Climate-driven tree growth and mortality in the Black Forest, Germany-Long-term observations.

Episodic tree mortality can be caused by various reasons. This study describes climate-driven tree mortality and tree growth in the Black Forest mountain range in Germany. It is based on a 68-year consistent data series describing the annual mortality of all trees growing in a forest area of almost 250 thousand ha.

Beyond width and density: stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in cork-rings provide insights of physiological responses to water stress in L.

As climate change increasingly affects forest ecosystems, detailed understanding of major effects is important to anticipate their consequences under future climate scenarios. The Mediterranean region is a prominent climate change hotspot, and evergreen cork oak ( L.) woodlands are particularly climatically sensitive due to cork (bark) harvesting.

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy by line-scanning with an unmodified two-photon microscope.

Fluorescence-based microscopy as one of the standard tools in biomedical research benefits more and more from super-resolution methods, which offer enhanced spatial resolution allowing insights into new biological processes. A typical drawback of using these methods is the need for new, complex optical set-ups. This becomes even more significant when using two-photon fluorescence excitation, which offers deep tissue imaging and excellent z-sectioning.

Publisher Correction: Northern forest tree populations are physiologically maladapted to drought.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Northern forest tree populations are physiologically maladapted to drought.

Northern forests at the leading edge of their distributions may not show increased primary productivity under climate warming, being limited by climatic extremes such as drought. Looking beyond tree growth to underlying physiological mechanisms is fundamental for accurate predictions of forest responses to climate warming and drought stress. Within a 32-year genetic field trial, we analyze relative contributions of xylem plasticity and inferred stomatal response to drought tolerance in regional populations of a widespread conifer.

Cold adaptation recorded in tree rings highlights risks associated with climate change and assisted migration.

With lengthening growing seasons but increased temperature variability under climate change, frost damage to plants may remain a risk and could be exacerbated by poleward planting of warm-adapted seed sources. Here, we study cold adaptation of tree populations in a wide-ranging coniferous species in western North America to inform limits to seed transfer. Using tree-ring signatures of cold damage from common garden trials designed to study genetic population differentiation, we find opposing geographic clines for spring frost and fall frost damage.

A heat wave during leaf expansion severely reduces productivity and modifies seasonal growth patterns in a northern hardwood forest.

A useful approach to monitor tree response to climate change and environmental extremes is the recording of long-term time series of stem radial variations obtained with precision dendrometers. Here, we study the impact of environmental stress on seasonal growth dynamics and productivity of yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in the Great Lakes, St Lawrence forest region of Ontario.

Vessel plasticity of European beech in response to thinning and aspect.

The importance of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) for the Central European forest and wood sector demands profound research to examine the adaptive capacity of beech forests to changing environmental conditions. Quantitative wood anatomy is a valuable tool for studying the relation between structural and functional traits of trees, but due to the laborious methodology not many studies have thus far been performed on the conductive tissue of broadleaf tree species with diffuse-porous wood structure.

Drought tolerance and growth in populations of a wide-ranging tree species indicate climate change risks for the boreal north.

Choosing drought-tolerant planting stock in reforestation programs may help adapt forests to climate change. To inform such reforestation strategies, we test lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Doug. ex Loud.

Douglas-fir plantations in Europe: a retrospective test of assisted migration to address climate change.

We evaluate genetic test plantations of North American Douglas-fir provenances in Europe to quantify how tree populations respond when subjected to climate regime shifts, and we examined whether bioclimate envelope models developed for North America to guide assisted migration under climate change can retrospectively predict the success of these provenance transfers to Europe. The meta-analysis is based on long-term growth data of 2800 provenances transferred to 120 European test sites. The model was generally well suited to predict the best performing provenances along north-south gradients in Western Europe, but failed to predict superior performance of coastal North American populations under continental climate conditions in Eastern Europe.

Parallelized TCSPC for dynamic intravital fluorescence lifetime imaging: quantifying neuronal dysfunction in neuroinflammation.

Two-photon laser-scanning microscopy has revolutionized our view on vital processes by revealing motility and interaction patterns of various cell subsets in hardly accessible organs (e.g. brain) in living animals.

High-resolution intravital microscopy.

Cellular communication constitutes a fundamental mechanism of life, for instance by permitting transfer of information through synapses in the nervous system and by leading to activation of cells during the course of immune responses. Monitoring cell-cell interactions within living adult organisms is crucial in order to draw conclusions on their behavior with respect to the fate of cells, tissues and organs. Until now, there is no technology available that enables dynamic imaging deep within the tissue of living adult organisms at sub-cellular resolution, i.

The effect of artificially induced drought on radial increment and wood properties of Norway spruce.

We studied experimentally the effects of water availability on height and radial increment as well as wood density and tracheid properties of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.).

The power of single and multibeam two-photon microscopy for high-resolution and high-speed deep tissue and intravital imaging.

Two-photon microscopy is indispensable for deep tissue and intravital imaging. However, current technology based on single-beam point scanning has reached sensitivity and speed limits because higher performance requires higher laser power leading to sample degradation. We utilize a multifocal scanhead splitting a laser beam into a line of 64 foci, allowing sample illumination in real time at full laser power.

Silvicultural management in maintaining biodiversity and resistance of forests in Europe-temperate zone.

In Europe temperate forests play a prominent role in timber production, nature protection, water conservation, erosion control and recreation. For centuries temperate forests in Europe have been affected by forest devastation and soil degradation. Applying great efforts to eliminate the severe wood shortage of those days, countermeasures were taken during the last 150 years by regenerating and tending highly productive forests.