The Ecological Importance of Winter in Temperate, Boreal, and Arctic Ecosystems in Times of Climate Change

Kreyling, Jüergen

doi:10.1007/124_2019_35

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 130 publications

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“…Winters in the northeastern USA are of particular importance for ecosystem processes as they experience greater relative warming due to climate change (Campbell et al., 2005; Kreyling, 2020). Further study of carbon and nitrogen fluxes from vegetation and streams during winter periods is warranted especially since stemflow solute fluxes are sensitive to winter meteorological event type (Levia, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Event Scale Relationships of DOC and TDN Fluxes in Throughfall and Stemflow Diverge From Stream Exports in a Forested Catchment

et al. 2021

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Estimating the transfer of terrigenous carbon and nutrients to aquatic systems remains a fundamental challenge for carbon cycle and ecosystem studies (Drake et al., 2018;Webster & Meyer, 1997). In order to predict how terrestrial and aquatic carbon budgets will respond to climate and land use change, an understanding of the processes controlling land and inland water carbon cycling is required (Tank et al., 2018). The first interactions between terrestrial carbon sources and water inputs to forested ecosystems occur within the tree canopy, which partitions precipitation into throughfall and stemflow. Throughfall is precipitation that falls on and through the canopy to the forest floor and typically comprises the largest fraction of incident precipitation (Levia & Frost, 2006). Stemflow is precipitation that flows along tree surfaces to the base of tree trunks and typically accounts for a lower percentage of total rainfall (<10%) in forests globally (Levia Abstract Aquatic fluxes of carbon and nutrients link terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Within forests, storm events drive both the delivery of carbon and nitrogen to the forest floor and the export of these solutes from the land via streams. To increase understanding of the relationships between hydrologic event character and the relative fluxes of carbon and nitrogen in throughfall, stemflow and streams, we measured dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) concentrations in each flow path for 23 events in a forested watershed in Vermont, USA. DOC and TDN concentrations increased with streamflow, indicating their export was limited by water transport of catchment stores. DOC and TDN concentrations in throughfall and stemflow decreased exponentially with increasing precipitation, suggesting that precipitation removed a portion of available sources from tree surfaces during the events. DOC and TDN fluxes were estimated for 76 events across a 2-year period. For most events, throughfall and stemflow fluxes greatly exceeded stream fluxes, but the imbalance narrowed for larger storms (>30 mm). The largest 10 stream events exported 40% of all stream event DOC whereas those same 10 events contributed 14% of all throughfall export. Approximately 2-5 times more DOC and TDN was exported from trees during rain events than left the catchment via streams annually. The diverging influence of event size on tree versus stream fluxes has important implications for forested ecosystems as hydrological events increase in intensity and frequency due to climate change. Plain Language SummaryRainfall over forests links carbon and nutrients on tree surfaces to the forest floor and streams. Rain falling through the canopy is called throughfall while water running down the tree trunk is called stemflow. The ultimate fate of throughfall and stemflow is uncertain. We measured carbon and nitrogen dissolved in throughfall, stemflow, and stream water during rain events in Vermont. We then used rain event size to estimate how much carbon and nitrogen were transported ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Event Scale Relationships of DOC and TDN Fluxes in Throughfall and Stemflow Diverge From Stream Exports in a Forested Catchment

et al. 2021

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“…These temperature and precipitation changes are forecast to continue into the next century (IPCC 2013). As such, vegetation in temperate, boreal and arctic ecosystems will continue to be impacted by future changes in winter climate (Kreyling 2019). Despite winter conditions strongly influencing plant performance (Man et al 2014; Schuerings et al 2014), there have been no studies conducted to understand how warm spells together with warming will affect germination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Germination responses to winter warm spells and warming vary widely among woody plants in a temperate forest

et al. 2020

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Winter underpins key ecological processes, such as dormancy loss and seedling emergence. Enhanced warm spells, together with warming are occurring and will continue in the future. The consequences of these climate phenomena on germination were investigated among co‐occurring woody plants, whose seeds are bird‐dispersed in autumn and require cold stratification for spring emergence. Seeds from nine common southeastern USA plants were collected in autumn. We verified that seeds of the study species required cold stratification for dormancy loss. We then examined the following aspects in the laboratory or field: effect of warm spells during cold stratification on germination, effect of a warm spell during winter on seed survival and germination phenology, and effect of warming from autumn dispersal through winter dormancy loss on timing of germination. While no consistent effects of warm spells were found in the laboratory on quantity of germination, warm spells advanced spring field germination for several species. Some species germinated during cold stratification and during warm spells, especially extreme spells, in the laboratory. In the field, about half of Lonicera maackii seedlings that emerged with a warm spell died by late winter. With warming from autumn through spring, laboratory germination shifted from spring to predominately autumn for some species. With precocious germination during warm spells or germination phenology shifts, two scenarios are possible. Seedlings may die during winter, reducing the size of the soil seed bank and number of emergents, or they would survive in warmer winters, which would give them a competitive advantage over spring‐emerging seedlings.

