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Wang C, Xiao G, Guan Y, Li Y, Chen D, Shen W. Contrasting effects of intensified dry-season drought and extended dry-season length on soil greenhouse gas emissions in a subtropical forest. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 906:167419. [PMID: 37774871 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 09/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
Over two-thirds of the Earth's land surface is subjected to seasonal precipitation changes along with climate warming, including the subtropical forests that represent one of the Earth's most important carbon sink and source. However, few experiments have been conducted to understand the response of soil greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions from these forests to seasonal changes in precipitation. Herein, we conducted a field experiment in a subtropical forest of southern China including two precipitation seasonality treatments: an intensified dry-season (Oct-Mar) drought and wetter wet-season (Jun-Sep) treatment (ID) and an extended dry-season (Apr-May) length and wetter wet-season treatment (ED); for both ID and ED, the annual precipitation amount was kept the same as under ambient control (AC). Compared to AC, the decreased annual CO2 emissions for ID were mainly due to decreased WFPS in Oct-Mar of 2013-2014 and increased WFPS during Jun-Sep of 2013; the increased annual CH4 uptake for ID was predominantly attributed to decreased WFPS in Oct-Mar of 2013-2014; the decreased annual N2O emissions for ID were mainly due to decreased WFPS in Oct-Mar of 2013; the increased annual N2O emissions for ID in 2014 were mainly attributed to increased WFPS in Jun-Sep (p < 0.05). Relative to AC, the increased annual CO2 and N2O emissions from ED were predominantly attributed to decreased WFPS in Apr-May and increased WFPS in Jun-Sep during 2013-2014, respectively (p < 0.05). The average annual CO2-equivalent CH4 and N2O emissions increased under ED but decreased under ID compared to AC (p < 0.05). Although our two precipitation manipulation scenarios simulated seasonal drought impacts without changing annual precipitation amount, ED and ID had distinct impacts on soil GHGs emissions, which have important implications for modeling the subtropical forests GHG emissions and managing the forests to mitigate climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cong Wang
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
| | - Guoliang Xiao
- School of City and Regional Planning, Joint Technology Transfer Center, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng 224007, China
| | - Yu Guan
- School of City and Regional Planning, Joint Technology Transfer Center, Yancheng Teachers University, Yancheng 224007, China
| | - Yong Li
- State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmosphere Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Dan Chen
- Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf Ministry of Education, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001, China
| | - Weijun Shen
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China.
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2
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Paschalis A, De Kauwe MG, Sabot M, Fatichi S. When do plant hydraulics matter in terrestrial biosphere modelling? GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e17022. [PMID: 37962234 PMCID: PMC10952296 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
The ascent of water from the soil to the leaves of vascular plants, described by the study of plant hydraulics, regulates ecosystem responses to environmental forcing and recovery from stress periods. Several approaches to model plant hydraulics have been proposed. In this study, we introduce four different versions of plant hydraulics representations in the terrestrial biosphere model T&C to understand the significance of plant hydraulics to ecosystem functioning. We tested representations of plant hydraulics, investigating plant water capacitance, and long-term xylem damages following drought. The four models we tested were a combination of representations including or neglecting capacitance and including or neglecting xylem damage legacies. Using the models at six case studies spanning semiarid to tropical ecosystems, we quantify how plant xylem flow, plant water storage and long-term xylem damage can modulate overall water and carbon dynamics across multiple time scales. We show that as drought develops, models with plant hydraulics predict a slower onset of plant water stress, and a diurnal variability of water and carbon fluxes closer to observations. Plant water storage was found to be particularly important for the diurnal dynamics of water and carbon fluxes, with models that include plant water capacitance yielding better results. Models including permanent damage to conducting plant tissues show an additional significant drought legacy effect, limiting plant productivity during the recovery phase following major droughts. However, when considering ecosystem responses to the observed climate variability, plant hydraulic modules alone cannot significantly improve the overall model performance, even though they reproduce more realistic water and carbon dynamics. This opens new avenues for model development, explicitly linking plant hydraulics with additional ecosystem processes, such as plant phenology and improved carbon allocation algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athanasios Paschalis
- Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringImperial College LondonLondonUK
| | | | - Manon Sabot
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Climate Change Research CentreUniversity of New South WalesSydneyNew South WalesAustralia
| | - Simone Fatichi
- Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringNational University of SingaporeSingaporeSingapore
