Beneficial effects of climate warming on boreal tree growth may be transitory

D’Orangeville, Loïc; Houle, Daniel; Duchesne, Louis; Phillips, Richard P.; Bergeron, Yves; Kneeshaw, Daniel

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05705-4

Cited by 200 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…The predicted increase in timber growth with temperature is congruent with other studies reporting enhanced productivity in a warmer world (Boisvenue & Running, ; D'Orangeville et al, ). However, recent research has shown that reduced winter snowpack and increased soil freezing are negatively affecting the growth rate of sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ), one of the study region's most important tree species (Reinmann, Susser, Demaria, & Templer, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age in boreal–temperate North America

Thom

Golivets

Edling

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Climate change threatens the provisioning of forest ecosystem services and biodiversity (ESB). The climate sensitivity of ESB may vary with forest development from young to old‐growth conditions as structure and composition shift over time and space. This study addresses knowledge gaps hindering implementation of adaptive forest management strategies to sustain ESB. We focused on a number of ESB indicators to (a) analyze associations among carbon storage, timber growth rate, and species richness along a forest development gradient; (b) test the sensitivity of these associations to climatic changes; and (c) identify hotspots of climate sensitivity across the boreal–temperate forests of eastern North America. From pre‐existing databases and literature, we compiled a unique dataset of 18,507 forest plots. We used a full Bayesian framework to quantify responses of nine ESB indicators. The Bayesian models were used to assess the sensitivity of these indicators and their associations to projected increases in temperature and precipitation. We found the strongest association among the investigated ESB indicators in old forests (>170 years). These forests simultaneously support high levels of carbon storage, timber growth, and species richness. Older forests also exhibit low climate sensitivity of associations among ESB indicators as compared to younger forests. While regions with a currently low combined ESB performance benefitted from climate change, regions with a high ESB performance were particularly vulnerable to climate change. In particular, climate sensitivity was highest east and southeast of the Great Lakes, signaling potential priority areas for adaptive management. Our findings suggest that strategies aimed at enhancing the representation of older forest conditions at landscape scales will help sustain ESB in a changing world.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age in boreal–temperate North America

Thom

Golivets

Edling

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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“…That is, continuous warming and drying conditions may exacerbate moisture stress, and therefore, productivity reduction in these ecosystems. Interestingly, a recent tree‐ring based study revealed that while 2°C of warming may increase overall forest productivity, additional warming could reverse this trend and lead to substantial moisture stress (D'Orangeville et al, ). Also, multiple warming experiments confirm the dynamism of climate constraints on plant growth in the southern boreal forest and highlight the vulnerability of the ecosystem to excess warming and drying (e.g., Reich et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in timing of seasonal peak photosynthetic activity in northern ecosystems

Park

Chen

Macias‐Fauria

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

107

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Seasonality in photosynthetic activity is a critical component of seasonal carbon, water, and energy cycles in the Earth system. This characteristic is a consequence of plant's adaptive evolutionary processes to a given set of environmental conditions. Changing climate in northern lands (>30°N) alters the state of climatic constraints on plant growth, and therefore, changes in the seasonality and carbon accumulation are anticipated. However, how photosynthetic seasonality evolved to its current state, and what role climatic constraints and their variability played in this process and ultimately in carbon cycle is still poorly understood due to its complexity. Here, we take the “laws of minimum” as a basis and introduce a new framework where the timing (day of year) of peak photosynthetic activity (DOYPmax) acts as a proxy for plant's adaptive state to climatic constraints on its growth. Our analyses confirm that spatial variations in DOYPmax reflect spatial gradients in climatic constraints as well as seasonal maximum and total productivity. We find a widespread warming‐induced advance in DOYPmax (−1.66 ± 0.30 days/decade, p < 0.001) across northern lands, indicating a spatiotemporal dynamism of climatic constraints to plant growth. We show that the observed changes in DOYPmax are associated with an increase in total gross primary productivity through enhanced carbon assimilation early in the growing season, which leads to an earlier phase shift in land‐atmosphere carbon fluxes and an increase in their amplitude. Such changes are expected to continue in the future based on our analysis of earth system model projections. Our study provides a simplified, yet realistic framework based on first principles for the complex mechanisms by which various climatic factors constrain plant growth in northern ecosystems.

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“…Divergent latitudinal responses with climate warming have also been reported for growth of Picea mariana, suggesting that it could better withstand warming at northernmost locations than at southern locations (D'Orangeville et al, ). These enhanced growth effects at the northern range limit, however, could be transitory for this species as warming continues (D'Orangeville et al, ), especially for juvenile stages which are more sensitive to climate stress than adult stages (Kueppers et al, ; Munier et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divergent responses to climate change and disturbance drive recruitment patterns underlying latitudinal shifts of tree species

2019

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Climate change is expected to result in a reorganization of the continental distribution of tree species. Recent shifts in distribution patterns have been reported, but it is not always clear how climate change influences these patterns locally, especially in relation to other disturbances. We investigated latitudinal shifts of four ecologically important tree species between 1970 and 2014 within a study area that encompasses their northernmost range limit in northeastern North America (Quebec, Canada; ~761,000 km2). Changes in latitudinal limits were defined in relation to changes in tree saplings’ occurrence patterns within forest plots resampled over two time periods (1970–1977 and 2003–2014). By examining changes in the frequency of occurrences in different portions of the study area along a latitudinal gradient, we were able to identify spatially explicit patterns of loss or gain (sapling recruitment) resulting in the shifts observed. We then estimated the probability of observing a recruitment event in response to changes in climate, disturbance and their interaction, using a multimodel selection approach. Latitudinal limits of all four species shifted northward, but these shifts resulted from different patterns of plot occurrence changes, depending on the species and the location examined. Greater recruitment at northern locations than at southern ones drove shifts for Acer saccharum Marsh., Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. and Acer rubrum L., but less so for Betula alleghaniensis Britt. Climate variables indicating changes in early or late growing season conditions were most often selected in models. Warming tended to reduce recruitment probability in the south but increase it in the north, leading to divergent responses for a given species across the study area. Disturbance effects were generally less important than climate change effects, as was their interaction. Synthesis. Spatially explicit and divergent responses to climate change and disturbance drive recruitment patterns underlying latitudinal shifts of tree species. The importance of early‐ or late‐season climate variables points towards biological processes being affected at critical stages of the life cycle. Understanding the factors that influence species’ migration capacity in a changing climate is crucial to inform adaptive management and conservation practices.

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Beneficial effects of climate warming on boreal tree growth may be transitory

Cited by 200 publications

References 61 publications

The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age in boreal–temperate North America

The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age in boreal–temperate North America

Changes in timing of seasonal peak photosynthetic activity in northern ecosystems

Divergent responses to climate change and disturbance drive recruitment patterns underlying latitudinal shifts of tree species

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