The tundra phenology database: more than two decades of tundra phenology responses to climate change

Prevéy, Janet S.; Elmendorf, Sarah C.; Bjorkman, Anne D.; Alatalo, Juha M.; Ashton, Isabel W.; Assmann, Jakob J.; Björk, Robert G.; Björkman, Mats; Cannone, Nicoletta; Carbognani, Michele; Chisholm, Chelsea; Clark, Karin; Collins, Courtney G.; Cooper, Elisabeth J.; Elberling, Bo; Frei, Esther R.; Henry, Greg H.R.; Hollister, Robert D.; Høye, Toke T.; Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg S.; Kerby, Jeffrey T.; Klanderud, Kari; Kopp, Christopher W.; Lévesque, Esther; Mauritz, Marguerite; Molau, Ulf; Myers‐Smith, Isla H.; Natali, Susan M.; Oberbauer, S. F.; Panchen, Zoe A.; Petraglia, Alessandro; Post, Eric; Rixen, Christian; Rodenhizer, Heidi; Rumpf, Sabine B.; Schmidt, Niels Martin; Schuur, Edward A. G.; Semenchuk, Philipp; Smith, J. A.; Suding, Katherine; Toteland, Orjan; Troxler, Tiffany G.; Wahren, Henrik; Welker, J. M.; Wipf, Sonja; Yang, Yonghui

doi:10.1139/as-2020-0041

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Phenological observations have been collected since 2001 by Yukon Parks Rangers on Qikiqtaruk every 2-3 days from April (snowmelt) until September (leaf senescence) along established transects (~ 250 m from our study site). The rangers record phenology throughout the growing season (Myers-Smith et al 2019) in line with ITEX protocol (Prevéy et al 2021). The phenological dates used in this study are the date of first leaf bud burst (leaf emergence) and the date of first yellowing of leaves (leaf senescence) averaged across the 20 S. arctica individuals in the observation transect.…”

Section: Phenology Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Arctic is warming three to four times faster than the rest of the planet (Meredith et al 2019;You et al 2021) and tundra plant communities are particularly sensitive to that warming (Elmendorf et al 2015;Bjorkman et al 2020). Climate change is resulting in a longer snow-and ice-free season, potentially facilitating longer growing seasons (Cleland et al 2007;Khorsand Rosa et al 2015;Prevéy et al 2021;Frei and Henry 2021). Concurrent with these changes, shifts in distribution and abundance (Sturm et al 2001;Elmendorf et al 2012a), biomass (Hudson and Henry 2009), and phenology (timing of life history events) (Oberbauer et al 2013) have been observed for species across the tundra.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plant phenology is changing throughout the tundra (Myers-Smith et al 2019;Bjorkman et al 2020;Prevéy et al 2021), but the consequences on plant growth remain unclear. Phenology defines the bounds for plant activity, including photosynthesis, and has shifted around the Arctic due to warming (Assmann et al 2019;Myers-Smith et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Summer temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

et al. 2022

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Arctic climate change is leading to an advance of plant phenology (the timing of life history events) with uncertain impacts on tundra ecosystems. Although the lengthening of the growing season is thought to lead to increased plant growth, we have few studies of how plant phenology change is altering tundra plant productivity. Here, we test the correspondence between 14 years of Salix arctica phenology data and radial growth on Qikiqtaruk–Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada. We analysed stems from 28 individuals using dendroecology and linear mixed-effect models to test the statistical power of growing season length and climate variables to individually predict radial growth. We found that summer temperature best explained annual variation in radial growth. We found no strong evidence that leaf emergence date, earlier leaf senescence date, or total growing season length had any direct or lagged effects on radial growth. Radial growth was also not explained by interannual variation in precipitation, MODIS surface greenness (NDVI), or sea ice concentration. Our results demonstrate that at this site, for the widely distributed species S. arctica, temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth. These findings challenge the assumption that advancing phenology and longer growing seasons will increase the productivity of all plant species in Arctic tundra ecosystems.

