Abstract: To investigate the impact of meteorological droughts in different seasons on tree radial growth, we analyzed the correlations between radial growth of Abies recurvata at three altitudes (3400, 3800, 4000 m) and clima-tic factors along with resistance, recovery, and resilience to different seasonal droughts (spring 1998, summer 2008, consecutive spring-summer 2003) in Miyaluo of Sichuan, utilizing tree-ring width index and standard chronology. The results showed that at low altitude (3400 m), chronologies showed significant positive correlation with Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) from previous September to current June, and significant negative correlation with current January monthly mean maximum temperature. At middle and high altitudes (3800, 4000 m), significant positive correlation occurred with current April PDSI and precipitation. The resistance of radial growth at three altitudes to consecutive spring-summer drought and spring drought was significantly lower than that to summer drought, while the resilience to consecutive spring-summer drought at middle and high altitudes (0.95, 0.94) was significantly lower than that to spring drought (1.13, 1.23) and that to summer drought (1.17, 0.99). Under consecutive spring-summer drought, the resistance at low altitude (0.57) was significantly lower than that at high altitude (0.78), the recovery and resilience were significantly higher than those at high altitude, and the resistance at middle altitude was significantly lower than at high altitude. Under spring drought, the resistance and resilience at low and middle altitudes were significantly lower than at high altitude. Under summer drought, the recovery and resilience at low and high altitudes were significantly lower than at middle altitude. In summary, the radial growth of A. recurvata was most severely impacted by consecutive spring-summer drought. Populations at low altitudes demonstrated significantly weaker resistance, while those at high altitudes were limited by reduced recovery capacity, leading to lower growth resilience compared to low-altitude populations.

Key words: seasonal drought, radial growth, climate response, climatic factor, ecological resilience, Abies recurvata