Pilot study on the effect of slope aspect on growth dynamics and drought response of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] H. Karst.) in low-elevation temperate forests
By: Martin Šrámek, Dušan Vavříček, Jiří Novák and Petr Maděra

References
- Adams, H. R., Barnard, H. R., Loomis, A. K., 2014: Topography alters tree growth-climate relationships in a semi-arid forested catchment. Ecosphere, 5:148.
- Balducci, L., Deslauriers, A., Giovannelli, A., Rossi, S., Rathgeber, C. B. K., 2013: Effects of temperature and water deficit on cambial activity and woody ring features in Picea mariana saplings. Tree Physiology, 33:1006–1017.
- Barnard, D. M., Barnard, H. R., Molotch, N. P., 2017: Topoclimate effects on growing season length and montane conifer growth in complex terrain. Environmental Research Letters, 12:064003.
- Bose, A. K., Scherrer, D., Camarero, J. J., Ziche, D., Babst, F., Bigler, C. et al., 2021: Climate sensitivity and drought seasonality determine post-drought growth recovery of Quercus petraea and Quercus robur in Europe. Science of the Total Environment, 784:147222.
- Bruening, J. M., Tran, T. J., Bunn, A. G., Weiss, S. B., Salzer, M. W., 2017: Fine-scale modeling of bristle-cone pine treeline position in the Great Basin, USA. Environmental Research Letters, 12:014008.
- Buermann, W., Forkel, M., O’Sullivan, M., Sitch, S., Friedlingstein, P., Haverd, V. et al., 2018: Widespread seasonal compensation effects of spring warming on northern plant productivity. Nature, 562:7725.
- Carter, M. R., Gregorich, E. G., 2008: Soil sampling and methods of analysis (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, Florida, USA, Canadian Society of Soil Science & NCR Press, 1262 p.
- Čermák, P., Rybníček, M., Žid, T., Steffenrem, A., Kolář, T., 2019: Site and age-dependent responses of Picea abies growth to climate variability. European Journal of Forest Research, 138:445–460.
- Čermák, P., Mikita, T., Kadavý, J., Trnka, M., 2021: Evaluating Recent and Future Climatic Suitability for the Cultivation of Norway Spruce in the Czech Republic in Comparison with Observed Tree Cover Loss between 2001 and 2020. Forests, 12:1687.
- Cuny, H. E., Rathgeber, C. B. K., Lebourgeois, F., Fortin, M., Fournier, M., 2012: Life strategies in intra-annual dynamics of wood formation: Example of three conifer species in a temperate forest in north-east France. Tree Physiology, 32:612–625.
- Daly, C., 2006: Guidelines for assessing the suitability of spatial climate data sets. International Journal of Climatology, 26:707–721.
- D’Andrea, G., Šimůnek, V., Castellaneta, M., Vacek, Z., Vacek, S., Pericolo, O. et al., 2022: Mismatch between Annual Tree-Ring Width Growth and NDVI Index in Norway Spruce Stands of Central Europe. Forests, 13:1417.
- De Frenne, P., Lenoir, J., Luoto, M., Scheffers, B. R., Zellweger, F., Aalto, J. et al., 2021: Forest microcli-mates and climate change: Importance, drivers and future research agenda. Global Change Biology, 27:2279–2297.
- Dow, C., Kim, A. Y., D’Orangeville, L., Gonzalez-Akre, E. B., Helcoski, R., Herrmann, V. et al., 2022: Warm springs alter timing but not total growth of temperate deciduous trees. Nature, 608:7923.
- Etzold, S., Sterck, F., Bose, A. K., Braun, S., Buchmann, N., Eugster, W. et al., 2022: Number of growth days and not length of the growth period determines radial stem growth of temperate trees. Ecology Letters, 25:427–439.
- Fan, X., Gheyret, G., 2025: Altitudinal Variation in Effect of Climate and Neighborhood Competition on Radial Growth of Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et C. A. Mey. in the Middle Tianshan Mountains, China. Forests, 16:948.