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Section: Phenology Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Summer temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

et al. 2022

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“…Forage quality responses to warming involve multiple processes that operate on different time scales. Nearly all plant growth is influenced by cumulative heat (i.e., growing degree days) that critically influences the maturation and phenology of key seasonal activities such as budburst and flowering (Collins et al, 2021; May et al, 2020; Prevéy et al, 2022). The cumulative heat effect of warming should drive immediate‐ to short‐term responses in forage quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short‐term effects of summer warming on caribou forage quality are mitigated by long‐term warming

et al. 2022

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Rapid Arctic climate change is leading to woody plant-dominated ecosystems with potential consequences for caribou foraging and nutritional ecology.While warming has been clearly linked to shrub expansion, the influence of higher temperatures on variables linked to the leaf-level quality of caribou forage is equivocal. Moreover, warming results in a complex set of ecosystem changes that operate on different timescales such as not only rapidly accelerating phenology, but also slowly increasing thaw depth and plant access to soil resources. Here, we compare changes in leaf nitrogen (N) concentration, digestibility, and protein-precipitating capacity (PPC) in short-term (i.e., <1-2 summers) and long-term (approximately 25 years) experimental warming plots with ambient temperature plots for three species commonly included in caribou summer diets: Salix pulchra (diamond-leaf willow), Betula nana (dwarf birch), and Eriophorum vaginatum (cottongrass). Short-term warming modestly decreased leaf N concentration in B. nana. Long-term and short-term warming slightly increased the digestibility of S. pulchra, but only short-term warming increased digestibility in B. nana. Greater dry matter digestibility in both shrubs occurred through reductions in the lignin and cutin quantity in plant cells. Long-term warming had no impact on PPC and equivocal impact on digestible protein of B. nana. Overall, we found short-term warming to be more impactful on forage quality than long-term warming at Toolik Lake, Alaska. Apart from a long-term warming reduction of approximately 13% in acid detergent lignin in S. pulchra and B. nana, other differences were only observed in the short-term warming plots. Hence, our results indicate acclimation of plants to long-term warming or possible negative feedback in the system to reduce warming effects. We suggest that warming summers may have a lesser effect on caribou forage than changes in winter precipitation or the influence of climate change on the abundance of critical species in the caribou diet.

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“…Climate change is resulting in a longer snow-and ice-free season, potentially facilitating longer growing seasons (Cleland et al 2007;Khorsand Rosa et al 2015;Prevéy et al 2021;Frei and Henry 2021). Concurrent with these changes, shifts in distribution and abundance (Sturm et al 2001;Elmendorf et al 2012a), biomass (Hudson and Henry 2009), and phenology (timing of life history events) (Oberbauer et al 2013) have been observed for species across the tundra.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Summer temperature – but not growing season length – influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

Boyle¹,

Assmann²,

Angers‐Blondin³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Arctic climate change is leading to an advance of plant phenology (the timing of life events) with uncertain impacts on tundra ecosystems. Although the lengthening of the growing season is thought to lead to increased plant growth, we have few studies of how plant phenology change is altering tundra plant productivity. Here, we test the correspondence between 14 years of Salix arctica phenology data and radial growth. We sampled 38 Salix arctica individuals across the landscape on Qikiqtaruk – Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada. We used dendroecology and linear mixed-effect models to test the influence of growing season length and climate variables on growth. We found that summer temperature best explained annual variation in growth. We found no strong evidence that green-up date, earlier leaf senescence date or total growing season length had any direct or lagged effects on growth. Growth was not explained by interannual variation in precipitation, MODIS surface greenness (NDVI), or sea ice concentration. Our results demonstrate that at this site, for the widely-distributed species S. arctica, temperature – but not growing season length – influences radial growth. These findings challenge the assumption that advancing phenology and longer growing seasons will increase the productivity of all plant species in Arctic tundra ecosystems.

show abstract

The tundra phenology database: more than two decades of tundra phenology responses to climate change

Cited by 9 publications

References 37 publications

Summer temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

Summer temperature—but not growing season length—influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

Short‐term effects of summer warming on caribou forage quality are mitigated by long‐term warming

Summer temperature – but not growing season length – influences radial growth of Salix arctica in coastal Arctic tundra

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