Description of project
The main objective of the project was to evaluate retrospectively growth response of spruce to extreme climatic and pollution stress during the winter 1995/96 in the Ore Mountains using methods of dendrochronology and wood anatomy analysis. The project was based on the permanent monitoring plots established in the beginning of nineties within the young spruce stands in the Ore Mountains. The results show that height and diameter increment together with number of tracheids in radial direction are sensitive indicators responding immediately to the stress event. Other anatomical features such as cell diameter and lumen width reacted to the stress with a time lag of 1 year; the cell-wall thickness and proportion of latewood were less sensitive. During the 1996–2000 stress period, tree growth was driven by climatic factors and by the air-pollution load, later the impact of air pollution was no longer pronounced and tree growth was correlated to the content of macronutrients P, K and Ca. The work has been carried out under the framework of the COST FP1106 network STReESS – Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a SynthesiS.