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Forest productivity in southwestern Europe is controlled by coupled North Atlantic and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations.

  • Madrigal-González J Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain. ecojmg@hotmail.com.
  • Ballesteros-Cánovas JA Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Herrero A School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA.
  • Ruiz-Benito P Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
  • Stoffel M Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA), Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl-Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • Lucas-Borja ME Department of Agricultural Technology and Science and Genetics, ETSIAM, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario s/n, 02071, Albacete, Spain.
  • Andivia E Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
  • Sancho-García C Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Valladolid, Avenida del Valle Esgueva 6, 47011, Valladolid, Spain.
  • Zavala MA Forest Ecology and Restoration Group, Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
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  • 2017-12-22
Published in:
  • Nature communications. - 2017
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy
General Chemistry
English The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) depicts annual and decadal oscillatory modes of variability responsible for dry spells over the European continent. The NAO therefore holds a great potential to evaluate the role, as carbon sinks, of water-limited forests under climate change. However, uncertainties related to inconsistent responses of long-term forest productivity to NAO have so far hampered firm conclusions on its impacts. We hypothesize that, in part, such inconsistencies might have their origin in periodical sea surface temperature anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean (i.e., Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, AMO). Here we show strong empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis using 120 years of periodical inventory data from Iberian pine forests. Our results point to AMO+ NAO+ and AMO-NAO- phases as being critical for forest productivity, likely due to decreased winter water balance and abnormally low winter temperatures, respectively. Our findings could be essential for the evaluation of ecosystem functioning vulnerabilities associated with increased climatic anomalies under unprecedented warming conditions in the Mediterranean.
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  • English
Open access status
gold
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/194324
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