Asymmetric winter warming advanced plant phenology to a greater extent than symmetric warming in an alpine meadow

Suonan, Ji; Classen, Aimée T.; Zhang, Zhenhua; He, Jin‐Sheng

doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12909

Cited by 73 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…It should be noted that sedges were less sensitive to climate change than were grasses and forbs. The start of sedge growth did not obviously change in response to warmer spring temperaturesa pattern supported by a warming experiment at the same study site (Suonan et al 2017). One potential explanation is that photoperiod plays a modulating role and Figure 6 Illustration of mechanisms of long-term changes in plant growth patterns in a Tibetan alpine grassland.…”

Section: Minor Contribution Of Functional Group Composition Shift To mentioning

confidence: 79%

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Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

et al. 2020

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Satellite data indicate significant advancement in alpine spring phenology over decades of climate warming, but corresponding field evidence is scarce. It is also unknown whether this advancement results from an earlier shift of phenological events, or enhancement of plant growth under unchanged phenological pattern. By analyzing a 35‐year dataset of seasonal biomass dynamics of a Tibetan alpine grassland, we show that climate change promoted both earlier phenology and faster growth, without changing annual biomass production. Biomass production increased in spring due to a warming‐induced earlier onset of plant growth, but decreased in autumn due mainly to increased water stress. Plants grew faster but the fast‐growing period shortened during the mid‐growing season. These findings provide the first in situ evidence of long‐term changes in growth patterns in alpine grassland plant communities, and suggest that earlier phenology and faster growth will jointly contribute to plant growth in a warming climate.

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Section: Minor Contribution Of Functional Group Composition Shift To mentioning

confidence: 79%

“…a). The earlier start of the fast‐growing phase was associated with increases in spring temperatures and growing degree days, which may accelerate ecodormancy break and spring snow thaw (Chen et al ; Suonan et al ; Bibi et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

et al. 2020

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“…We only used soil moisture data during the growing season (12 April–19 October 2013; 4 April–17 October 2014; the definition of the start and end of the growing season; Suonan et al. ) because the soil moisture probes did not give accurate readings when the soil was frozen. Hourly soil temperature and moisture data were averaged to daily level in this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Suonan et al. ). Climate changes like warming and altered precipitation can interact to alter plant phenology differently than either does independently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant phenological sensitivity to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and relative to other areas of the world

et al. 2019

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Citation: Suonan, J., A. T. Classen, N. J. Sanders, and J.-S. He. 2019. Plant phenological sensitivity to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and relative to other areas of the world.Abstract. Global warming and changes in precipitation are altering the phenology of plants that significantly impact the functioning and services of ecosystems. Although a number of studies have addressed responses of plant phenology to warming and altered precipitation individually, their interactions can alter plant phenology differently than either does independently. To explore how the interactions between global change drivers alter alpine ecosystems, we conducted a factorial experiment manipulating warming (ambient and +2°C) and altered precipitation (50% decrease, control, and 50% increase) simultaneously in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Over two years, we monitored plant phenological events, leafout day and first flowering day, for 11 common plant species that account for 74.4% of the total above biomass. Surprisingly, there was no interaction between warming and changes in precipitation on community plant phenology, but warming advanced leaf-out and first flowering day by 7.10 and 9.79 d, respectively. Unlike the community response, plant functional groups had a variety of direct and interactive responses to the experimental climate drivers. While the phenology of legumes was most influenced by temperature, temperature and precipitation interacted to alter the phenology of grasses and forbs. To explore how plant phenological sensitivity on the Tibetan Plateau is compared with other meadow ecosystems, we combined our dataset with a global plant phenology dataset. Interestingly, the phenological sensitivity of leaf-out day and first flowering day on the Tibetan Plateau is 7.3 and 37.8 times greater than global phenological sensitivity, respectively. This result highlights that a meta-analysis of global phenological sensitivity may significantly underestimate change in some regions-even regions as large as the Tibetan Plateau. Together, our results suggest that the Tibetan Plateau may experience rapid change as temperatures warm and that these changes will likely be more rapid than in other regions of the world. Further, our study highlights that if we are to make accurate predictions of how plant phenology may change with warming, we need to understand the specific environmental cues that drive phenological responses across different areas.

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“…In addition, phenology can also shift due to the effects of plant diversity on available soil N and moisture (Wolf et al 2017). Overall, plant phenology is important for predicting the fluctuation of ecosystem carbon balance and community structure (Caradonna et al 2014, Xia et al 2015 and changes significantly after N addition, but its responses to N addition are not as clear and accepted as responses to temperature and CO 2 (Cleland et al 2006, Asshoff et al 2010, Reyesfox et al 2016, Suonan et al 2017. Therefore, a better understanding of the response of plant phenology to N addition at the global scale is necessary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of plant phenology to nitrogen addition: a meta‐analysis

Wang

Tang

2019

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Phenology is one of the most sensitive processes of plant in response to global change. Anthropogenic activities have considerably increased nitrogen (N) deposition, which significant affects plant phenology. Although numerous individual studies have been conducted, it remains controversial how N addition affects phenological stages, and a comprehensive understanding of how plant phenology responds to external N inputs remains elusive. To reconcile the differences, we conducted a meta‐analysis of 117 species to examine the responses of plant phenology to N addition in terrestrial ecosystems, and assessed variations in their responses in relation to ecosystem types, functional groups, and environmental conditions. Our results showed that plant phenology changed significantly after N addition, and phenology time delayed and phenology duration shortened significantly across all biomes except fruiting duration, but varied with biome types. The phenology change in cropland was more dramatical than in grassland after N addition, even in opposite directions. The response of phenological stages to N addition was consistent in two pollination types except the flowering time, the flowering time had no change in anemophilous but significantly delayed in entomophilous. In addition, the response of phenology to N addition was discrepancy among functional groups, the phenology time advanced and duration shortened in sedge, while phenology time delayed and duration shortened in other groups, and the phenology change in legume was larger than grass and forbs. We also found that environmental factors had little effects on the response of plant phenology to N addition, but significant correlation was found between the response ratios of different phenological stages. Our study suggested that phenology was sensitive to N deposition at many phenological stages, and changes in phenology may be smaller with community biodiversity increasing at ecosystem level.

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Asymmetric winter warming advanced plant phenology to a greater extent than symmetric warming in an alpine meadow

Cited by 73 publications

References 58 publications

Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

Alpine grassland plants grow earlier and faster but biomass remains unchanged over 35 years of climate change

Plant phenological sensitivity to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and relative to other areas of the world

Responses of plant phenology to nitrogen addition: a meta‐analysis

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