Spatio-temporal patterns of satellite-derived grassland vegetation phenology from 1998 to 2012 in Inner Mongolia, China

Sha, Zongyao; Zhong, Jialin; Bai, Yongfei; Tan, Xicheng; Li, Jonathan

doi:10.1007/s40333-016-0121-9

Cited by 31 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(101 reference statements)

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“…The unusually low precipitation during the late spring of 2015 (the average calculated PET from May to July was 0.7 ± 0.4), which induced a homogeneous drying of the soil across all soil warming levels (data not shown), thus likely delayed the greenup beyond the timing of “GDD fulfillment.” This can explain the higher cumulative GDD at SOS. This delaying effect of spring drought to the timing of SOS agreed with earlier studies of subarctic grasslands (Chen et al., ) and of grasslands in general (Sha et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…However, the considerable difference in the timing of earliest greening in 2013 and 2014 (beginning of May) versus 2015 (beginning of June), in combination with the clear decline in temperature sensitivity in 2015, indicated that day length was not the main driver of the SOS in these subarctic grasslands. Precipitation can play a role in SOS of subarctic and alpine grasslands, although its effect is not consistent, varying between nonexistent (Piao et al., ), positive (Fu, Piao, et al., ), negative (Chen et al., ; Sha, Zhong, Bai, Tan, & Li, ), and dependent on the specific situation (Shen, Piao, Cong, Zhang, & Janssens, ; Shen, Tang, Chen, Zhu, & Zheng, ; Zhang, Yi, Kimball, Kim, & Song, ). In this study, no major variation in soil water status occurred along the temperature gradients (Sigurdsson et al., ), especially in early spring, so it is unlikely that precipitation was an important determinant of the decelerating advance of SOS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Firstly, the temperature control of SOS could be confounded by spring drought in these subarctic grasslands (across all treatments). This was revealed by the higher cumulative GDD requirements during the coldest year (2015) (both for soil and surface GDD), which was counterintuitive because GDD requirements tend to be lower under colder conditions due to higher energy-use efficiency Liu et al, 2014 (Chen et al, 2014) and of grasslands in general (Sha et al, 2016).…”

Section: Contribution Of Secondary Effects To Sos and Eosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short‐term and long‐term natural soil warming

Leblans

Sigurðsson

Vicca

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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The phenology of vegetation, particularly the length of the growing season (LOS; i.e., the period from greenup to senescence), is highly sensitive to climate change, which could imply potent feedbacks to the climate system, for example, by altering the ecosystem carbon (C) balance. In recent decades, the largest extensions of LOS have been reported at high northern latitudes, but further warming-induced LOS extensions may be constrained by too short photoperiod or unfulfilled chilling requirements. Here, we studied subarctic grasslands, which cover a vast area and contain large C stocks, but for which LOS changes under further warming are highly uncertain. We measured LOS extensions of Icelandic subarctic grasslands along natural geothermal soil warming gradients of different age (short term, where the measurements started after 5 years of warming and long term, i.e., warmed since ≥50 years) using ground-level measurements of normalized difference vegetation index. We found that LOS linearly extended with on average 2.1 days per °C soil warming up to the highest soil warming levels (ca. +10°C) and that LOS had the potential to extend at least 1 month. This indicates that the warming impact on LOS in these subarctic grasslands will likely not saturate in the near future. A similar response to short- and long-term warming indicated a strong physiological control of the phenological response of the subarctic grasslands to warming and suggested that genetic adaptations and community changes were likely of minor importance. We conclude that the warming-driven extension of the LOSs of these subarctic grasslands did not saturate up to +10°C warming, and hence that growing seasons of high-latitude grasslands are likely to continue lengthening with future warming (unless genetic adaptations or species shifts do occur). This persistence of the warming-induced extension of LOS has important implications for the C-sink potential of subarctic grasslands under climate change.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contribution Of Secondary Effects To Sos and Eosmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short‐term and long‐term natural soil warming

