Climatic Response of Radial Growth of Scots Pine and Siberian Spruce in Mixed Forests of the Republic of Udmurtia

The work analyzes for the first time the climate signal in the radial growth of Scots pine and Siberian spruce growing in the territory of the Udmurt Republic. In some years, synchronous sharp changes in the magnitude of radial growth are observed in the studied chronologies. This applies to both minimum and maximum values. An assessment of the influence of average monthly air temperatures and precipitation amounts for the current and previous years revealed differences in the response of radial growth of pine and spruce to climate. The greatest influence on the amount of radial growth of spruce is exerted by the growth of the previous year, as well as the hydrothermal conditions at the beginning of the growing season. The radial growth of pine is largely influenced by the temperature regime in the spring months preceding the beginning of the growing season. Observed climate change has led to a weakening of the correlation between the growth of both species and both temperatures and the amount of precipitation in the summer months in recent decades. This indicates that conditions have become more favorable for tree growth. On the contrary, the correlation with the conditions of the period preceding the beginning of the growing season increases. Thus, further increases in winter and spring temperatures and precipitation will favor radial growth of both species.