LB 23-198 - Climate Growth Relationships of Three Pinus Species in Southeastern Virginia

Dendrochronology allows for the dating of tree rings with annular growth. Chronologies are developed from a population of sampled trees and are used as proxies to examine the relationships between tree ring growth and environmental factors like climate. The goal of our study was to create chronologies of Pinus palustris (longleaf pine), Pinus serotina (pond pine), and Pinus taeda (loblolly pine) at the Blackwater Ecological Preserve (BEP) in southeastern Virginia and analyze the relationship between ring width and climate variables to determine if any significant relationships exist. We collected 30 cores from 15 trees of each species at BEP. BEP is situated on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, is owned and managed by Old Dominion University, and contains the northernmost intact Pinus palustris community. The community is dominated by Pinus palustris and Pinus serotina, Pinus echinata, and Pinus taeda are found sporadically across the site along with a diverse herbaceous understory. We mounted and sanded cores for measurement in Coorecorder and CDendro and their measurements were verified using COFECHA. R Studio packages dplR and treeclim were used to create residual chronologies to which we performed our climate analysis. Our analysis revealed that longleaf had positive correlations between growth and minimum temperature in February and March and precipitation in August, but negative correlations between growth and max temperatures in August and precipitation and November of the previous year. Pond pine had positive correlations between growth and temperature during March of the current year; the relationship between growth and minimum temperature was positive for the previous August. For precipitation, correlation was positive for the previous September and current year May. For temperature, loblolly had a positive relationship between growth and minimum temperature in March and July and March for maximum temperature. There was a negative correlation for June and September maximum temperatures. For precipitation, correlation was positive for current August but negative for November of the previous year. Precipitation also during fall and winter of the previous year may have an effect on carbohydrate storage and utilization, reducing growth the following year.Our study determined that significant relationships exist between temperature, precipitation, and growth for these pine species at BEP. This information is important in understanding the interactions between climate and tree ring growth and has potential implications in future management of the BEP, especially as some tree populations in North America move northward.