Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A fingerprint of climate change across pine forests of Sweden

Oleksyn, Jacek ; Wyka, Tomasz P. ; Żytkowiak, Roma ; Zadworny, Marcin ; Mucha, Joanna ; Dering, Monika ; Ufnalski, Krzysztof ; Nihlgård, Bengt LU and Reich, Peter B. (2020) In Ecology Letters 23(12). p.1739-1746
Abstract

Climate change has likely altered high-latitude forests globally, but direct evidence remains rare. Here we show that throughout a ≈1000-km transect in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests in Sweden, mature trees in ≈2015 had longer needles with shorter lifetimes than did trees in ≈1915. These century-scale shifts in needle traits were detected by sampling needles at 74 sites from 2012 to 2017 along the same transect where needle traits had been assessed at 57 sites in 1914–1915. Climate warming of ≈1 °C all along the transect in the past century has driven this temporal shift in foliage traits known to be physiologically critical to growth and carbon cycling processes. These century-scale changes in Scandinavian Scots pine forests... (More)

Climate change has likely altered high-latitude forests globally, but direct evidence remains rare. Here we show that throughout a ≈1000-km transect in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests in Sweden, mature trees in ≈2015 had longer needles with shorter lifetimes than did trees in ≈1915. These century-scale shifts in needle traits were detected by sampling needles at 74 sites from 2012 to 2017 along the same transect where needle traits had been assessed at 57 sites in 1914–1915. Climate warming of ≈1 °C all along the transect in the past century has driven this temporal shift in foliage traits known to be physiologically critical to growth and carbon cycling processes. These century-scale changes in Scandinavian Scots pine forests represent a fingerprint of climate change on a fundamental biological element, the leaf, with repercussions for productivity and sensitivity to future climate, which are likely to be mirrored by similar changes for evergreen conifers across the boreal biome.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Boreal forests, climatic drivers, functional traits, needle longevity, Pinus sylvestris
in
Ecology Letters
volume
23
issue
12
pages
8 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85089972541
  • pmid:32856759
ISSN
1461-023X
DOI
10.1111/ele.13587
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0cf0d416-d49e-4971-ba21-49479332bb24
date added to LUP
2020-09-24 18:44:46
date last changed
2024-05-15 18:40:22
@article{0cf0d416-d49e-4971-ba21-49479332bb24,
  abstract     = {{<p>Climate change has likely altered high-latitude forests globally, but direct evidence remains rare. Here we show that throughout a ≈1000-km transect in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests in Sweden, mature trees in ≈2015 had longer needles with shorter lifetimes than did trees in ≈1915. These century-scale shifts in needle traits were detected by sampling needles at 74 sites from 2012 to 2017 along the same transect where needle traits had been assessed at 57 sites in 1914–1915. Climate warming of ≈1 °C all along the transect in the past century has driven this temporal shift in foliage traits known to be physiologically critical to growth and carbon cycling processes. These century-scale changes in Scandinavian Scots pine forests represent a fingerprint of climate change on a fundamental biological element, the leaf, with repercussions for productivity and sensitivity to future climate, which are likely to be mirrored by similar changes for evergreen conifers across the boreal biome.</p>}},
  author       = {{Oleksyn, Jacek and Wyka, Tomasz P. and Żytkowiak, Roma and Zadworny, Marcin and Mucha, Joanna and Dering, Monika and Ufnalski, Krzysztof and Nihlgård, Bengt and Reich, Peter B.}},
  issn         = {{1461-023X}},
  keywords     = {{Boreal forests; climatic drivers; functional traits; needle longevity; Pinus sylvestris}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{1739--1746}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Ecology Letters}},
  title        = {{A fingerprint of climate change across pine forests of Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13587}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/ele.13587}},
  volume       = {{23}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}