Decreasing rainfall frequency contributes to earlier leaf onset in northern ecosystems

Wang, Jian; Liu, Desheng; Ciais, Philippe; Peñuelas, Josep

doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01285-w

Cited by 40 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…In contrast to temperature, the influence of water availability on phenological dates is more elusive depending highly on phase, species, and timing (Jentsch et al 2009;Menzel et al 2011;Peñuelas et al 2004;Wang et al 2022;. Water availability has a lower influence on phenology in temperate regions in comparison to Fig.…”

Section: Variable Importancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, the lack of transpirational cooling increases leaf temperatures, which can accelerate plant growth, whereas on the other hand, reduced water availability constrains plant development (Bernal et al 2011;Spano et al 2013). Furthermore, dry conditions contribute to the earlier onset of leaf unfolding, presumably due to increased radiation (Wang et al 2022). Therefore, the effects of changes in water availability differ strongly in the scientific literature, especially regarding the impact on flowering dates.…”

Section: Variable Importancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These shifts in the onset of phenological phases influence a large variety of environmental and ecological processes. Phenology determines the length of the growing season and plays therefore a substantial role in the annual water, nutrient and carbon cycles (Forrest and Miller-Rushing 2010;Wang et al 2022). Climate change alters temperatures, whereas photoperiod remains unchanged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drivers of phenological changes in southern Europe

Vogel

2022

Int J Biometeorol

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The life cycle of plants is largely determined by climate, which renders phenological responses to climate change a highly suitable bioindicator of climate change. Yet, it remains unclear, which are the key drivers of phenological patterns at certain life stages. Furthermore, the varying responses of species belonging to different plant functional types are not fully understood. In this study, the role of temperature and precipitation as environmental drivers of phenological changes in southern Europe is assessed. The trends of the phenophases leaf unfolding, flowering, fruiting, and senescence are quantified, and the corresponding main environmental drivers are identified. A clear trend towards an earlier onset of leaf unfolding, flowering, and fruiting is detected, while there is no clear pattern for senescence. In general, the advancement of leaf unfolding, flowering and fruiting is smaller for deciduous broadleaf trees in comparison to deciduous shrubs and crops. Many broadleaf trees are photoperiod-sensitive; therefore, their comparatively small phenological advancements are likely the effect of photoperiod counterbalancing the impact of increasing temperatures. While temperature is identified as the main driver of phenological changes, precipitation also plays a crucial role in determining the onset of leaf unfolding and flowering. Phenological phases advance under dry conditions, which can be linked to the lack of transpirational cooling leading to rising temperatures, which subsequently accelerate plant growth.

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Section: Variable Importancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variable Importancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drivers of phenological changes in southern Europe

Vogel

2022

Int J Biometeorol

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“…This is not a particular characteristic of Boreal latitudes, as the tropics in summer are also prone to wildfire occurrences 2,10 due to warm and dry conditions. In both regions, precipitation distribution is not uniform throughout spring-summer, and high temperature and low precipitation lead to reduced soil moisture affecting local vegetation properties such as productivity and greenness [11][12][13] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic Oscillation and Pacific-North American pattern dominated-modulation of fire danger and wildfire occurrence

et al. 2022

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Based on statistical analyses and Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the Pacific-North American pattern (PNA) induced climate anomalies in the 2001–2020 interval, it has been found that these climate modes drastically influence the fire danger (PFIv2) in differing ways across coastal and inland regions. The AO induces higher fire risk in northern Eurasia and central North America, whereas the PNA increases the fire danger across southern Asia and western North America. Moreover, fires have been predominantly identified, up to 70%, during the positive phases of AO and PNA northward of 50°N, in particular over Alaska, Baltic States and eastern Asia. For coincident positive AO and negative PNA days, a large number of fires have been identified over northwestern North America and northern Eurasia. Spectral analyses demonstrate that weather anomalies related to AO and PNA lead fire danger by 10–20 days, and both modes are significantly correlated to PFIv2 over north America and most of Eurasia. Despite some drawbacks related to the fire danger methods currently applied (PFI and FWI), it is demonstrated that the influence of AO and PNA on potential environmental driven-fires can be anticipated, in some locations on almost 90% of days. Fire danger forecasts are urgently needed and the understanding of factors and conditions, which are able to modify the environmental susceptibility to fire development, are crucial for adequate management to reduce the harmful effects of fire. In this sense, our results reveal that a better prediction of the fire season can be achieved by advanced assessment of the PNA and AO behavior, and shed light on the need to investigate the impact of other modes of climate variability upon wildfire frequency and severity.

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“…J. Wang et al. (2022) showed that decreasing P freq during the past three decades contributes to earlier leaf onset date, mainly caused by increased exposure to radiation (J. Wang et al., 2022). Different from the plant growth in spring, low P freq leads to extended precipitation intervals, thereby aggravating summer water stress that is of great significance for arid ecosystems (Knapp et al., 2002; Stampfli et al., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite Observed Land Surface Greening in Summer Controlled by the Precipitation Frequency Rather Than Its Total Over Tibetan Plateau

Liu

Jassal

et al. 2022

Earth's Future

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Land surface greening has substantially changed the carbon sequestration and hydrological processes over Tibetan Plateau (TP). Previous studies have revealed that the increased total precipitation (Ptotal) is the main driver of the enhanced peak growth in TP. However, the role of precipitation pattern, especially the frequency of precipitation (Pfreq, number of rainy days [>0.1 mm]), has not been well analyzed. We used time series of satellite‐derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to investigate the effect of Pfreq in controlling the peak growth (the maximum of the NDVI [NDVImax]) of different vegetation types in TP for the period of 1982–2015. We found that the widespread greening trend with Ptotal disappeared when Pfreq was introduced as a controlling variable, and that Pfreq alone contributed more than Ptotal to the increase of NDVImax. The underlying mechanism for the higher contribution of Pfreq than Ptotal to NDVImax is that increased Pfreq significantly improved soil moisture, reduced daytime temperature while increased nighttime temperature, thereby alleviating summer drought. Our results highlight the importance of Pfreq in interpreting the variation of peak growth, and these effects might be better represented in ecosystem models by considering Pfreq rather than Ptotal alone with future climate change.

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Decreasing rainfall frequency contributes to earlier leaf onset in northern ecosystems

Cited by 40 publications

References 53 publications

Drivers of phenological changes in southern Europe

Drivers of phenological changes in southern Europe

Arctic Oscillation and Pacific-North American pattern dominated-modulation of fire danger and wildfire occurrence

Satellite Observed Land Surface Greening in Summer Controlled by the Precipitation Frequency Rather Than Its Total Over Tibetan Plateau

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