Growth rate overrides the benefit of extended growing season from boreal to semiarid conifers

Climate warming lengthens the productive season in extratropical forests. Yet there is inconclusive evidence on whether this in turn elicits enhanced tree growth and forest carbon sequestration. In this study, we used cellular observations of conifer wood formation spanning boreal to semiarid forests to quantify the relative importance of cambial growth rate versus season length in driving annual cell production, the key process underlying woody growth. We found that rate is the primary driver of annual cell production. Furthermore, whereas the growing season lengthens with annual temperature, growth rate exhibited an optimum at ~6°C, beyond which increasingly dry conditions compromise wood production gains. The negative impact of warming on intra-annual growth dynamics can thus largely offset the benefit of longer growing season on future forest carbon storage.

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Journal
Science
Published
2026-09-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aec8866
Primary Topic
Tree-ring climate responses
Type
article
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article

Growth rate overrides the benefit of extended growing season from boreal to semiarid conifers

Annie Deslauriers, Peter Prislan, Marina V. Fonti, Wenjin Wang et al.
Science
Tree-ring climate responses
article

Growth rate overrides the benefit of extended growing season from boreal to semiarid conifers

Annie Deslauriers, Peter Prislan, Marina V. Fonti, Wenjin Wang, Antoine Cabon, Patrick Fonti, Vladimír Gryc, Alexander V. Kirdyanov, Hanuš Vavrčík, Minhui He, Andreas Gruber, Richard L. Peters, David Frank, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Georg von Arx, Cyrille Rathgeber, Marek Fajstavr, Jožica Gričar, Sergio Rossi, Walter Oberhuber, Hans‐Peter Kahle, Alessio Giovannelli, Emanuele Ziaco, J. Julio Camarero, Seyedehmasoumeh Saderi, Momchil Panayotov, Bao Yang, Václav Treml, Franco Biondi, Roberto Silvestro, Thomas Seifert, Marco Carrer, Cristina Nabais, Malcolm K. Hughes, Petr Horáček, Martín de Luis, Aylin Güney, Katarina Čufar, Dominik Florian Stangler, Antonio Saracino, Eryuan Liang, Luigi Saulino, Harri Mäkinen, Tobias Walter Miller, Gregory King, Anne-Sophie Sergent, Joana Vieira, Filipe Campelo, Elena Larysch, Marko Stojanović, Xiaoxia Li, Yiping Zhang, Henri E. Cuny, Yuan Jiang, Sergei Mikhailov, Kiyomi Morino, Jianguo Huang, Gerhard Wieser
article en

Abstract

Climate warming lengthens the productive season in extratropical forests. Yet there is inconclusive evidence on whether this in turn elicits enhanced tree growth and forest carbon sequestration. In this study, we used cellular observations of conifer wood formation spanning boreal to semiarid forests to quantify the relative importance of cambial growth rate versus season length in driving annual cell production, the key process underlying woody growth. We found that rate is the primary driver of annual cell production. Furthermore, whereas the growing season lengthens with annual temperature, growth rate exhibited an optimum at ~6°C, beyond which increasingly dry conditions compromise wood production gains. The negative impact of warming on intra-annual growth dynamics can thus largely offset the benefit of longer growing season on future forest carbon storage.

ScienceVol. 393(6816)
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (CA), University of Bern (CH), Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (CH), University of Nevada, Reno (US), University of Arizona (US), University of Padua (IT), University of Ljubljana (SI), University of Alberta (CA), University of Freiburg (DE), Henan University of Science and Technology (CN), University of Forestry (BG), Universität Innsbruck (AT), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Charles University (CZ), AgroParisTech (FR), Izmir Kâtip Çelebi University (TR), Beijing Normal University (CN), Universidad de Zaragoza (ES), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH), Natural Resources Institute Finland (FI), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Estación Experimental del Zaidín (ES), Biotechnical Educational Centre Ljubljana (SI), Silva (FR), Centre National de la Propriété Forestière (FR), Slovenian Forestry Institute (SI), Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute (CZ), Federico II University Hospital (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (IT), Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (ES), Forest Research (GB), Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (US), Forest Research Institute (BG), Ecologie et Ecophysiologie Forestières (FR), Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth (IT), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN), National Agricultural Technology Institute (AR), Sukachev Institute of Forest (RU), Siberian Federal University (RU), Mendel University in Brno (CZ), Technical University of Munich (DE), University of Naples Federico II (IT), Zhejiang University (CN), University of Coimbra (PT), Nanjing University (CN), Université de Lorraine (FR)
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Tree-ring climate responses
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