Scientists study climate effects on tree growth in Bashkir Reserve

The expedition of Pavel Moiseev, the lead researcher of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to Bashkir State Nature Reserve completed. The scientist from Yekaterinburg, of the Laboratory of Dendrochronology, studies the impact of climate change on tree growth and dynamics of woody vegetation in the extreme conditions of growth. In his version in the last 50-60 years mountain-steppe areas in the southern Urals began to be overgrown by forest and it is somehow related to climate change. Pavel Moiseev confidently asserts that due to the increase in soil moisture associated with more rainfall in recent decades, for example, the total height of the juniper bushes cover became larger. Certain trends are observed among trees too, which young growth survives better during wet periods than in dry years.

However, these assumptions need to be tested in the future. For this purpose wood samples (cores) will be withdrawn from the trunks of trees and their age will be determined. As a result it will be known in which years there was intensive growth of trees in mountain-steppe areas, and how this relates to changes in temperature and precipitation.