Tree growth habit differences as an explanatory variable of the climatic influence upon the radial growth variability of Prosopis flexuosa in the Central Monte Desert (Argentina).

Abstract

Tree growth habit differences as an explanatory variable of the climatic influence upon the radial growth variability of Prosopis flexuosa in the Central Monte Desert (Argentina). Dendroclimatological methods represent one of the most useful tools in analyzing the influence of climate upon the radial growth dynamics and morphology of woody species. In the Central Monte Desert, Prosopis flexuosa DC (algarrobo dulce), grows as one-stemmed as well as multi-stemmed tree. Previous researches showed the utility of the species ring widths as a proxy of climate variability. Nevertheless, these researches differed methodologically, by considering or rejecting the multi-stemmed trees. This work analyzed if the variability in the tree growth habit express differences in the algarrobo dulce dendroclimatological signal. Two tree-ring chronologies, one derived from the one-stemmed (UF) and the other from the multi-stemmed trees (MF) growing under the same ecological environment, were developed. The MF chronology showed higher sensibility than the UF to climate extremes and oscillation. This suggested that multi-stemmed trees represent a good proxy for explaining local climatic variability. Due to the widespread spatial distribution of this species, further works are needed to a deeper understanding of the presented results.