Earlier springs decrease peak summer productivity in North American boreal forests
TLDR
In this paper, the authors analyzed nearly three decades (1982?2008) of observational records and derived products, including satellite microwave and optical imagery as well as upscaled ecosystem flux observations, to better understand how shifts in seasonality impact hydrology and productivity in the North American boreal forests.Abstract:
In the northern high latitudes, alternative hypotheses with regards to how warming-related shifts in seasonality influence ecosystem productivity exist. Increased plant growth associated with a longer growing season may enhance ecosystem productivity, but shifts to earlier springs may also negatively influence soil moisture status and productivity during the peak of the growing season. Here, we analyzed nearly three decades (1982?2008) of observational records and derived products, including satellite microwave and optical imagery as well as upscaled ecosystem flux observations, to better understand how shifts in seasonality impact hydrology and productivity in the North American boreal forests. We identified a dominant adverse influence of earlier springs on peak summer forest greenness, actual evapotranspiration and productivity at interannual time scales across the drier western and central sections of the North American boreal forests. In the vast regions where this spring onset mechanism operates, ecosystem productivity gains from earlier springs during the early portion of the growing season are effectively cancelled through corresponding losses in the later portion. Our results also indicate that recent decadal shifts towards earlier springs and associated drying in the midst of the growing season over western North American boreal forests may have contributed to the reported declines in summer productivity and increases in tree mortality and fire activity. With projections of accelerated northern high-latitude warming and associated shifts to earlier springs, persistent soil moisture deficits in peak summer may be an effective mechanism for regional-scale boreal forest dieback through their strong influence on productivity, tree mortality and disturbance dynamics.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The chained effects of earlier vegetation activities and summer droughts on ecosystem productivity on the Tibetan Plateau
Ning Chen,Yan Zhang,Changchun Song,Mingjie Xu,Tao Zhang,Meng Li,Nan Cong,Jiaxing Zu,Zhoutao Zheng,Guobao Ma,KeXin Huang +10 more
TL;DR: In this article , Wang et al. evaluated the chained effects between earlier vegetation activities and summer droughts on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and found that higher spring vegetation productivity is caused by early vegetation activities, partially compensated for summer drought-induced loss.
Seasonal differences in the relationships between the changes in spring phenology and the dynamics of carbon cycle for grasslands
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between spring phenological changes and the dynamics of carbon cycle, including NEP; ecosystem respiration, ER; and gross ecosystem production, at a ten-day scale.
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Spring Phenology of the Boreal Ecosystems
TL;DR: In this article, a remote sensing green-up retrieval method designed to avoid signal contamination by snow was presented, and the result validation with ground observations showed that the method caught the interannual variations in phenology of the plant community.
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Increasing summer net CO 2 uptake in high northern ecosystems inferred from atmospheric inversions and remote sensing
Lisa R. Welp,Lisa R. Welp,Prabir K. Patra,Christian Rödenbeck,Rama Nemani,Jian Bi,Stephen C. Piper,Ralph F. Keeling +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine CO2 fluxes from northern boreal and tundra from 1986 to 2012 estimated from two inverse models (RIGC and Jena), both using measured atmospheric CO2 concentrations and wind-fields from interannually variable reanalysis.
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Vegetation Productivity Losses Linked to Mediterranean Hot and Dry Events
TL;DR: In this article, the productivity of Mediterranean vegetation is affected by hot and dry events, examining a set of severe episodes that occurred in three different regions (Iberian Peninsula, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Europe) between 2001 and 2019.
References
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