TY - JOUR

T1 - Atmospheric brightening counteracts warming-induced delays in autumn phenology of temperate trees in Europe

AU - Wu, Zhaofei

AU - Chen, Shouzhi

AU - De Boeck, Hans J.

AU - Stenseth, Nils Christian

AU - Tang, Jing

AU - Vitasse, Yann

AU - Wang, Shuxin

AU - Zohner, Constantin

AU - Fu, Yongshuo H.

N1 - CENPERM[2021] Publisher Copyright: © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Aim: Ongoing climate warming has been widely reported to delay autumn phenology, which in turn impacts carbon, water, energy and nutrient balances at regional and global scales. However, the underlying mechanisms of autumn phenology responses to climate change have not been fully elucidated. The aims of this study were to determine whether brightening that was defined as the increase of surface solar radiation and warming during recent decades affect autumn phenology in opposite directions and explore the underlying mechanisms. Location: Central Europe. Time period: 1950–2016. Major taxa studied: Four dominant European tree species in central Europe: Aesculus hippocastanum, Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur. Methods: We investigated the temporal trends of leaf senescence, preseason temperature and radiation by separating the period of 1950–2016 into two sub-periods (1950–1982 and 1983–2016) and determined the relationship between temperature, radiation and leaf senescence using partial correlation analysis. Results: We found a significant warming and brightening trend after the 1980s in central Europe, yet this led to only slight delays in leaf senescence that cannot be explained by the well-known positive correlation between leaf senescence and autumn warming. Interestingly, we found opposite effects between warming (partial correlation coefficient, r =.37) and brightening (r = −.23) on leaf senescence. In addition, the temperature sensitivity of leaf senescence decreased with increasing radiation (−5.08 days/℃/108 J/m2). Main conclusions: The results suggested that brightening accelerated the leaf senescence dates, counteracting the warming-induced delays in leaf senescence, which may be attributed to photooxidative stress and/or sink limitation. This emphasizes the need to consider radiation to improve the performance of autumn phenology models.

AB - Aim: Ongoing climate warming has been widely reported to delay autumn phenology, which in turn impacts carbon, water, energy and nutrient balances at regional and global scales. However, the underlying mechanisms of autumn phenology responses to climate change have not been fully elucidated. The aims of this study were to determine whether brightening that was defined as the increase of surface solar radiation and warming during recent decades affect autumn phenology in opposite directions and explore the underlying mechanisms. Location: Central Europe. Time period: 1950–2016. Major taxa studied: Four dominant European tree species in central Europe: Aesculus hippocastanum, Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur. Methods: We investigated the temporal trends of leaf senescence, preseason temperature and radiation by separating the period of 1950–2016 into two sub-periods (1950–1982 and 1983–2016) and determined the relationship between temperature, radiation and leaf senescence using partial correlation analysis. Results: We found a significant warming and brightening trend after the 1980s in central Europe, yet this led to only slight delays in leaf senescence that cannot be explained by the well-known positive correlation between leaf senescence and autumn warming. Interestingly, we found opposite effects between warming (partial correlation coefficient, r =.37) and brightening (r = −.23) on leaf senescence. In addition, the temperature sensitivity of leaf senescence decreased with increasing radiation (−5.08 days/℃/108 J/m2). Main conclusions: The results suggested that brightening accelerated the leaf senescence dates, counteracting the warming-induced delays in leaf senescence, which may be attributed to photooxidative stress and/or sink limitation. This emphasizes the need to consider radiation to improve the performance of autumn phenology models.

KW - autumn phenology

KW - brightening

KW - climate warming

KW - leaf senescence

KW - radiation

KW - temperature sensitivity

U2 - 10.1111/geb.13404

DO - 10.1111/geb.13404

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85115623644

VL - 30

SP - 2477

EP - 2487

JO - Global Ecology and Biogeography

JF - Global Ecology and Biogeography

SN - 1466-822X

IS - 12

ER -