Radial growth and its temporal stability of Dahurian larch in the southern boreal forest: Divergent trends during climate warming and warming hiatus

Climate warming has reshaped the structure and function of boreal forests with expected negative impacts at their southern margins. A warming hiatus has occurred in many high-latitude regions in recent decades, but its impacts on tree growth in the southern boreal forest remain unclear. We sampled tree rings of Dahurian larch ( Larix gmelinii ) in the southern boreal forest of the Greater Khingan Mountains (GKM) and examined the trends of tree growth and its temporal stability based on the age-detrended basal area increment (BAI) for the periods of rapid warming (1962–1992) and warming hiatus (1993–2022). The results indicate that age-detrended BAI declined significantly during the warming period, while it showed no further decrease during the period of warming hiatus. Tree growth decline was associated with higher main growing season maximum temperature and non-growing season minimum temperature, as well as lower early growing season precipitation and main growing season minimum temperature. During the warming hiatus, tree growth was positively regulated by non-growing season precipitation, early growing season maximum temperature, and main growing season minimum temperature, but negatively affected by the maximum temperature in the late growing season. Intriguingly, tree growth stability declined significantly during the warming period and recovered rapidly during the period of warming hiatus. The decline in tree growth stability was mainly explained by increasing minimum temperature in the non-growing season. The recovery of tree growth stability was associated with lower non-growing season precipitation, higher interannual stability of early growing season maximum temperature, higher interannual mean value and stability of late growing season maximum temperature, and lower interannual mean value and stability of main growing season minimum temperature. Our findings highlight a rapid recovery of tree growth stability instead of growth rate during the warming hiatus following a period of rapid warming and provide new insights into the decadal-scale resilience of the southern boreal forest in response to climate change. • Radial growth and its temporal stability of Dahurian larch were evaluated for periods of rapid warming and warming hiatus. • Age-detrended tree growth rate declined significantly during climate warming and showed no significant trend during warming hiatus. • Tree growth stability declined significantly during climate warming and recovered rapidly during warming hiatus. • Our findings provide new insights into the decadal-scale resilience of southern boreal forest under climate change.