Supplementary Material 2

Current and future climate scenarios

Daily temperature and precipitation data were obtained from the nearest E-OBS 0.25° grid point (45° 37′ 30” N, 14° 22′ 30” E, elevation 877 m a.s.l.) for the period 1951-2011. Climate data were processed in two successive steps. First, a 100-year time series with constant characteristics was produced using the stochastic weather generator LARS-WG (Semenov and Barrow 1997). In a second step, the program MTCLIM was used to derive climatic conditions for each stand according to its elevation, slope and aspect (Thornton et al. 2000).

For assessing the effect of climate change on stand dynamics, we used outputs from two Regional climate models (RCM) that projected future climate in the Slovenian region based on the A1B greenhouse gas emission scenario (IPCC 2007), i.e. the DMI-HIRHAM5_ARPEGE and HadRM3_HadCM3Q16 simulation runs, respectively, hereafter named scenario CC1 and CC2. Season-specific delta values for future climate (2070-2100) were calculated taking baseline climate as a reference (Table S2).

Fig S5. Climate diagrams for the Snežnik area (cf. Walter and Lieth (1960)) at low (600 m), medium ( 900 m) and high elevations (1200 m). Temperature and rainfall data are representative for the baseline period 1951-2011.

Table S2. Temperature and precipitation lapse rates per 1000 meters for the Snežnik area. The rates were calculated from the E-OBS dataset surrounding the area.

Maximum temperature (°C) / Minimum temperature (°C) / Precipitation (mm)
-6.15 / -8.61 / 631.3

Table S3. Seasonal mean temperature (Mean T) and precipitation (Mean P) anomalies, together with standard deviation of the seasonal mean (sd T, sd P) for future climate (2070-2100) compared with reference scenario (1951-2011) along the elevation gradient in Snežnik (600, 900 and 1200 m a.s.l.). We assumed monthly cross-correlations (rTP) to stay constant during climate change.

Scenario CC1 / Scenario CC2
elevation / variable / unit / Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter / Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter
600 / Mean T / °C / +2.3 / +3.7 / +1.9 / +1.9 / +4.4 / +5.0 / +4.8 / +5.4
sd T / °C / -0.1 / +1.6 / +0.9 / +1.1 / +0.0 / +1.7 / +0.5 / +1.4
Mean P / % / -8.7 / -31.8 / -8.9 / +1.0 / -5.9 / -30.5 / -13.6 / +8.0
sd P / % / +30.7 / +77.7 / +39.8 / +13.0 / +29.4 / +64.4 / +43.0 / -12.6
rTP / - / -0.5 / -0.3 / 0.1 / 0.1 / -0.6 / -0.4 / -0.3 / -0.3
900 / Mean T / °C / +2.3 / +3.7 / +1.9 / +2.0 / +4.4 / +5.0 / +4.8 / +5.4
sd T / °C / -0.1 / +1.6 / +0.9 / +1.1 / +0.0 / +1.7 / +0.5 / +1.4
Mean P / % / -8.5 / -31.3 / -8.8 / +1.0 / -5.7 / -30.0 / -13.4 / +7.9
sd P / % / +31.3 / +80.5 / +40.9 / +12.3 / +29.9 / +66.4 / +44.3 / -13.9
rTP / - / -0.5 / -0.3 / 0.1 / 0.1 / -0.6 / -0.4 / -0.3 / -0.3
1200 / Mean T / °C / +2.2 / +3.7 / +1.9 / +1.9 / +4.4 / +5.0 / +4.8 / +5.4
sd T / °C / -0.1 / +1.6 / +0.9 / +1.1 / +0.0 / +1.7 / +0.5 / +1.4
Mean P / % / -8.3 / -30.9 / -8.7 / +0.9 / -5.6 / -29.4 / -13.2 / +7.8
sd P / % / +31.8 / +83.2 / +42.0 / +11.7 / +30.2 / +68.3 / +45.5 / -15.1
rTP / - / -0.5 / -0.3 / 0.1 / 0.1 / -0.6 / -0.4 / -0.3 / -0.3

References

IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007. Synthesis Report. A contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland

Semenov M, Barrow E (1997) Use of a stochastic weather generator in the development of climate change scenarios. Climatic Change 35:397-414 doi:10.1023/a:1005342632279

Thornton PE, Hasenauer H, White MA (2000) Simultaneous estimation of daily solar radiation and humidity from observed temperature and precipitation: an application over complex terrain in Austria. Agr Forest Meteorol 104:255-271 doi:10.1016/s0168-1923(00)00170-2

Walter H, Lieth H (1960) Klimadiagramm-Weltatlas, von Heinrich Walter und Helmut Lieth. G. Fischer, Jena