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3
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Miller DL, Wolf S, Fisher JB, Zaitchik BF, Xiao J, Keenan TF. Increased photosynthesis during spring drought in energy-limited ecosystems. Nat Commun 2023; 14:7828. [PMID: 38030605 PMCID: PMC10687245 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43430-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Drought is often thought to reduce ecosystem photosynthesis. However, theory suggests there is potential for increased photosynthesis during meteorological drought, especially in energy-limited ecosystems. Here, we examine the response of photosynthesis (gross primary productivity, GPP) to meteorological drought across the water-energy limitation spectrum. We find a consistent increase in eddy covariance GPP during spring drought in energy-limited ecosystems (83% of the energy-limited sites). Half of spring GPP sensitivity to precipitation was predicted solely from the wetness index (R2 = 0.47, p < 0.001), with weaker relationships in summer and fall. Our results suggest GPP increases during spring drought for 55% of vegetated Northern Hemisphere lands ( >30° N). We then compare these results to terrestrial biosphere model outputs and remote sensing products. In contrast to trends detected in eddy covariance data, model mean GPP always declined under spring precipitation deficits after controlling for air temperature and light availability. While remote sensing products captured the observed negative spring GPP sensitivity in energy-limited ecosystems, terrestrial biosphere models proved insufficiently sensitive to spring precipitation deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- David L Miller
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
| | - Sebastian Wolf
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Joshua B Fisher
- Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, 92866, USA
| | - Benjamin F Zaitchik
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
| | - Jingfeng Xiao
- Earth Systems Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA
| | - Trevor F Keenan
- Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
- Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
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4
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Wood JD, Gu L, Hanson PJ, Frankenberg C, Sack L. The ecosystem wilting point defines drought response and recovery of a Quercus-Carya forest. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:2015-2029. [PMID: 36600482 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Revised: 12/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Soil and atmospheric droughts increasingly threaten plant survival and productivity around the world. Yet, conceptual gaps constrain our ability to predict ecosystem-scale drought impacts under climate change. Here, we introduce the ecosystem wilting point (ΨEWP ), a property that integrates the drought response of an ecosystem's plant community across the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Specifically, ΨEWP defines a threshold below which the capacity of the root system to extract soil water and the ability of the leaves to maintain stomatal function are strongly diminished. We combined ecosystem flux and leaf water potential measurements to derive the ΨEWP of a Quercus-Carya forest from an "ecosystem pressure-volume (PV) curve," which is analogous to the tissue-level technique. When community predawn leaf water potential (Ψpd ) was above ΨEWP (=-2.0 MPa), the forest was highly responsive to environmental dynamics. When Ψpd fell below ΨEWP , the forest became insensitive to environmental variation and was a net source of carbon dioxide for nearly 2 months. Thus, ΨEWP is a threshold defining marked shifts in ecosystem functional state. Though there was rainfall-induced recovery of ecosystem gas exchange following soaking rains, a legacy of structural and physiological damage inhibited canopy photosynthetic capacity. Although over 16 growing seasons, only 10% of Ψpd observations fell below ΨEWP , the forest is commonly only 2-4 weeks of intense drought away from reaching ΨEWP , and thus highly reliant on frequent rainfall to replenish the soil water supply. We propose, based on a bottom-up analysis of root density profiles and soil moisture characteristic curves, that soil water acquisition capacity is the major determinant of ΨEWP , and species in an ecosystem require compatible leaf-level traits such as turgor loss point so that leaf wilting is coordinated with the inability to extract further water from the soil.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey D Wood
- School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
| | - Lianhong Gu
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Paul J Hanson
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Christian Frankenberg
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
| | - Lawren Sack
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
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5
