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Response of tree rings and NDVI of Central-European conifers to extreme climatic events
Mašek, Jiří ; Treml, Václav (advisor) ; Šilhán, Karel (referee) ; Piermattei, Alma (referee)
Terrestrial ecosystems, mainly forests are important sinks of atmospheric carbon with high year-to-year variability driven by moisture availability. Trees store carbon in various compartments of the biomass, namely in stems, roots, and leaves. In this doctoral thesis, I investigated climate-growth responses of stem biomass (represented by tree rings) and leaf biomass (represented by normalized difference vegetation index; NDVI) of Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies in temperate forests of Czechia. I was interested in (i) general climate-growth responses and specifically, in reactions to drought and (ii) topographical factors influencing these responses at various spatial scales. We demonstrated that climate-growth responses of both species' tree rings in the lowlands revealed a significant positive and negative influence of moisture and temperature, respectively, while in higher elevations the responses were opposite. At a landscape level, the topography of relief modulated responses of Pinus sylvestris tree rings, while at the large-scale level, the geographical position and elevation (temperature gradients) were the main factors for both species. Responses of NDVI were slightly weaker compared to tree rings and did not show the influence of topography at any scale probably because vegetation...
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