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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Apr 18.
Published in final edited form as: Trees (Berl West). 2009 Jun;23(3):623–635. doi: 10.1007/s00468-008-0307-7

Table 3.

Characteristics of Pinus cembra trees selected for sampling micro-cores (n = 5 trees/site) throughout the treeline ecotone (SD = standard deviation, RW = ring width).

Site Altitudey
(m a.s.l.)		 Tree height
(m)		 Crown
diameter1
(m)		 Stem
diameter2
(cm)		 Age3
(yr)
mean5 ± SD		 RW4
(mm)
mean5 ± SD
Timberline 1950 10 - 14 4 - 5 30-50 80a ± 11 2.10a ± 0.66
Treeline 2110 3 - 5 2.5 - 3.0 15-20 70a ± 15 2.32a ± 0.68
Krummholz 2180 0.5 - 1.0 0.35 - 0.60 5-7 22b ± 5 1.92a ± 0.78
1

Range of maximum crown diameter.

2

Range of tree diameter measured at sampling height (see Material and Methods).

3

Approximate age of selected trees was calculated by adding 15, 10 and 5 yr to mean number of measured tree rings of increment cores taken at c.1.3 m (timberline), c. 50 cm (treeline) and c. 15 cm stem height (krummholz site), respectively.

4

Mean values during the period 2003-2005.

5

Mean tree age and ring width of selected trees throughout the treeline ecotone labelled by different letters are different at p ≤ 0.05 (Student’s t-test).