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“…leaching (Larsen et al 2002;Joseph & Henry 2008). In consequence, largest effects of winter climate change on microbial communities and nutrient dynamics are to be expected for sites where snow cover is currently disappearing (Kreyling, 2020).…”

Section: Soils From Colder and Snowier Forests Are More Responsive Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, soil freezing can damage plant roots (Tierney et al, 2001; Reinmann and Templer, 2018;Kreyling et al, 2012a;Weih and Karlsson, 2002), induce soil nitrogen (N) leaching (Joseph and Henry, 2009;Matzner and Borken, 2008), increase soil trace gas losses (Reinmann and Templer, 2018;Matzner and Borken, 2008), reduce N uptake by trees (Campbell et al, 2014), decrease plant productivity (Göbel et al, 2019;Comerford et al, 2013;Reinmann et al, 2019) and can ultimately lead to plant mortality (Schaberg et al, 2008;Buma et al, 2017). In addition to direct frost damage, the listed consequences of soil freezing on plant performance are commonly explained by altered nutrient, mainly N and P, availabilities (Kreyling, 2020). Freezing can also affect release of these nutrients by physically breaking up soil aggregates (Oztas and Fayetorbay, 2003) or organic litter (Hobbie and Chapin, 1996) and by reducing soil water flow rates (Iwata et al, 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Soils from cold and snowy temperate deciduous forests release more nitrogen and phosphorus after soil freeze-thaw cycles than soils from warmer, snow-poor conditions

Kreyling¹,

Schumann²,

Weigel³

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. Effects of global warming are most pronounced in winter. A reduction in snow cover due to warmer atmospheric temperature in formerly cold ecosystems, however, could counteract an increase in soil temperature by reduction of insulation. Thus, soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) might increase in frequency and magnitude with warming, potentially leading to a disturbance of the soil biota and release of nutrients. Here, we assessed how soil freeze-thaw magnitude and frequency affect short-term release of nutrients in temperate deciduous forest soils by conducting a three factorial gradient experiment with ex-situ soil samples in climate chambers. The fully-crossed experiment included soils from forests dominated by Fagus sylvatica (European beech) that originate from different winter climate (mean coldest month temperature range ΔT > 4 K), a range of FTC magnitudes from no (T = 4.0 °C) to strong (T = −11.3 °C) soil frost, and a range of FTC frequencies (f = 0–7). We hypothesized that higher frost magnitude and frequency, respectively, will increase the release of nutrients. Furthermore, soils from cold climates with historically stable winter soil temperatures due to deep snow cover will be more responsive to FTC than soils from warmer, more fluctuating winter soil climates. FTC magnitude and, to a lesser extent, also FTC frequency resulted in increased nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate release almost exclusively in soils from cold, snow-rich sites. The hierarchical regression analyses of our three-factorial gradient experiment revealed that the effects of climatic origin (mean minimum winter temperature) followed a sigmoidal curve for all studied nutrients and was modulated either by FTC magnitude (phosphate) or by FTC magnitude and frequency (nitrate, ammonium) in complex two- and, for all studied nutrients, in threefold interactions of the environmental drivers. Compared to initial concentrations, soluble nutrients were predicted to increase to 250 % for nitrate (up to 16 µg NO3-N kg−1 DM), to 110 % for ammonium (up to 60 µg NH4-N kg−1 DM), and to 400 % for phosphate (2.2 µg PO4-P kg−1 DM) at the coldest site for strongest magnitude and highest frequency. Soils from warmer sites showed little nutrient release and were largely unaffected by the FTC treatments except for above-average nitrate release at the warmest sites in response to extremely cold FTC magnitude. We suggest that currently warmer forest soils have historically already passed the point of high responsiveness to winter climate change, displaying some form of adaptation either in the soil biotic composition or in labile nutrient sources. Our data suggests that previously cold sites, which will lose their protective snow cover during climate change, are most vulnerable to increasing FTC frequency and magnitude, resulting in strong shifts in nitrogen and phosphorus release. In nutrient poor European beech forests of the studied Pleistocene lowlands, nutrients released over winter may be leached out, inducing reduced plant growth rates in the following growing season.

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The Ecological Importance of Winter in Temperate, Boreal, and Arctic Ecosystems in Times of Climate Change

Cited by 20 publications

References 130 publications

Event Scale Relationships of DOC and TDN Fluxes in Throughfall and Stemflow Diverge From Stream Exports in a Forested Catchment

Event Scale Relationships of DOC and TDN Fluxes in Throughfall and Stemflow Diverge From Stream Exports in a Forested Catchment

Germination responses to winter warm spells and warming vary widely among woody plants in a temperate forest

Soils from cold and snowy temperate deciduous forests release more nitrogen and phosphorus after soil freeze-thaw cycles than soils from warmer, snow-poor conditions

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