Environmental factors affecting growth of Adesmia communities as determined from tree rings

FIDEL A. ROIG; JOSE A. BONINSEGNA

Dendrochronologia

ELSEVIER GMBH, URBAN & FISCHER VERLAG

Año: 1990 p. 39 - 66

1125-7865

This paper contributes to knowledge of the bioclimatic behavior of communities of the high-altitude shrub Adesmia Hooker in the foothills of the Andes of west-central Argentina. Four ring-width chronologies, three of Adesmia horrida and one of A. uspallatensis, were developed. Growth in Adesmia was found to be more closely related to precipitation than to temperature recorded at nearby meteorological stations; differences in relationships can be ascribed to dissimilar ecotypes. Relationships to large circulation patterns were examined through correlations of the chronologies with longer but more distant meteorological records. Results indicate that although the study area is a transition zone where effects of the Pacific and Atlantic anticyclones mix, shrubs at each site respond to one or the other anticyclone depending on which side of a high range it is located. Floristic analysis of the sites complements the study.