Responses of the radial growth of the endangered species Keteleeria fortunei to climate change in southeastern China

Knowledge on the responses of endangered species to current global changes can highlight the necessity and importance of protecting these species. Tree-ring-based studies provide a longer term perspective than monitoring studies on the responses and adaptations of the growth of endangered species to climate change and forest disturbances. Therefore, this study conducted a tree-ring case study on Keteleeria fortunei, an endangered and endemic species in southern China, and presents the first tree-ring chronology of K. fortunei from 1850 to 2013 in the Fuzhou area, which is located west of the Taiwan Strait. K. fortunei trees tend to grow in moister locations in closed forests and are more sensitive to forest disturbances and sunshine than Pinus massoniana. Our study shows that missing rings are more frequent for K. fortunei than for P. massoniana in the same area, which agrees with previous findings that wedging and missing rings tend to occur in trees experiencing growth suppression in closed forests.