- Holmes, M. G., Smith, H., 1977: The function of phytochrome in the natural environment – II. the influence of vegetation canopies on the spectral energy distribution of natural daylight. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 25:539–545.
- Kasper, J., Leuschner, C., Walentowski, H., Weigel, R., 2023: Higher growth synchrony and climate change-sensitivity in European beech and silver linden than in temperate oaks. Journal of Biogeography, 50:209–222.
- Kermavnar, J., Kutnar, L., Pintar, A., 2023: Ecological factors affecting the recent Picea abies decline in Slovenia: the importance of bedrock type and forest naturalness. IForest – Biogeosciences and Forestry, 16:105–115.
- Körner, C., 2015: Paradigm shift in plant growth control. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 25:107–114.
- Kramer, K., Leinonen, I., Loustau, D., 2000: The importance of phenology for the evaluation of impact of climate change on growth of boreal, temperate and Mediterranean forests ecosystems: an overview. International Journal of Biometeorology, 44:67–75.
- Kunstler, G., Albert, C. H., Courbaud, B., Lavergne, S., Thuiller, W., Vieilledent, G. et al., 2011: Effects of competition on tree radial-growth vary in importance but not in intensity along climatic gradients. Journal of Ecology, 99:300–312.
- Kusbach, A., Dujka, P., Šebesta, J., Lukeš, P., DeRose, R. J., Maděra, P., 2023: Ecological classification can help with assisted plant migration in forestry, nature conservation, and landscape planning. Forest Ecology and Management, 546:121349.
- Kutílek, M., 1978: Soil science for water management. Praha, SNTL-ALFA, 296 p.
- Kutílek, M., Nielsen, D. R., 1994: Soil hydrology: Textbook for students of soil science, agriculture, forestry, geoecology, hydrology, geomorphology and other related disciplines. Cremlingen-Destedt, Catena Verlag, 370 p.
- Mathys, A., Coops, N. C., Waring, R. H., 2014: Soil water availability effects on the distribution of 20 tree species in western North America. Forest Ecology and Management, 313:144–152.
- Matula, R., Knířová, S., Vítámvás, J., Šrámek, M., Kníř, T., Ulbrichová, I. et al., 2023: Shifts in intra-annual growth dynamics drive a decline in productivity of temperate trees in Central European forest under warmer climate. Science of the Total Environment, 905:166906.
- Menzel, A., Fabian, P., 1999: Growing season extended in Europe. Nature, 397:6721.
- Menzel, A., Sparks, T. H., Estrella, N., Koch, E., Aaasa, A., Ahas, R. et al., 2006: European phenological response to climate change matches the warming pattern. Global Change Biology, 12:1969–1976.
- Montibeller, B., Marshall, M., Mander, Ü., Uuemaa, E., 2022: Increased carbon assimilation and efficient water usage may not compensate for carbon loss in European forests. Communications Earth and Environment, 3:194.
- Oberhuber, W., Gruber, A., Kofler, W., Swidrak, I., 2014: Radial stem growth in response to microclimate and soil moisture in a drought-prone mixed coniferous forest at an inner Alpine site. European Journal of Forest Research, 133:467–479.
- Plíva, K., 1971: Typologický systém ÚHÚL: pro služební potřebu pracovníků ÚHÚL. Ústav pro hospodářskou úpravu lesů, 29 p. (In Czech).
- Popa, A., van der Maaten-Theunissen, M., Popa, I., Badea, O., van der Maaten, E., 2024: Spruce suffers most from drought at low elevations in the Carpathians, though shows high resilience. Forest Ecology and Management, 571:122201.
- Pretzsch, H., Rötzer, T., Matyssek, R., Grams, T. E. E., Häberle, K.-H., Pritsch, K. et al., 2014: Mixed Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) stands under drought: from reaction pattern to mechanism. Trees, 28:1305–1321.