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Van Sundert K, Leuzinger S, Bader MKF, Chang SX, De Kauwe MG, Dukes JS, Langley JA, Ma Z, Mariën B, Reynaert S, Ru J, Song J, Stocker B, Terrer C, Thoresen J, Vanuytrecht E, Wan S, Yue K, Vicca S. When things get MESI: The Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative-A coordinated effort to synthesize terrestrial global change experiments. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:1922-1938. [PMID: 36607160 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Responses of the terrestrial biosphere to rapidly changing environmental conditions are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. In an effort to reduce this uncertainty, a wide range of global change experiments have been conducted that mimic future conditions in terrestrial ecosystems, manipulating CO2 , temperature, and nutrient and water availability. Syntheses of results across experiments provide a more general sense of ecosystem responses to global change, and help to discern the influence of background conditions such as climate and vegetation type in determining global change responses. Several independent syntheses of published data have yielded distinct databases for specific objectives. Such parallel, uncoordinated initiatives carry the risk of producing redundant data collection efforts and have led to contrasting outcomes without clarifying the underlying reason for divergence. These problems could be avoided by creating a publicly available, updatable, curated database. Here, we report on a global effort to collect and curate 57,089 treatment responses across 3644 manipulation experiments at 1145 sites, simulating elevated CO2 , warming, nutrient addition, and precipitation changes. In the resulting Manipulation Experiments Synthesis Initiative (MESI) database, effects of experimental global change drivers on carbon and nutrient cycles are included, as well as ancillary data such as background climate, vegetation type, treatment magnitude, duration, and, unique to our database, measured soil properties. Our analysis of the database indicates that most experiments are short term (one or few growing seasons), conducted in the USA, Europe, or China, and that the most abundantly reported variable is aboveground biomass. We provide the most comprehensive multifactor global change database to date, enabling the research community to tackle open research questions, vital to global policymaking. The MESI database, freely accessible at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7153253, opens new avenues for model evaluation and synthesis-based understanding of how global change affects terrestrial biomes. We welcome contributions to the database on GitHub.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Van Sundert
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
- Climate and Ecological Synthesis Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Earth System Science, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Ecological Synthesis Lab, School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
| | | | - Martin K-F Bader
- Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | - Scott X Chang
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | | | - Jeffrey S Dukes
- Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, California, USA
| | - J Adam Langley
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Stewardship, Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Zilong Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bertold Mariën
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Simon Reynaert
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jingyi Ru
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Jian Song
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Benjamin Stocker
- Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - César Terrer
- Climate and Ecological Synthesis Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Joshua Thoresen
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Wildland Consultants, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Eline Vanuytrecht
- Division of Soil & Water Management, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Climate Change Adaptation, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Shiqiang Wan
- School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Science and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding, China
| | - Kai Yue
- Key Laboratory for Humid Subtropical Eco-Geographical Processes of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China
- Fujian Sanming Forest Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Sanming, Fujian, China
| | - Sara Vicca
- Research Group PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems), Global Change Ecology Centre of Excellence, Biology Department, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
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6
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Mahnken M, Cailleret M, Collalti A, Trotta C, Biondo C, D'Andrea E, Dalmonech D, Marano G, Mäkelä A, Minunno F, Peltoniemi M, Trotsiuk V, Nadal-Sala D, Sabaté S, Vallet P, Aussenac R, Cameron DR, Bohn FJ, Grote R, Augustynczik ALD, Yousefpour R, Huber N, Bugmann H, Merganičová K, Merganic J, Valent P, Lasch-Born P, Hartig F, Vega Del Valle ID, Volkholz J, Gutsch M, Matteucci G, Krejza J, Ibrom A, Meesenburg H, Rötzer T, van der Maaten-Theunissen M, van der Maaten E, Reyer CPO. Accuracy, realism and general applicability of European forest models. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:6921-6943. [PMID: 36117412 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2022] [Revised: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Forest models are instrumental for understanding and projecting the impact of climate change on forests. A considerable number of forest models have been developed in the last decades. However, few systematic and comprehensive model comparisons have been performed in Europe that combine an evaluation of modelled carbon and water fluxes and forest structure. We evaluate 13 widely used, state-of-the-art, stand-scale forest models against field measurements of forest structure and eddy-covariance data of carbon and water fluxes over multiple decades across an environmental gradient at nine typical European forest stands. We test the models' performance in three dimensions: accuracy of local predictions (agreement of modelled and observed annual data), realism of environmental responses (agreement of modelled and observed responses of daily gross primary productivity to temperature, radiation