ANR DECLIC - Tree DEmographic responses to CLImate stresses and Competition for a trait-based biogeography
ANR project from 2021 to 2025
Abstract. In the face of climate change, we need to understand the drivers of changes in forest composition. Functional traits hold great promise as a way to explore and depict how the interplay of species climate stress tolerance and competition drives these changes. To date, progress has, however, been limited because we have a poor understanding of how traits control tree demography. DECLIC will build on the increasing availability of forest inventory data documenting tree demography and the emergence of key physiological traits directly linked to survival to determine how those traits control tree demography response to drought, frost, and competition in Europe and North America. This will allow us to develop size-structured community assembly models predicting forests dynamics along climatic gradients based on species traits. These models will be used to derive metrics of forest vulnerability to climate change such as evaluations of the risk of forest dieback, productivity decline and regeneration impeding at the scale of French ‘sylvoécoregions’. Then we will co-construct with French forest managers the best approach to present these metrics and their uncertainty on a web-platform adapted to disseminate them broadly.
Baranger, A., Cordonnier, T., Charrier, G., Delzon, S., Larter, M., Martin-StPaul, N. K., & Kunstler, G. (2024). Living on the edge – physiological tolerance to frost and drought explains range limits of 35 European tree species. Ecography, e07528. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07528
Barrere, J., Reineking, B., Cordonnier, T., Kulha, N., Honkaniemi, J., Peltoniemi, M., Korhonen, K. T., Ruiz‐Benito, P., Zavala, M. A., & Kunstler, G. (2023). Functional traits and climate drive interspecific differences in disturbance‐induced tree mortality. Global Change Biology, 29(10), 2836–2851. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16630
Barrere, J., Reineking, B., Jaunatre, M., & Kunstler, G. (2024). Forest storm resilience depends on the interplay between functional composition and climate—Insights from European‐scale simulations. Functional Ecology, 1365-2435.14489. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14489
Beauchamp, N., Kunstler, G., Touzot, L., Ruiz‐Benito, P., Cienciala, E., Dahlgren, J., Hawryło, P., Klopčič, M., Lehtonen, A., Šebeň, V., Socha, J., Zavala, M. A., & Courbaud, B. (2025). Light competition affects how tree growth and survival respond to climate. Journal of Ecology, 1365-2745.14489. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14489
Bernard, M., Barrere, J., Morin, X., Saïd, S., Boulanger, V., Granda, E., Benavides, R., Jactel, H., Heurich, M., Rabasa, S. G., Valladares, F., & Kunstler, G. (2024). Elevation affects both the occurrence of ungulate browsing and its effect on tree seedling growth for four major tree species in European mountain forests. Annals of Forest Science, 81(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-024-01226-x
Falster, D. S., Kunstler, G., FitzJohn, R. G., & Westoby, M. (2021). Emergent shapes of trait-based competition functions from resource-based models: A Gaussian is not normal in plant communities. The American Naturalist. https://doi.org/10.1086/714868
Foest, J. J., Bogdziewicz, M., Pesendorfer, M. B., Ascoli, D., Cutini, A., Nussbaumer, A., Verstraeten, A., Beudert, B., Chianucci, F., Mezzavilla, F., Gratzer, G., Kunstler, G., Meesenburg, H., Wagner, M., Mund, M., Cools, N., Vacek, S., Schmidt, W., Vacek, Z., & Hacket‐Pain, A. (2024). Widespread breakdown in masting in European beech due to rising summer temperatures. Global Change Biology, 30(5), e17307. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17307
Guyennon, A., Reineking, B., Dahlgren, J., Lehtonen, A., Ratcliffe, S., Ruiz‐Benito, P., Zavala, M. A., & Kunstler, G. (2022). Colonization and extinction dynamics and their link to the distribution of European trees at the continental scale. Journal of Biogeography, 49(1), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14286
Guyennon, A., Reineking, B., Salguero‐Gomez, R., Dahlgren, J., Lehtonen, A., Ratcliffe, S., Ruiz‐Benito, P., Zavala, M. A., & Kunstler, G. (2023). Beyond mean fitness: Demographic stochasticity and resilience matter at tree species climatic edges. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32(4), 573–585. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13640
Heiland, L., Kunstler, G., Šebeň, V., & Hülsmann, L. (2023). Which demographic processes control competitive equilibria? Bayesian calibration of a size‐structured forest population model. Ecology and Evolution, 13(7), e10232. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10232
Larter, M., Charrier, G., Delzon, S., Hammond, W., Baranger, A., Bertrand, C., Martin‐StPaul, N., & Kunstler, G. (2025). Weak global trade‐off between frost and drought resistance in trees. New Phytologist, nph.70718. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70718
Touzot, L., Beauchamp, N., Baranger, A., Courbaud, B., Cordonnier, T., Olivier, B., Delzon, S., Etzold, S., Fischer, C., Gessler, A., Jucker, T., Ruiz-Benito, P., Zavala, M. A., & Kunstler, G. (2025). Shade tolerance controls the spectrum of crown sizes and its response to local competition across European and North American tree species. Implications for light interception strategies. Oikos.
Yanjun Song, Xavier Paul Bouteiller, Maximilian Larter, Christophe Plomion, Fabrice Sin, Sylvain Delzon, A safe breeding ground: genetically improved maritime pine for growth and stem form has more efficient but not more vulnerable xylem, Tree Physiology, Volume 43, Issue 3, March 2023, Pages 366–378, https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpac125
Van Rooij, M., Améglio, T., Baubet, O. et al. Potential processes leading to winter reddening of young Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii Mirb. Franco. in Europe. Annals of Forest Science 81, 30 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-024-01242-x