ArticleAlpine botany2023
Chronic in situ tissue cooling does not reduce lignification at the Swiss treeline but enhances the risk of 'blue' frost rings.
Article in Alpine botany, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- A potential role for DELLA signaling in global treeline formation.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- 500-year paleoclimate record inferred from Greenland Juniper wood contextualizes current climate warming.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Highest Occurring Vascular Plants from Ladakh Provide Wood Anatomical Evidence for a Thermal Limitation of Cell Wall Lignification.Plant, cell & environment · 2025Article
- Warming-induced phenological mismatch between trees and shrubs explains high-elevation forest expansion.National science review · 2023Article
- Reply to: Biogeographic implications of plant stature and microclimate in cold regions.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Biogeographic implications of plant stature and microclimate in cold regions.Communications biology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In their 2013 paper, Lenz et al. illustrated how trees growing at the low-temperature limit respond to a chronic in situ warming or cooling by 3 K, by employing Peltier-thermostated branch collars that tracked ambient temperatures. The micro-coring-based analysis of seasonal tree ring formation included double-staining microtome cross sections for lignification, but these data had not been included in the publication. In this short communication, we complement these data, collected in 2009 at the Swiss treeline, and we show that a 3 K cooling that corresponds to a 500-600 m higher elevation, had no influence on lignification. However, when a frost event occurred during the early part of ring formation, the 3 K cooling produced a blue (non-lignified) layer of cells, followed by normally lignified cells for the rest of the season. Hence, the event did not affect the cambium, but interrupted cell wall maturation in cells that were in a critical developmental stage. We conclude, that chronic cooling does not affect lignification at treeline, but it increases the risk of frost damage in premature xylem tissue.
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