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Multi-centennial phase-locking between reproduction of a South American conifer and large-scale drivers of climate

Nature Plants volume 7, pages 1560–1570 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Climate forcings determine the episodic occurrence of local climate anomalies that trigger the occurrence of masting events (massive, synchronized and intermittent seed production by perennial plants). This suggests some kind of phase-locking of the reproductive cycles of individual plants to the climatological cycle, thus further reinforcing reproductive synchrony and the Moran effect. We propose a dendrochronological approach to filter out the long-term direct effects of climate on tree radial growth and temporal reproductive effort by sex by using actual trees as climatic controls to reconstruct masting events in Araucaria araucana, a long-lived dioecious masting conifer. In this way, we developed a multi-century-long tree masting reconstruction for South America using female–male radial growth determined by differences in timing and magnitude of the reproductive effort between sexes. We provide evidence for a regional synchronizing mechanism of masting which is drought induced by strong cold La Niña phases of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplified by the positive phases of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) that activate both female and male cone bud formation during year −2 before seed fall; that is, a long-term phase-locking between the ENSO cycle and the reproductive cycle modulated by the strength of SAM. In addition, our regional index of masting frequency showed its maximum during the late twentieth century relative to the previous centuries, suggesting that the species is currently at its maximum masting frequency concurrent with a period of enhanced temperature and drought conditions in Patagonia, probably driven by the positive phase of the SAM.

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Fig. 1: Two-year long phenology of male and female cones before seed dispersal and seedling establishment in A. araucana.
Fig. 2: Periodicity of masting events along the reconstructions of each site.
Fig. 3: Regional changes in masting periodicity in relation to the Southern Annular Mode (SAM).
Fig. 4: Relationship between composite masting events and climate forcing (El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Southern Annular Mode (SAM) indexes and regional hydroclimate variability (Neuquén river streamflow) based on superposed epoch analyses (SEA).
Fig. 5: Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with masting events.
Fig. 6: Spatial association between the reconstructed (nc) masting series and climate indexes.
Fig. 7: Spectral properties of the regional masting reconstruction (nc) compared with climate forcings (ENSO and SAM) and Neuquén streamflow reconstruction.

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Data availability

The tree-ring data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the National Centers for Environmental Information of NOAA/World Data Service for Paleoclimatology archives at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data with the following reference numbers based on the corresponding sampled site: HAC (https://doi.org/10.25921/1dst-hz36), PAR (https://doi.org/10.25921/tqva-s673) and RAH (https://doi.org/10.25921/hsg7-ak15). The regional seed gathering record, cone production (number per tree) register and standardized (mean = 0 and s.d. = 1) series for the period 1988–2014 are available in Supplementary Table 5.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially funded by the Agencia Nacional Promoción de Ciencia y Tecnología of Argentina (PICT 2012-1891), the BNP Paribas Foundation (THEMES project) and the National Science Foundation (grant no. 1832483). I.A.M. was also supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy—EXC 2150–390870439. I.A.M. joined the EXC 2150 at Kiel University, Germany (November 2020–January 2021) as a guest chair and wrote the final version of this article during that time. We thank the Administración de Parques Nacionales, Dirección Provincial de Bosques of Neuquén province and the owner of Rahue site for sampling permissions. We are grateful to E. Barrio, A. Ripalta and D. Palazzini for research assistance. We thank T. T. Veblen for comments and suggestions on the final version of this manuscript. I.A.M. dedicates this manuscript to the memory of J. L. Frangi (1947–2021), former professor at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and one of the great promoters of ecology in Argentina.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Dendrocronología e Historia Ambiental, IANIGLA-CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina

    Ignacio A. Mundo

  2. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

    Ignacio A. Mundo

  3. Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italia

    Ignacio A. Mundo

  4. Parque Nacional Lanín, Administración de Parques Nacionales (APN), San Martín de los Andes, Argentina

    Javier Sanguinetti

  5. Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA-CONICET and CRUB, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina

    Thomas Kitzberger

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  1. Ignacio A. Mundo
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Contributions

I.A.M., J.S. and T.K. planned and designed the research. I.A.M. and J.S. conducted fieldwork. All authors analysed data. I.A.M. and T.K. took the lead in the writing and contributed equally to the overall manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback, discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ignacio A. Mundo.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–5, Tables 1–6, Notes 1 and 2 and Methods 1–5.

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Mundo, I.A., Sanguinetti, J. & Kitzberger, T. Multi-centennial phase-locking between reproduction of a South American conifer and large-scale drivers of climate. Nat. Plants 7, 1560–1570 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01038-1

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