- Rehschuh, R., Mette, T., Menzel, A., Buras, A., 2017: Soil properties affect the drought susceptibility of Norway spruce. Dendrochronologia, 45:81–89.
- Rita, A., Bonanomi, G., Allevato, E., Borghetti, M., Cesarano, G., Mogavero, V. et al., 2021: Topography modulates near-ground microclimate in the Mediterranean Fagus sylvatica treeline. Scientific Reports, 11:8122.
- Rossi, S., Deslauriers, A., Anfodillo, T., Carraro, V., 2007: Evidence of threshold temperatures for xylogenesis in conifers at high altitudes. Oecologia, 152:1–12.
- Rossi, S., Anfodillo, T., Cufar, K., Cuny, H. E., Deslauriers, A., Fonti, P. et al., 2013: Ameta-analysis of cambiumphenology and growth: Linear and non-linear patterns in conifers of the northern hemisphere. Annals of Botany, 112:1911–1920.
- Rožnovský, J., Střeštík, J., Štěpánek, P., Zahradníček, P., 2020: The dynamics of annual and seasonal precipitation totals in the Czech Republic during 1961–2019. Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, 21:197–204.
- Seo, J. W., Eckstein, D., Jalkanen, R., Schmitt, U., 2011: Climatic control of intra- and inter-annual wood-formation dynamics of Scots pine in northern Finland. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 72:422–431.
- Slavich, E., Warton, D. I., Ashcroft, M. B., Gollan, J. R., Ramp, D., 2014: Topoclimate versus macroclimate: how does climate mapping methodology affect species distribution models and climate change projections? Diversity and Distributions, 20:952–963.
- Stark, J. R., Fridley, J. D., 2022: Microclimate-based species distribution models in complex forested terrain indicate widespread cryptic refugia under climate change. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 31:562–575.
- Sullivan, P. F., Mulvey, R. L., Brownlee, A. H., Barrett, T. M., Pattison, R. R., 2015: Warm summer nights and the growth decline of shore pine in Southeast Alaska. Environmental Research Letters, 10:124007.
- Teskey, R., Wertin, T., Bauweraerts, I., Ameye, M., McGuire, M. A., Steppe, K., 2015: Responses of tree species to heat waves and extreme heat events. Plant Cell and Environment, 38:1699–1712.
- Tran, T. J., Bruening, J. M., Bunn, A. G., Salzer, M. W., Weiss, S. B., 2017: Cluster analysis and topoclimate modeling to examine bristlecone pine tree-ring growth signals in the Great Basin, USA. Environmental Research Letters, 12:014007.
- Úradníček, L., Maděra, P., Tichá, S., Koblížek, J., 2010: Woody plants of the Czech Republic. Kostelec nad Černými lesy. Lesnická práce, 368 p.
- Vavříček, D., Kučera, A., 2024: Základy lesnického půdoznalství a výživy lesních dřevin. Lesnická práce. 364 p. (In Czech).
- Viewegh, J., Kusbach, A., Mikeska, A., 2023: Czech forest ecosystem classification. Journal of Forest Science, 49:74–82.
- Zani, D., Crowther, T. W., Mo, L., Renner, S. S., Zohner, C. M., 2020: Increased growing-season productivity drives earlier autumn leaf senescence in temperate trees. Science, 370:6520.
- Zweifel, R., 2016: Radial stem variations – a source of tree physiological information not fully exploited yet. Plant, Cell & Environment, 39:231–232.
- Zweifel, R., Haeni, M., Buchmann, N., Eugster, W., 2016: Are trees able to grow in periods of stem shrinkage? New Phytologist, 211:839–849.
- IPCC, 2013, 2014: Climate Change 2013 – The Physical Science Basis (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- R Core Team, 2022: R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (Version 4.2.0).
Language: English
Page range: 146 - 158
Published on: Jun 13, 2026
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Martin Šrámek, Dušan Vavříček, Jiří Novák, Petr Maděra, published by National Forest Centre and Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.