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Leaf senescence exhibits stronger climatic responses during warm than during cold autumns
- Source :
- Nature Climate Change. 10:777-780
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- A warmer world could extend the growing seasons for plants. Changes in spring phenology have been studied, yet autumn phenology remains poorly understood. Using >500,000 phenological records of four temperate tree species between 1951 and 2013 in Europe, we show that leaf senescence in warm autumns exhibits stronger climate responses, with a higher phenological plasticity, than in cold autumns, indicating a nonlinear response to climate. The onset of leaf senescence in warm autumns was delayed due to the stronger climate response, primarily caused by night-time warming. However, daytime warming, especially during warm autumns, imposes a drought stress which advances leaf senescence. This may counteract the extension of growing season under global warming. These findings provide guidance for more reliable predictions of plant phenology and biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks in the context of global warming. Autumn leaf senescence has later onset, higher phenological plasticity and a stronger climatic response under warm compared to cold autumns. While night-time warming delays senescence, drought induced by daytime warming advances it, which may lead to loss in growing season under global warming.
- Subjects :
- Senescence
0303 health sciences
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Ecology
Phenology
Global warming
Growing season
Context (language use)
Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
Biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
Temperate climate
Plant phenology
Tree species
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
030304 developmental biology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17586798 and 1758678X
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Climate Change
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........9163e07e9c5515f431f4dd0567d33c89