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Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra biome

Myers-Smith, Isla H. ; Elmendorf, Sarah C. ; Beck, Pieter S A ; Wilmking, Martin ; Hallinger, Martin ; Blok, Daan LU ; Tape, Ken D. ; Rayback, Shelly A. ; Macias-Fauria, Marc and Forbes, Bruce C. , et al. (2015) In Nature Climate Change 5(9). p.887-891
Abstract

Rapid climate warming in the tundra biome has been linked to increasing shrub dominance. Shrub expansion can modify climate by altering surface albedo, energy and water balance, and permafrost, yet the drivers of shrub growth remain poorly understood. Dendroecological data consisting of multi-decadal time series of annual shrub growth provide an underused resource to explore climate-growth relationships. Here, we analyse circumpolar data from 37 Arctic and alpine sites in 9 countries, including 25 species, and â 1/442,000 annual growth records from 1,821 individuals. Our analyses demonstrate that the sensitivity of shrub growth to climate was: (1) heterogeneous, with European sites showing greater summer temperature sensitivity than... (More)

Rapid climate warming in the tundra biome has been linked to increasing shrub dominance. Shrub expansion can modify climate by altering surface albedo, energy and water balance, and permafrost, yet the drivers of shrub growth remain poorly understood. Dendroecological data consisting of multi-decadal time series of annual shrub growth provide an underused resource to explore climate-growth relationships. Here, we analyse circumpolar data from 37 Arctic and alpine sites in 9 countries, including 25 species, and â 1/442,000 annual growth records from 1,821 individuals. Our analyses demonstrate that the sensitivity of shrub growth to climate was: (1) heterogeneous, with European sites showing greater summer temperature sensitivity than North American sites, and (2) higher at sites with greater soil moisture and for taller shrubs (for example, alders and willows) growing at their northern or upper elevational range edges. Across latitude, climate sensitivity of growth was greatest at the boundary between the Low and High Arctic, where permafrost is thawing and most of the global permafrost soil carbon pool is stored. The observed variation in climate-shrub growth relationships should be incorporated into Earth system models to improve future projections of climate change impacts across the tundra biome.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Climate Change
volume
5
issue
9
pages
5 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:84939803773
ISSN
1758-678X
DOI
10.1038/nclimate2697
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
7a13437a-f1e7-4fa0-9194-2d3c9a5d65fb
date added to LUP
2016-06-29 22:09:44
date last changed
2022-04-16 17:58:58
@article{7a13437a-f1e7-4fa0-9194-2d3c9a5d65fb,
  abstract     = {{<p>Rapid climate warming in the tundra biome has been linked to increasing shrub dominance. Shrub expansion can modify climate by altering surface albedo, energy and water balance, and permafrost, yet the drivers of shrub growth remain poorly understood. Dendroecological data consisting of multi-decadal time series of annual shrub growth provide an underused resource to explore climate-growth relationships. Here, we analyse circumpolar data from 37 Arctic and alpine sites in 9 countries, including 25 species, and â 1/442,000 annual growth records from 1,821 individuals. Our analyses demonstrate that the sensitivity of shrub growth to climate was: (1) heterogeneous, with European sites showing greater summer temperature sensitivity than North American sites, and (2) higher at sites with greater soil moisture and for taller shrubs (for example, alders and willows) growing at their northern or upper elevational range edges. Across latitude, climate sensitivity of growth was greatest at the boundary between the Low and High Arctic, where permafrost is thawing and most of the global permafrost soil carbon pool is stored. The observed variation in climate-shrub growth relationships should be incorporated into Earth system models to improve future projections of climate change impacts across the tundra biome.</p>}},
  author       = {{Myers-Smith, Isla H. and Elmendorf, Sarah C. and Beck, Pieter S A and Wilmking, Martin and Hallinger, Martin and Blok, Daan and Tape, Ken D. and Rayback, Shelly A. and Macias-Fauria, Marc and Forbes, Bruce C. and Speed, James D M and Boulanger-Lapointe, Noémie and Rixen, Christian and Lévesque, Esther and Schmidt, Niels Martin and Baittinger, Claudia and Trant, Andrew J. and Hermanutz, Luise and Collier, Laura Siegwart and Dawes, Melissa A. and Lantz, Trevor C. and Weijers, Stef and JØrgensen, Rasmus Halfdan and Buchwal, Agata and Buras, Allan and Naito, Adam T. and Ravolainen, Virve and Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela and Wheeler, Julia A. and Wipf, Sonja and Guay, Kevin C. and Hik, David S. and Vellend, Mark}},
  issn         = {{1758-678X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  number       = {{9}},
  pages        = {{887--891}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Climate Change}},
  title        = {{Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra biome}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2697}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/nclimate2697}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}