Ecosystem warming extends vegetation activity but heightens vulnerability to cold temperatures

Richardson, Andrew D.; Hufkens, Koen; Milliman, Tom; Aubrecht, Donald M.; Furze, Morgan E.; Seyednasrollah, Bijan; Krassovski, Misha; Latimer, John M.; Nettles, W. R.; Heiderman, Ryan R.; Warren, Jeffrey M.; Hanson, Paul J.

doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0399-1

Cited by 296 publications

(253 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This hypothesis was supported in 2017: DMI of Sphagnum increased with modest warming and then decreased with more aggressive warming, with the maximum growth occurring when average temperature was 5.0°C greater than the growing season average ambient temperature. The positive response to warming is consistent with the earlier onset of spring observed in the warmer enclosures (Richardson et al, ), a mechanism that would have been precluded in most other experiments that do not maintain continuous, multiyear warming treatments. However, all other responses we observed in this experiment were linear, and our hypothesis of a curvilinear response is rejected.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Rapid loss of an ecosystem engineer: Sphagnum decline in an experimentally warmed bog

Norby

Childs

Hanson

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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105

154

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Sphagnum mosses are keystone components of peatland ecosystems. They facilitate the accumulation of carbon in peat deposits, but climate change is predicted to expose peatland ecosystem to sustained and unprecedented warming leading to a significant release of carbon to the atmosphere. Sphagnum responses to climate change, and their interaction with other components of the ecosystem, will determine the future trajectory of carbon fluxes in peatlands. We measured the growth and productivity of Sphagnum in an ombrotrophic bog in northern Minnesota, where ten 12.8‐m‐diameter plots were exposed to a range of whole‐ecosystem (air and soil) warming treatments (+0 to +9°C) in ambient or elevated (+500 ppm) CO2. The experiment is unique in its spatial and temporal scale, a focus on response surface analysis encompassing the range of elevated temperature predicted to occur this century, and consideration of an effect of co‐occurring CO2 altering the temperature response surface. In the second year of warming, dry matter increment of Sphagnum increased with modest warming to a maximum at 5°C above ambient and decreased with additional warming. Sphagnum cover declined from close to 100% of the ground area to <50% in the warmest enclosures. After three years of warming, annual Sphagnum productivity declined linearly with increasing temperature (13–29 g C/m2 per °C warming) due to widespread desiccation and loss of Sphagnum. Productivity was less in elevated CO2 enclosures, which we attribute to increased shading by shrubs. Sphagnum desiccation and growth responses were associated with the effects of warming on hydrology. The rapid decline of the Sphagnum community with sustained warming, which appears to be irreversible, can be expected to have many follow‐on consequences to the structure and function of this and similar ecosystems, with significant feedbacks to the global carbon cycle and climate change.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Rapid loss of an ecosystem engineer: Sphagnum decline in an experimentally warmed bog

Norby

Childs

Hanson

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

105

154

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“…This counterintuitive effect of mild springs was recently observed elsewhere (Babst, Carrer, et al, 2012;Ols et al, 2017) and could result from earlier onset of physiological activity and growth in response to warming (Gu et al, 2008;Richardson et al, 2018;Vitasse, Signarbieux, & Fu, 2017). This finding illustrates diverging climatic constraints, from water-limited trees at low elevation to trees constrained by cold temperatures during the growing season at the high end of the elevational gradient.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Taxonomy, together with ontogeny and growing conditions, drives needleleaf species' sensitivity to climate in boreal North America

Marchand

Girardin

Hartmann

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Currently, there is no consensus regarding the way that changes in climate will affect boreal forest growth, where warming is occurring faster than in other biomes. Some studies suggest negative effects due to drought‐induced stresses, while others provide evidence of increased growth rates due to a longer growing season. Studies focusing on the effects of environmental conditions on growth–climate relationships are usually limited to small sampling areas that do not encompass the full range of environmental conditions; therefore, they only provide a limited understanding of the processes at play. Here, we studied how environmental conditions and ontogeny modulated growth trends and growth–climate relationships of black spruce (Picea mariana) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana) using an extensive dataset from a forest inventory network. We quantified the long‐term growth trends at the stand scale, based on analysis of the absolutely dated ring‐width measurements of 2,266 trees. We assessed the relationship between annual growth rates and seasonal climate variables and evaluated the effects of various explanatory variables on long‐term growth trends and growth–climate relationships. Both growth trends and growth–climate relationships were species‐specific and spatially heterogeneous. While the growth of jack pine barely increased during the study period, we observed a growth decline for black spruce which was more pronounced for older stands. This decline was likely due to a negative balance between direct growth gains induced by improved photosynthesis during hotter‐than‐average growing conditions in early summers and the loss of growth occurring the following year due to the indirect effects of late‐summer heat waves on accumulation of carbon reserves. For stands at the high end of our elevational gradient, frost damage during milder‐than‐average springs could act as an additional growth stressor. Competition and soil conditions also modified climate sensitivity, which suggests that effects of climate change will be highly heterogeneous across the boreal biome.

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“…One key finding of the present study is that climate warming does not always advance SOS, delay EOS, and extend LOS (Table and Figures , , and ). However, climate warming has been widely recognized as a major driver of an advanced spring green‐up and a delayed autumn green‐down across ecosystems (Liu, Fu, Zhu, et al, ; Park et al, ; Richardson et al, ). What are the possible explanations for this disparity between our findings and those of the widely reported findings using mainly remote sensing approaches?…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Warming Does Not Always Extend the Plant Growing Season in Inner Mongolian Grasslands: Evidence From a 30‐Year In Situ Observations at Eight Experimental Sites

Wang

Huang

Wei³

et al. 2019

JGR Biogeosciences

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Over the past three decades, a generally increased air temperature occurred at most places in Inner Mongolia. Such a climate warming, which outpaced the global average warming rate, has been reported to significantly influence the vegetation phenology across the Inner Mongolia grasslands. However, there is less evidence from in situ observations to demonstrate the effect of climate warming on grass phenology. In this study, we analyzed the trends in both climatic and grassland phenological variations using the data from a 30‐year in situ observations at eight experimental sites in Inner Mongolia. We found that the most significant warming occurred during the growing season, while the temperature in nongrowing season did not show significant trends. Under this warming climate, two thirds of the observed phenologies (start, end, and length of the growing season) for different plant species across the eight sites did not show significant changes. Plant phenology exhibited divergent shifts in magnitudes and directions, depending on not only climate variation but also plant species (e.g., L. chinensis).

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Ecosystem warming extends vegetation activity but heightens vulnerability to cold temperatures

Cited by 296 publications

References 41 publications

Rapid loss of an ecosystem engineer: Sphagnum decline in an experimentally warmed bog

Rapid loss of an ecosystem engineer: Sphagnum decline in an experimentally warmed bog

Taxonomy, together with ontogeny and growing conditions, drives needleleaf species' sensitivity to climate in boreal North America

Climate Warming Does Not Always Extend the Plant Growing Season in Inner Mongolian Grasslands: Evidence From a 30‐Year In Situ Observations at Eight Experimental Sites

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