Age-dependent moisture response of conifers near their cold range limit

• Tree growth in subarctic and subalpine forests primarily responds to temperature. • Moisture effects are restricted to specific regions, species, and age cohorts. • Growth of young Pinus sylvestris from Fennoscandia is limited by high moisture. • Young Pinus cembra trees from the Alps show signs of drought limitation. • Old pines and both cohorts of Larix decidua do not show response to moisture. Growth dynamics of cold subarctic and subalpine forests are primarily sensitive to temperature, but growth responses may vary across regions or shift over tree ontogeny. Systematic assessments of spatial, interspecific, and demographic variation in temperature and moisture limitation of tree growth at cold distribution margins are essential for enhancing our understanding of how these ecosystems will evolve under climate regimes. To address this gap, we built a network of 22 tree-ring width chronologies from cold forests covering two regions (Fennoscandia, European Alps), three species ( Pinus sylvestris, Pinus cembra, Larix decidua ), and two age cohorts (45–100 and >150 years). We combined daily climate-growth correlations with the process-based Vaganov-Shashkin growth model to identify differences in critical growth factors between species and age cohorts. In addition, we assessed the coincidence of unusually wide and narrow tree rings with years of specific climatic anomalies. Although growing season temperature was the dominant growth-limiting factor, seasonal effects of water balance on tree growth were considerably large and varied systematically between regions, species, and particularly age cohorts. The growth of young P. sylvestris in Fennoscandia responded negatively to water balance and narrow rings coincided with wet years. In contrast, the growth of young P. cembra in the Alps was drought-limited. Old trees of all species and both age cohorts of L. decidua in the Alps showed limited sensitivity to water balance. The patterns of climate-growth responses in cohort chronologies based on tree age at the year of coring were similar to ontogenetic shifts of climate-growth responses if chronologies were based on the cambial age of individual rings. Our results stress the need to account for interspecific and demographic differences in sensitivity to climate in large-scale studies of cold forest ecosystems.