NV, U.S.A." Water 10, no. 4: 420.

Journal article
Published: 09 February 2018 in Plant, Cell & Environment
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Future seasonal dynamics of wood formation in hyperarid environments are still unclear. While temperature-driven extension of the growing season and increased forest productivity are expected for boreal and temperate biomes under global warming, a similar trend remains questionable in water-limited regions. We monitored cambial activity in a montane stand of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) from the Mojave Desert for two consecutive years (2015-2016) showing opposite-sign anomalies between warm- and cold-season precipitation. After the wet winter/spring of 2016, xylogenesis started two months earlier compared to 2015, characterized by abundant monsoonal (July-August) rainfall and hyperarid spring. Tree size did not influence the onset and ending of wood formation, highlighting a predominant climatic control over xylem phenological processes. Moisture conditions in the previous month, in particular soil water content and dew point, were the main drivers of cambial phenology. Latewood formation started roughly at the same time in both years, however monsoonal precipitation triggered the formation of more false rings and density fluctuations in 2015. Because of uncertainties in future precipitation patterns simulated by global change models for the southwestern USA, the dependency of Pinus ponderosa on seasonal moisture implies a greater conservation challenge than for species that respond mostly to temperature conditions.

ACS Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Charles Truettner; Franco Biondi; Sarah Bullock. Moisture-driven xylogenesis in Pinus ponderosa from a Mojave Desert mountain reveals high phenological plasticity. Plant, Cell & Environment 2018, 41, 823 -836.

AMA Style

Emanuele Ziaco, Charles Truettner, Franco Biondi, Sarah Bullock. Moisture-driven xylogenesis in Pinus ponderosa from a Mojave Desert mountain reveals high phenological plasticity. Plant, Cell & Environment. 2018; 41 (4):823-836.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Emanuele Ziaco; Charles Truettner; Franco Biondi; Sarah Bullock. 2018. "Moisture-driven xylogenesis in Pinus ponderosa from a Mojave Desert mountain reveals high phenological plasticity." Plant, Cell & Environment 41, no. 4: 823-836.

Historical article
Published: 10 August 2017 in Nature
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Drought, a recurring phenomenon with major impacts on both human and natural systems, is the most widespread climatic extreme that negatively affects the land carbon sink. Although twentieth-century trends in drought regimes are ambiguous, across many regions more frequent and severe droughts are expected in the twenty-first century. Recovery time-how long an ecosystem requires to revert to its pre-drought functional state-is a critical metric of drought impact. Yet the factors influencing drought recovery and its spatiotemporal patterns at the global scale are largely unknown. Here we analyse three independent datasets of gross primary productivity and show that, across diverse ecosystems, drought recovery times are strongly associated with climate and carbon cycle dynamics, with biodiversity and CO2 fertilization as secondary factors. Our analysis also provides two key insights into the spatiotemporal patterns of drought recovery time: first, that recovery is longest in the tropics and high northern latitudes (both vulnerable areas of Earth's climate system) and second, that drought impacts (assessed using the area of ecosystems actively recovering and time to recovery) have increased over the twentieth century. If droughts become more frequent, as expected, the time between droughts may become shorter than drought recovery time, leading to permanently damaged ecosystems and widespread degradation of the land carbon sink.

ACS Style

Christopher Schwalm; William R. L. Anderegg; Anna M. Michalak; Joshua B. Fisher; Franco Biondi; George Koch; Marcy Litvak; Kiona Ogle; John D. Shaw; Adam Wolf; Deborah N. Huntzinger; Kevin Schaefer; Robert Cook; Yaxing Wei; Yuanyuan Fang; Daniel Hayes; Maoyi Huang; Atul Jain; Hanqin Tian. Global patterns of drought recovery. Nature 2017, 548, 202 -205.

AMA Style

Christopher Schwalm, William R. L. Anderegg, Anna M. Michalak, Joshua B. Fisher, Franco Biondi, George Koch, Marcy Litvak, Kiona Ogle, John D. Shaw, Adam Wolf, Deborah N. Huntzinger, Kevin Schaefer, Robert Cook, Yaxing Wei, Yuanyuan Fang, Daniel Hayes, Maoyi Huang, Atul Jain, Hanqin Tian. Global patterns of drought recovery. Nature. 2017; 548 (7666):202-205.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Christopher Schwalm; William R. L. Anderegg; Anna M. Michalak; Joshua B. Fisher; Franco Biondi; George Koch; Marcy Litvak; Kiona Ogle; John D. Shaw; Adam Wolf; Deborah N. Huntzinger; Kevin Schaefer; Robert Cook; Yaxing Wei; Yuanyuan Fang; Daniel Hayes; Maoyi Huang; Atul Jain; Hanqin Tian. 2017. "Global patterns of drought recovery." Nature 548, no. 7666: 202-205.