Importance of soil moisture and N availability to larch growth and distribution in the Arctic taiga-tundra boundary ecosystem, northeastern Siberia

Liang, Mao-Chang; Sugimoto, Akihiro; Tei, Shunsuke; Bragin, I.V.; Takano, Shinya; Morozumi, Tatsuya; Shingubara, Ryo; Maximov, Trofim C.; Kiyashko, S. I.; Velivetskaya, T. A.; Ignatiev, A. V.

doi:10.1016/j.polar.2014.07.008

Cited by 37 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…They further suggest that the importance of soil moisture to the growth of Arctic shrubs increased during warm summers. The results of our study support this statement, due to the positive correlation between soil moisture and summer precipitation in the study region (Liang et al 2014).…”

Section: Climatic Change and Shrub Growthsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Remarkable was the peak growth rate in 2011, which coincided with a warm and wet summer, whereas the preceding summer of 2010 was even warmer but also very dry, resulting in a rather modest radial growth (online resource 2). At a nearby treeline research site, 2011 was also an exceptional year with high photosynthetic rate (Liang et al 2014). It was recently stated that apart from summer temperature, soil moisture is another important factor that largely affects the growth of shrubs in the Arctic (MyersSmith et al 2015a).…”

Section: Climatic Change and Shrub Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of summer precipitation and summer temperature in establishment and growth of dwarf shrub Betula nana in northeast Siberian tundra

Heijmans

Berendse

et al. 2015

Polar Biol

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It is widely believed that deciduous tundrashrub dominance is increasing in the pan-Arctic region, mainly due to rising temperature. We sampled dwarf birch (Betula nana L.) at a northeastern Siberian tundra site and used dendrochronological methods to explore the relationship between climatic variables and local shrub dominance. We found that establishment of shrub ramets was positively related to summer precipitation, which implies that the current high dominance of B. nana at our study site could be related to high summer precipitation in the period from 1960 to 1990. The results confirmed that early summer temperature is most influential to annual growth rates of B. nana. In addition, summer precipitation stimulated shrub growth in years with warm summers, suggesting that B. nana growth may be co-limited by summer moisture supply. The dual controlling role of temperature and summer precipitation on B. nana growth and establishment is important to predict future climate-driven vegetation dynamics in the Arctic tundra.

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Section: Climatic Change and Shrub Growthsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Climatic Change and Shrub Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of summer precipitation and summer temperature in establishment and growth of dwarf shrub Betula nana in northeast Siberian tundra

Heijmans

Berendse

et al. 2015

Polar Biol

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“…In this regard, Liang et al. () reported that larch trees were observed generally in a relatively dry soil environment and that they were unable to survive in an excessively wet soil environment at a taiga–tundra boundary site in Northeastern Siberia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time lag and negative responses of forest greenness and tree growth to warming over circumboreal forests

Tei

Sugimoto

2018

Global Change Biology

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The terrestrial forest ecosystems in the northern high latitude region have been experiencing significant warming rates over several decades. These forests are considered crucial to the climate system and global carbon cycle and are particularly vulnerable to climate change. To obtain an improved estimate of the response of vegetation activity, e.g., forest greenness and tree growth, to climate change, we investigated spatiotemporal variations in two independent data sets containing the dendroecological information for this region over the past 30 years. These indices are the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI3g) and the tree-ring width index (RWI), both of which showed significant spatial variability in past trends and responses to climate changes. These trends and responses to climate change differed significantly in the ecosystems of the circumarctic (latitude higher than 67°N) and the circumboreal forests (latitude higher and lower than 50°N and 67°N, respectively), but the way in which they differed was relatively similar in the NDVI3g and the RWI. In the circumarctic ecosystem, the climate variables of the current summer were the main climatic drivers for the positive response to the increase in temperatures showed by both the NDVI3g and the RWI indices. On the other hand, in the circumboreal forest ecosystem, the climate variables of the previous year (from summer to winter) were also important climatic drivers for both the NDVI3g and the RWI. Importantly, both indices showed that the temperatures in the previous year negatively affected the ecosystem. Although such negative responses to warming did not necessarily lead to a past negative linear trend in the NDVI3g and the RWI over the past 30 years, future climate warming could potentially cause severe reduction in forest greenness and tree growth in the circumboreal forest ecosystem.

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“…The larch trees in this region had grown in relatively dry soil and thus were unable to survive in an excessively wet soil environment (Liang et al, ). In addition, Fan, Morozumi, Maximov, and Sugimoto () reported that not only the larch trees, but also the willows generated some stress signals under the prolonged flooding conditions in the reach resulting in both the closure of stomata and reduction of the foliar photosynthetic activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we investigated the extent and climatic drivers of the extreme flooding that occurred in spring‐summer 2017 over the lower reach of the Indigirka River lowland (in which unusually large water‐covered areas were observed in the summer season) by using the results of field observations, satellite images, and climate reanalysis datasets. In addition, the impact of the extreme flooding on the forest tundra ecosystem was discussed with reference to previous ecological studies on the lower reaches (e.g., Fan et al, ; Liang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An extreme flood caused by a heavy snowfall over the Indigirka River basin in Northeastern Siberia

Tei

Morozumi

Nagai

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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Flooding is one of the greatest disasters that produces strong effects on the ecosystem and livelihoods of the local population. Flood frequency is expected to increase globally making its risk assessment an urgent issue. In spring-summer 2017, an extreme flooding occurred in the Indigirka River lowland of Northeastern Siberia that inundated a large area. In this study, the extent and climatic drivers of the flooding were determined using the results of field observations, satellite images, and climate reanalysis dataset, and its possible effects on the ecosystem were discussed. In 2017, a significant lowland area of around 16,016 km 2 was covered with water even in July, which was 5,217 km 2 (around 4% of the total area) greater than the water-covered area in 2015 when usual hydrological condition in the area was observed. The hydrographic signature obtained for the Indigirka River water level in 2017 was unusual. Although the water level rose sharply at the end of May (which was typical for the Arctic region), it did not fall afterwards and even increased again to an annual daily maximum value in the middle of July. The climate reanalysis dataset obtained for the temporal-spatial variations of snow water equivalent, snowmelt, and runoff over the lowland revealed that a large amount of snowmelt runoff in June and July 2017 produced a large water-covered area and unusually high river water levels that lasted until summer. Snow depth from winter to spring was largest in 2017 over the period from 2009 to 2017, and the surface of the lower reach of the lowland was partially covered with snow even in the end of June due to the extreme snowfall that occurred in October 2016. Such unusual hydrological conditions waterlogged most trees over the lowland, which caused serious ecosystem devastation and changes in the material cycle.

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Importance of soil moisture and N availability to larch growth and distribution in the Arctic taiga-tundra boundary ecosystem, northeastern Siberia

Cited by 37 publications

References 61 publications

The role of summer precipitation and summer temperature in establishment and growth of dwarf shrub Betula nana in northeast Siberian tundra

The role of summer precipitation and summer temperature in establishment and growth of dwarf shrub Betula nana in northeast Siberian tundra

Time lag and negative responses of forest greenness and tree growth to warming over circumboreal forests

An extreme flood caused by a heavy snowfall over the Indigirka River basin in Northeastern Siberia

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