Leblans

Sigurðsson

Vicca

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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“…For example, Miao et al () found an advanced SOS and a delayed EOS across the biomes in Monglian Plateau (consists of both Inner Mongolia of China and the Republic of Mongolia, the Inner Mongolia is located in the eastern and southern parts of Mongolian Plateau). By contrast, Sha et al () reported that both SOS and EOS did not exhibit consistent shifts at the regional scale in Inner Mongolian grasslands. In general, existing studies are mainly based on satellite greenness index data and spatially interpolated climate data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Climate Warming Does Not Always Extend the Plant Growing Season in Inner Mongolian Grasslands: Evidence From a 30‐Year In Situ Observations at Eight Experimental Sites

Wang

Huang

Wei³

et al. 2019

JGR Biogeosciences

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Over the past three decades, a generally increased air temperature occurred at most places in Inner Mongolia. Such a climate warming, which outpaced the global average warming rate, has been reported to significantly influence the vegetation phenology across the Inner Mongolia grasslands. However, there is less evidence from in situ observations to demonstrate the effect of climate warming on grass phenology. In this study, we analyzed the trends in both climatic and grassland phenological variations using the data from a 30‐year in situ observations at eight experimental sites in Inner Mongolia. We found that the most significant warming occurred during the growing season, while the temperature in nongrowing season did not show significant trends. Under this warming climate, two thirds of the observed phenologies (start, end, and length of the growing season) for different plant species across the eight sites did not show significant changes. Plant phenology exhibited divergent shifts in magnitudes and directions, depending on not only climate variation but also plant species (e.g., L. chinensis).

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“…A significant advancement in the first leaf unfolding of T. mongolicum during the period 1990-2009 was observed at nine stations, while a significant delay was found at seven stations in east China (Chen et al, 2015). In addition to ground-based studies, the remote sensing data also indicated that the start of the growing season did not exhibit consistent shifts at either the regional or vegetation type level in Inner Mongolia from 1998 to 2012 (Sha et al, 2016;Ren et al, 2018). These results differed from the widespread earlier spring events of all plants and animals in China (Ge et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Effects of multiple climate change factors on the spring phenology of herbaceous plants in Inner Mongolia, China: Evidence from ground observation and controlled experiments

Huang

Wang

et al. 2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

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In a natural ecosystem or as climatic climax community, grassland is relatively dry with a strongly seasonal climate, and sensitive to climatic changes. Most of the previous studies used remote sensing data to investigate the phenological response of grassland to climate change, while ground‐based studies covering a large geographic area were limited. In this study, using the long‐term phenological data (1981–2012) of 16 herbaceous species observed at 20 stations in Inner Mongolia, China, we first investigated the trends in three spring phenophases, including the dates of bud‐burst, first leaf unfolding, and 50% of leaf unfolding. Subsequently, multiple linear regressions between phenophases and four climatic factors (spring temperature, soil moisture, chilling temperature, and insolation) were performed to determine the relative importance of each factor on the spring phenology. To validate the resulted regression coefficients, we developed a controlled environment to investigate the factors regulating the leaf unfolding time of one dominant species (Leymus chinensis). The results showed that the study area became warmer and drier from 1981 to 2012. However, the overall changes in spring phenophases were not apparent, as there was a similar proportion of significant earlier or later trends. Such phenological changes were driven by multiple climatic factors. The warmer temperature would advance the spring phenophases, while lower soil moisture would delay them. The impact of soil moisture was significant in the experimental data, but not significant in the observation data. In addition, leaf unfolding became faster when L. chinensis experienced more chilling days, but this effect was difficult to be detected in observation data due to the weak sensitivity of the leaf unfolding time to chilling days. These findings can help us to understand how the spring phenology of typical herbaceous species responds to multiple climatic factors under the background of climate change.

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Spatio-temporal patterns of satellite-derived grassland vegetation phenology from 1998 to 2012 in Inner Mongolia, China

Cited by 31 publications

References 55 publications

Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short‐term and long‐term natural soil warming

Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short‐term and long‐term natural soil warming

Climate Warming Does Not Always Extend the Plant Growing Season in Inner Mongolian Grasslands: Evidence From a 30‐Year In Situ Observations at Eight Experimental Sites

Effects of multiple climate change factors on the spring phenology of herbaceous plants in Inner Mongolia, China: Evidence from ground observation and controlled experiments

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