PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #29: Plant Ecology: Environmental controls.
Tuesday, August 6. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Climate, growth, and damage at the white spruce forest limit in three Alaskan mountain ranges.

Traustason, Tumi^*,1, Smith, Matthew¹, Sveinbjörnsson, Bjartmar¹, Ruess, Roger², ¹ University of Alaska, Anchorage² University of Alaska, Fairbanks

ABSTRACT- White spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) is the dominant treeline species in Alaska. In this study, we related age structure and growth to climate and physical damage in the Chugach Mountains, White Mountains, and the Brooks Range. We hypothesized that with increasing latitude, growth would decrease and the stand age increase. Treeline sites were expected to show less growth but greater tissue damage than forest sites. Stand age was estimated using regressions analysis of age data from the base, 0.5m, and 1.3m of 10 trees from treeline and forest sites at three separate locations within each mountain range. Our preliminary results indicate that annual growth is greatest in the forest in the Chugach Mountains. The two interior mountain ranges have similar annual growth and smaller growth difference between treeline and forest than was found in the Chugach Mountains. Tree damage was estimated along a transect in each of the study sites. Strong positive correlation was found between prevailing windspeed and tree damage and negative correlation was found between length of the growing season and overall growth.

KEY WORDS: Treeline, Alaska, Dendrology, White Spruce