Determination of The Effect of Air Pollution and Climate Variability on Tree Ring Growth in Bornova Plain and Its Surroundings via Dendrochronological Methods
Project no. 937 · Status: Kapanmış · 2015
Summary
In this project, we built two new tree-ring chronologies and identified the most important climate factors affecting the radial growth of black pine (Pinus nigra) and Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia) on Bornova plain and its surroundings (Western Turkey). The length of chronologies of black pine and Calabrian pine was 305 and 176 years-long, respectively. Trees on the Bornova Plain and the surrounding were sensitive to climate change (mean sensitivity value is 0.22 for black pine, 0.23 for Calabrian pine). In this project, the relationships between tree-ring width and climate were identified using correlation analysis. Black pine trees on the Kemalpaşa Mountain, located in the south of Bornova plain, responded positively to a warmer temperature and high precipitation at the beginning of the growing season. As high summer temperatures exacerbated drought, radial growth was affected negatively. Calabrian pine trees on the Yamanlar Mountain, located in the north of Bornova plain, responded positively to April and September high precipitation. On that site, the high temperature had a negative effect on the Calabrian pine growth. Throughout the year, higher temperatures affect the Calabrian pine trees negatively, especially higher temperatures in May and August was a limiting factor on the radial growth of Calabrian pine. Keywords: Dendrochronology, dendroclimatology, black pine, calabrian pine, tree-ring, Bornova, Yamanlar Mountain, Kemalpaşa Mountain