The effect of tree growth disturbances inertia on dendrogeomorphic spatio-temporal analysis of landslides: A case study

0585419 - ÚSMH 2025 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Šilhán, K. - Fabiánová, A. - Klimeš, Jan - Tábořík, Petr - Hartvich, Filip - Blahůt, Jan
The effect of tree growth disturbances inertia on dendrogeomorphic spatio-temporal analysis of landslides: A case study.
Catena. Roč. 235, FEB (2024), č. článku 107678. ISSN 0341-8162. E-ISSN 1872-6887
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA22-12522S
Institutional support: RVO:67985891
Keywords : Dendrogeomorphology * Landslides * Fagus sylvatica * Tree-ring anatomy * Tree-ring eccentricity
OECD category: Physical geography
Impact factor: 6.2, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena2023.107678

Tree-ring analysis is currently a frequently used absolute dating method for spatio-temporal analysis of landslide movements. However, like all absolute dating methods, this approach has various limitations. One possible limiting factor is the inertia of tree growth responses to the influence of landslide movements. When landslide movements occur with a small recurrence interval (months or early years), trees with an inertial response to an older event may not be able to record a younger event. One possible growth response of trees to a landslide movement with the absence of inertia is a change in the size of the vessel lumen area (VLA, anatomical response) in deciduous trees. Thus, this study aimed to quantify the effect of the absence of VLA inertia on the spatiotemporal analysis of two landslide events of known occurrence with a short time between their occurrence (2010 and 2013). Ninety-six individuals of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) were sampled and two types of landslide signals (changes in tree-ring eccentricity and changes in VLA size) were extracted from their tree-ring series. The effect of the absence of inertia was evident in the younger event, with 171.2% more trees responding anatomically than through tree-ring eccentricity. In the case of the spatial extent analysis of the younger landslide event, 29.0% more was detected as an active area through anatomical changes (VLA) compared to the treering eccentricity analysis. The use of growth disturbances without inertia could in the future reduce the negative general property of tree-ring-based chronologies of landslide movements, which are considered minimal when using classical growth disturbances with inertia. The implementation of anatomical responses could lead to a more effective use of dendrogeomorphic data in landslide hazard assessment.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0353134