Climatic influence on tree wood anatomy: a review

Abstract

Wood anatomical traits of xylem are the characteristics of tree rings at cellular and subcellular scales providing important insights on structural features and their linkage to the environment. Therefore, studying the relationship between anatomical traits and environmental changes not only provide physiological explanations, but also provide a new vision of studying the adaptation process and response strategies of tree growth to climate. In this paper, I review and synthesize literature on the influence of climatic parameters on wood anatomy from the different geographical regions using recent (2015–2020) published articles on the topic. This paper discusses the relationship between the anatomical features of angiosperm and gymnosperm xylem with climatic factors. Based on the literature, I then purpose to explore the temporal and spatial variations in the anatomical characteristics of xylem tree rings with environmental changes. Also, more studies can be conducted to assess the synergetic and antagonistic effects among different tree-ring proxies and to determine the specific roles and contributions of major climatic factors during different periods of tree-ring formation.