Response of tree-ring width to climate warming and selective logging in larch forests of the Mongolian Altai

The mongolian altai is an old settlement area, which is populated by pastoral nomads since 2000-3000 years. Forests in this region (at ca. 2300 m a.s.l.) are highly fragmented and border on steppe and alpine grasslands, which are used for mobile livestock husbandry. The climate in Central asia is warming to levels clearly above the global average, which affects the vegetation. Furthermore, the transition from planned to market economy and the decollectivization of livestock 20 years ago has strongly changed land use practices in mongolia, especially resulting in an increase in recent logging activities. We were interested in the question how climate warming and selective logging influence the annual stem growth and the stand structure.