1. Ecological constraints increase the climatic debt in forests
- Author
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Patrice de Ruffray, Michel Loreau, Romain Bertrand, Jean-Claude Gégout, Jonathan Lenoir, Jacques Drapier, Gabriela Riofrio-Dillon, Station d'écologie théorique et expérimentale (SETE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Laboratoire d'Etudes des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), AgroParisTech-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV), Institut géographique national [IGN] (IGN), Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes (IBMP), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA), French Institute of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Engineering (ENGREF, AgroParisTech), National Forest Department (ONF), French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), TULIP Laboratory of Excellence ANR-10-LABX-41, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), AgroParisTech, Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés - UMR CNRS 7058 (EDYSAN), Institut National de l'Information Géographique et Forestière [IGN] (IGN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech, Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), and Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Thermotolerance ,0106 biological sciences ,Hot Temperature ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Science ,Climate Change ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Biodiversity ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Climate change ,Forests ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology ,Debt ,Forest ecology ,Community ecology ,Plant Physiological Phenomena ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,media_common ,Multidisciplinary ,Ecology ,Climate-change ecology ,Global warming ,Plant community ,General Chemistry ,15. Life on land ,Geography ,13. Climate action ,Sustainability ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,Ecosystem ecology - Abstract
Biodiversity changes are lagging behind current climate warming. The underlying determinants of this climatic debt are unknown and yet critical to understand the impacts of climate change on the present biota and improve forecasts of biodiversity changes. Here we assess determinants of climatic debt accumulated in French forest herbaceous plant communities between 1987 and 2008 (that is, a 1.05 °C mean difference between the observed and bioindicated temperatures). We show that warmer baseline conditions predispose plant communities to larger climatic debts, and that climate warming exacerbates this response. Forest plant communities, however, are absorbing part of the temperature increase mainly through the species' ability to tolerate changing climate. As climate warming is expected to accelerate during the twenty-first century, plant migration and tolerance to climatic stresses probably will be insufficient to absorb this impact posing threats to the sustainability of forest plant communities., Many species show a time-lagged response to climate change, a phenomenon called climatic debt. Here, Bertrand and colleagues show that climate severity and plant tolerance to climate warming mainly influence the climatic debt of forest herbaceous plant communities.
- Published
- 2016
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