Dendrochronologia 64 (2020) 125749 Available online 23 August 2020 1125-7865/© 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Climate-growth relationships of Pinus pseudostrobus from a tropical mountain cloud forest in northeast Mexico Genaro Guti´ errez-García a, *, Laura E. Beramendi-Orosco a, b , Kathleen R. Johnson c a Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales y del Suelo, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Aut´ onoma de M´ exico. Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de M´ exico, C.P. 04510, Mexico b Laboratorio Nacional de Geoquímica y Mineralogía, Instituto de Geología, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de M´ exico, C.P. 04510, Mexico c Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, 92697, USA A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Tree-rings Cloud forest Pinus pseudostrobus Mexico El Cielo ABSTRACT Tropical Mountain Cloud Forests (TMCF) occur within narrow elevational limits with very specifc climatic conditions; this type of vegetation is among the most vulnerable terrestrial ecosystems to climate change. The present study aims to analyze the local and regional climatic response of tree-ring widths of Pinus pseudostrobus at "El Cielo" Biosphere Reserve (CBR) over a 66-year period (1950–2016). We also investigated the temporal sta- bility of the climate-growth response in four 20 years sub-periods (1950–1969, 1970–1989, 1990–2009, and 1997–2016). The results of the climate-growth analyses over the full-time period indicate a positive correlation with precipitation from previous-year November to current-year May and a negative correlation with maximum temperature and evaporation from previous-year December to current-year April and current-year January to May, respectively. We found a positive correlation with April to June PDSI and no correlation with minimum temperature. Radial growth was correlated with the climate of northeastern Mexico (i.e. Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas) and with coupled-ocean atmosphere climate modes, such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacifc Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Correlation analyses for different periods indicate changes over time in the sensitivity of trees to climatic variability and broad-scale atmospheric circulation patterns such as PDO and AMO. Compared to the full-time period analyses the response of radial-growth to precipitation and PDSI increased in 30 and 48 % in the last 20 years, respectively. 1. Introduction Tropical Mountain Cloud Forests (TMCF) are amongst the most species-rich ecosystems worldwide, numerous animals and plants spe- cies inhabiting these forests are endemic and susceptible to extinction (Bruijnzeel et al., 2010). These forests are located in areas of high pre- cipitation and low evaporation (Bruijnzeel et al., 2011). One important variable of TMCF is fog, which acts as an additional water input and limits water loss due to high evaporative demand and solar radiation during the dry season (Aparecido et al., 2018; Holder, 2003). These forest ecosystems provide a stable supply of water that is essential for irrigation, hydro-electric power generation, and drinking water (Tog- netti et al., 2010). The global area of TMCF is about 215,000 km 2 , which is approximately 0.14 % of the earth’s land surface, and there has been a loss of 46 % of its original extension due to land-use change (Scatena et al., 2010). In Mexico, TMCF account for less than one percent of the country’s surface area (17870.6 km 2 , 0.9 %) with less than 25 % located on currently protected areas (CONAFOR, 2018). Despite its reduced land area, TMCF hosts at least 3000 species of which 30 % are endemic, representing approximately 12 % of Mexico’s plant diversity, (Rze- dowski, 1996; Toledo-Aceves et al., 2011). Several studies indicate that over 50 % of Mexico’s original TMCF has been lost, replaced with pas- tures, annual crops, and coffee plantations (Toledo-Aceves et al., 2011). In addition to deforestation, climate change represents the most important threat to TMCFs in the world (Bruijnzeel et al., 2010). Modeling studies estimate that climate change will signifcantly affect the temperature and humidity of cloud forest environments worldwide (Foster, 2001; Pounds et al., 1999). Cloud persistence could be * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: genaro.gutierrez@gmail.com (G. Guti´ errez-García), laurab@geologia.unam.mx (L.E. Beramendi-Orosco), kathleen.johnson@uci.edu (K.R. Johnson). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Dendrochronologia journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/dendro https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2020.125749 Received 17 November 2019; Received in revised form 28 July 2020; Accepted 18 August 2020