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Atmospheric brightening counteracts warming-induced delays in autumn phenology of temperate trees in Europe

Wu, Zhaofei ; Chen, Shouzhi ; De Boeck, Hans J. ; Stenseth, Nils Christian ; Tang, Jing LU orcid ; Vitasse, Yann ; Wang, Shuxin ; Zohner, Constantin and Fu, Yongshuo H. (2021) In Global Ecology and Biogeography 30(12). p.2477-2487
Abstract

Aim: Ongoing climate warming has been widely reported to delay autumn phenology, which in turn impacts carbon, water, energy and nutrient balances at regional and global scales. However, the underlying mechanisms of autumn phenology responses to climate change have not been fully elucidated. The aims of this study were to determine whether brightening that was defined as the increase of surface solar radiation and warming during recent decades affect autumn phenology in opposite directions and explore the underlying mechanisms. Location: Central Europe. Time period: 1950–2016. Major taxa studied: Four dominant European tree species in central Europe: Aesculus hippocastanum, Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur. Methods: We... (More)

Aim: Ongoing climate warming has been widely reported to delay autumn phenology, which in turn impacts carbon, water, energy and nutrient balances at regional and global scales. However, the underlying mechanisms of autumn phenology responses to climate change have not been fully elucidated. The aims of this study were to determine whether brightening that was defined as the increase of surface solar radiation and warming during recent decades affect autumn phenology in opposite directions and explore the underlying mechanisms. Location: Central Europe. Time period: 1950–2016. Major taxa studied: Four dominant European tree species in central Europe: Aesculus hippocastanum, Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur. Methods: We investigated the temporal trends of leaf senescence, preseason temperature and radiation by separating the period of 1950–2016 into two sub-periods (1950–1982 and 1983–2016) and determined the relationship between temperature, radiation and leaf senescence using partial correlation analysis. Results: We found a significant warming and brightening trend after the 1980s in central Europe, yet this led to only slight delays in leaf senescence that cannot be explained by the well-known positive correlation between leaf senescence and autumn warming. Interestingly, we found opposite effects between warming (partial correlation coefficient, r =.37) and brightening (r = −.23) on leaf senescence. In addition, the temperature sensitivity of leaf senescence decreased with increasing radiation (−5.08 days/℃/108 J/m2). Main conclusions: The results suggested that brightening accelerated the leaf senescence dates, counteracting the warming-induced delays in leaf senescence, which may be attributed to photooxidative stress and/or sink limitation. This emphasizes the need to consider radiation to improve the performance of autumn phenology models.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
autumn phenology, brightening, climate warming, leaf senescence, radiation, temperature sensitivity
in
Global Ecology and Biogeography
volume
30
issue
12
pages
2477 - 2487
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85115623644
ISSN
1466-822X
DOI
10.1111/geb.13404
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e8581a82-ebed-4a3e-84ea-3acb7ac6ff74
date added to LUP
2021-10-06 23:30:12
date last changed
2022-04-27 04:32:13
@article{e8581a82-ebed-4a3e-84ea-3acb7ac6ff74,
  abstract     = {{<p>Aim: Ongoing climate warming has been widely reported to delay autumn phenology, which in turn impacts carbon, water, energy and nutrient balances at regional and global scales. However, the underlying mechanisms of autumn phenology responses to climate change have not been fully elucidated. The aims of this study were to determine whether brightening that was defined as the increase of surface solar radiation and warming during recent decades affect autumn phenology in opposite directions and explore the underlying mechanisms. Location: Central Europe. Time period: 1950–2016. Major taxa studied: Four dominant European tree species in central Europe: Aesculus hippocastanum, Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur. Methods: We investigated the temporal trends of leaf senescence, preseason temperature and radiation by separating the period of 1950–2016 into two sub-periods (1950–1982 and 1983–2016) and determined the relationship between temperature, radiation and leaf senescence using partial correlation analysis. Results: We found a significant warming and brightening trend after the 1980s in central Europe, yet this led to only slight delays in leaf senescence that cannot be explained by the well-known positive correlation between leaf senescence and autumn warming. Interestingly, we found opposite effects between warming (partial correlation coefficient, r =.37) and brightening (r = −.23) on leaf senescence. In addition, the temperature sensitivity of leaf senescence decreased with increasing radiation (−5.08 days/℃/10<sup>8</sup> J/m<sup>2</sup>). Main conclusions: The results suggested that brightening accelerated the leaf senescence dates, counteracting the warming-induced delays in leaf senescence, which may be attributed to photooxidative stress and/or sink limitation. This emphasizes the need to consider radiation to improve the performance of autumn phenology models.</p>}},
  author       = {{Wu, Zhaofei and Chen, Shouzhi and De Boeck, Hans J. and Stenseth, Nils Christian and Tang, Jing and Vitasse, Yann and Wang, Shuxin and Zohner, Constantin and Fu, Yongshuo H.}},
  issn         = {{1466-822X}},
  keywords     = {{autumn phenology; brightening; climate warming; leaf senescence; radiation; temperature sensitivity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{2477--2487}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Global Ecology and Biogeography}},
  title        = {{Atmospheric brightening counteracts warming-induced delays in autumn phenology of temperate trees in Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.13404}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/geb.13404}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}