Temporal effects of climate change on the growth of Chir Pine (Pinus Roxburghii) in tehsil Murree, Punjab, Pakistan (T-1286) (MFN 6284)

Abstract

Tree rings have been used in various applications to reconstruct past climates as well as to assess the effects of climatic and environmental change on tree growth. The study focused on growth of Pinus roxburghii (Chir Pine) in Murree Tehsil forest. Meteorological data (maximum temperature, minimum temperature, mean annual temperature and precipitation) was analyzed during the period 1959-2015 to calibrate the effects of climate change on the growth of ring widths. The regime of maximum temperature, minimum temperature, mean annual temperature and precipitation were calculated 17.33±0.14 oC, 8.79±0.14 oC, 17.32±0.14 oC and 1648.75±48.8 mm/annum respectively. There is increase in minimum temperature (1.23 oC), maximum temperature (0.58 oC) and mean temperature (0.92 oC) (Bajwa et al., 2015) was observed during the period 1959-2015. Precipitation increased to 25% during the period 1959-2015. The mean ring-width, intra-ring early and late wood formation was 1.81 mm, 69.49 and 27.83%, respectively. The ring-width and intra-ring early wood formation decreased by 12.23% and 7.15%, respectively, while the intra-ring late wood formation increased by 11.38%. The impact of maximum temperature, mean temperature and precipitation was significant on the late wood formation. There is negative but significant correlation between ring width and temperature (minimum, maximum, mean) also ring width showed negative but significant (p<0.05) correlation with precipitation. The intra-ring early wood formation showed negative correlation with maximum temperature and precipitation, while intra-ring late wood formation showed positive correlation with mean temperature, maximum temperature and precipitation. Ring-width and intra-ring wood formation results revealed that climate change is effecting the growth of Pinus roxburghii in the Murree forest.