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

Li, Bingxi; Heijmans, M.M.P.D.; Berendse, F.; Blok, Daan; Maximov, Trofim C.; Sass‐Klaassen, Ute

doi:10.1007/s00300-015-1847-0

Cited by 35 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Spring and summer precipitation can be a growthlimiting factor for tundra shrubs at some Arctic and alpine tundra sites (rayBaCK et al 2010;liang et al 2012;KeuPer et al 2012;li et al 2016), but we did not find a positive influence of spring or summer precipitation for the site-species combinations studied here. However, precipitation is spatially highly variable and Arctic precipitation records are restricted to a few meteorological stations which limits data availability to gridded climate datasets (MyerS-SMitH and MyerS 2018).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 42%

A warmer and greener cold world: summer warming increases shrub growth in the alpine and high Arctic tundra

Weijers¹,

Myers‐Smith²,

Löffler³

2018

Erdkunde

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Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: Erdkunde General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Summary: The Arctic and alpine biome is rapidly warming, which might be causing an encroachment of relatively tall woody shrub vegetation into tundra ecosystems, which will probably result in an overall positive feedback to climate warming. This encroachment is, however, believed to remain limited to the relatively warm parts of the biome, where taller shrubs may displace shorter species. Still, climate sensitivity of shrub growth strongly differs between species and sites and High Arctic dwarf shrub species may respond rapidly to increasing temperatures in absence of taller species. In addition, it remains largely unknown whether shrubs from different functional groups from the same sites respond similarly to climate drivers. In the present study we examined the climate-growth relationships of six different site-species combinations: one evergreen and one deciduous shrub species at two alpine sites, and one evergreen dwarf shrub species at two High Arctic sites. We compared linear mixed models for each combination, explaining existing shrub growth data with site-specific interpolated monthly and seasonal climate data from the gridded meteorological dataset CRU TS4.00. Shrub growth rates were found to be sensitive to summer climate for all species at all sites. Continued and projected warming is thus likely to stimulate a further encroachment of shrubs in these systems, at least through a densification of existing stands. Dwarf shrub growth strongly responded to the recent warming at both High Arctic sites, contrasting with previous work suggesting that shrub expansion might remain limited to warmer tundra regions. At the alpine sites, growth of evergreen shrubs was found to be more dependent on summer climate than growth of deciduous shrubs, perhaps because these evergreen species are less prone to herbivory. However, biome-wide generalizations at the functional group level may be difficult to interpolate to the species level. Micro-site conditions, such as the determination of growing season length and winter soil temperatures, and influence on growing season soil moisture by snow depth, may determine the strength of the climate-growth relationships found.Zusammenfassung: Gegenwärtig ist eine rapide klimatische E...

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 42%

A warmer and greener cold world: summer warming increases shrub growth in the alpine and high Arctic tundra

Weijers¹,

Myers‐Smith²,

Löffler³

2018

Erdkunde

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“…The predominance of birch ( Betula nana L.) shrubs in dry northeastern Siberia could also be related to high summer precipitation (Li et al. ). By contrast, our study area is characterized by cold and dry alpine conditions with high radiation and evaporation levels (Liang et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Li et al. ). In addition, biotic interactions and changes in land management are important for shrub coverage (Li et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown that increased summer or winter temperatures strongly favor shrub recruitment in the Arctic tundra (B€ untgen et al 2015, Myers-Smith andHik 2018). Water availability and demand could also codetermine shrub recruitment in drought-prone cold or continental areas (Meyer and Pendleton 2005, Moreno et al 2011, Boulanger-Lapointe et al 2014, Li et al 2016). In addition, biotic interactions and changes in land management are important for shrub coverage , Garc ıa-Cervig on et al 2013, Olsen and Klanderud 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Liang

Wang

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Alpine biomes are climate change hotspots, and treeline dynamics in particular have received much attention as visible evidence of climate‐induced shifts in species distributions. Comparatively little is known, however, about the effects of climate change on alpine shrubline dynamics. Here, we reconstruct decadally resolved shrub recruitment history (age structure) through the combination of field surveys and dendroecology methods at the world's highest juniper (Juniperus pingii var. wilsonii) shrublines on the south‐central Tibetan Plateau. A total of 1,899 shrubs were surveyed at 12 plots located in four regions along an east‐to‐west declining precipitation gradient. We detected synchronous recruitment with 9 out of 12 plots showing a gradual increase from 1600 to 1900, a peak at 1900–1940, and a subsequent decrease from the 1930s onward. Shrub recruitment was significantly and positively correlated with reconstructed summer temperature from 1600 to 1940, whereas it was negatively associated with temperature in recent decades (1930–2000). Recruitment was also positively correlated with precipitation, except in the 1780–1830 period, when a trend toward wetter climate conditions began. Warming‐induced drought limitation has likely reduced the recruitment potential of alpine juniper shrubs in recent decades. Ongoing warming without a simultaneous increase in precipitation is expected to further impair recruitment at the world's highest juniper shrublines and alter the dynamics and competitive balance between woody plant species throughout these alpine biomes.

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“…Shrub growth is also affected by a multitude of factors. Several studies have shown dependencies upon growing season temperature, precipitation and/or drought indices (Weijers et al 2010(Weijers et al , 2012Blok et al 2011;Buras et al 2012;Myers-Smith et al 2015;Lehej cek et al 2016;Li et al 2016). Shrub growth is further affected by the amount of photosynthetic active radiation and thus solar radiation received within the growing season.…”

Section: Shrub Wood Anatomy As Suitable Proxy For Gris-melt?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Shrubs shed light on 20th century Greenland Ice Sheet melting

Buras

Lehejček

Michalová

et al. 2017

Boreas

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The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is a key element of the global climate system and thus knowledge about its melting in the past is desirable. However, GrIS-melt records only date back until 1979 and climate data based reconstructions covering the 20th century differ with respect to absolute values. To extend our knowledge about the Greenland Ice Sheet we examined the potential of shrub ring-widths and wood-anatomy as proxies for GrIS-melt. We found significant correlations between shrub cell-wall thickness and regional melt derived from passive microwave satellite brightness for 7% of the total GrIS area. A respective transfer function calibrated over the period 1979 to 2007 successfully passed model calibration-verification tests and explained 42% of GrIS-melt variability. Consequently, the first GrIS-melt reconstruction based on shrub wood-anatomy covering the period 1909 to 2012 is presented and compared against two temperature-based reconstructions. For the period prior to 1930 the new reconstruction contrasts with existing literature but generally confirms that most recent record melt rates are amongst the highest since the early 20th century. We discuss the sensitivity of shrubs to several influencing factors besides summer temperature as possible reason for the observed differences and highlight the potential of using shrubs as multiparameter proxies within a network to increase our knowledge about 20th century Greenland Ice Sheet dynamics.

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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

Cited by 35 publications

References 56 publications

A warmer and greener cold world: summer warming increases shrub growth in the alpine and high Arctic tundra

A warmer and greener cold world: summer warming increases shrub growth in the alpine and high Arctic tundra

Past the climate optimum: Recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau

Shrubs shed light on 20th century Greenland Ice Sheet melting

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