Université de Fribourg

Imprisoned in the Cretan mountains: How relict Zelkova abelicea (Ulmaceae) trees cope with Mediterranean climate

Fazan, Laurence ; Guillet, Sébastien ; Corona, Christophe ; Kozlowski, Gregor ; Stoffel, Markus

In: Science of The Total Environment, 2017, vol. 599–600, no. Supplement C, p. 797–805

We investigate the sensitivity of the relict, endemic Cretan tree species Zelkova abelicea (Lam.) Boiss. (Ulmaceae) to several climate variables (temperature, precipitation and drought). For this purpose, we establish the first centennial tree-ring chronology for the species, and the first ever tree-ring chronology for a broadleaved species on Crete. We demonstrate the strong sensitivity of...