Annual variation and influence of climate on the ring width and wood hydrosystem of Prosopis flexuosa DC

GIANTOMASI, M.A., F.A. ROIG, P.E. VILLAGRA & A.M. SRUR

TREES-STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Springer

Lugar: Heidelberg; Año: 2008 p. 117 - 126

0931-1890

We developed chronologies based on the width of tree-rings, total area of vessels and the number of vessels per tree-ring of the Prosopis flexuosa wood samples from the xerophytic woodlands of central Argentina. We evaluated the influence of climate on these tree-ring characteristics considering the period from 1940 to 2004 (64 years). The width of the rings, the number of vessels, and the total area of vessels were positively influenced by regional precipitation during November and December, which reflects the importance of the water availability in the initial stage of the formation of the wood. The width of the rings and the total area of vessels were negatively influenced by temperature during the same months, while the number of vessels was not significantly correlated with temperature. The high temperatures in spring increase evapotranspiration, which reduces water availability to plants and results in an inverse growth response. This study was the first to development chronologies based on anatomic characters of woods from the arid and semiarid regions of South America and with significant applications in ecological and climatic studies.