and vapour pressure deficit) and general applicability (proportion of European tree species covered). We find that multiple models are available that excel according to our three dimensions of model performance. For the accuracy of local predictions, variables related to forest structure have lower random and systematic errors than annual carbon and water flux variables. Moreover, the multi-model ensemble mean provided overall more realistic daily productivity responses to environmental drivers across all sites than any single individual model. The general applicability of the models is high, as almost all models are currently able to cover Europe's common tree species. We show that forest models complement each other in their response to environmental drivers and that there are several cases in which individual models outperform the model ensemble. Our framework provides a first step to capturing essential differences between forest models that go beyond the most commonly used accuracy of predictions. Overall, this study provides a point of reference for future model work aimed at predicting climate impacts and supporting climate mitigation and adaptation measures in forests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mats Mahnken
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
- Forest Growth and Woody Biomass Production, TU Dresden, Tharandt, Germany
| | - Maxime Cailleret
- UMR RECOVER, INRAE, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Forest Dynamics Unit, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Alessio Collalti
- Forest Modelling Lab, National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy
- Department of Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
- Division Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Carlo Trotta
- Department of Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
- Division Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Corrado Biondo
- Department of Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy
- Division Impacts on Agriculture, Forests and Ecosystem Services (IAFES), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Viterbo, Italy
| | - Ettore D'Andrea
- Forest Modelling Lab, National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy
| | - Daniela Dalmonech
- Forest Modelling Lab, National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy
| | - Gina Marano
- Forest Modelling Lab, National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Annikki Mäkelä
- Department of Forest Sciences, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) and Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Francesco Minunno
- Department of Forest Sciences, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) and Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Volodymyr Trotsiuk
- Forest Dynamics Unit, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Nadal-Sala
- Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
- Ecology Section, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Santiago Sabaté
- Ecology Section, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
- CREAF (Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Patrick Vallet
- LESSEM, INRAE, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, St-Martin-d'Hères, France
| | | | - David R Cameron
- UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Penicuik, Midlothian, UK
| | - Friedrich J Bohn
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Rüdiger Grote
- Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
| | | | - Rasoul Yousefpour
- Forestry Economics and Forest Planning, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Forestry and Conservation, John Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Nica Huber
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Remote Sensing, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
| | - Harald Bugmann
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Katarina Merganičová
- Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha, Czech Republic
- Department of Biodiversity of Ecosystems and Landscape, Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Nitra, Slovakia
| | - Jan Merganic
- Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovak Republic
| | - Peter Valent
- Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, Zvolen, Slovak Republic
| | - Petra Lasch-Born
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Florian Hartig
- Theoretical Ecology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | | | - Jan Volkholz
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Martin Gutsch
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Giorgio Matteucci
- Forest Modelling Lab, National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Perugia, Italy
| | - Jan Krejza
- Global Change Research Institute CAS, Brno, Czech Republic
- Department of Forest Ecology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Andreas Ibrom
- Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | - Thomas Rötzer
- Forest Growth and Yield Science, TU München, Freising, Germany
| | | | | | - Christopher P O Reyer
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
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7
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Grünzweig JM, De Boeck HJ, Rey A, Santos MJ, Adam O, Bahn M, Belnap J, Deckmyn G, Dekker SC, Flores O, Gliksman D, Helman D, Hultine KR, Liu L, Meron E, Michael Y, Sheffer E, Throop HL, Tzuk O, Yakir D. Dryland mechanisms could widely control ecosystem functioning in a drier and warmer world. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:1064-1076. [PMID: 35879539 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01779-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Responses of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change have been explored in many regions worldwide. While continued drying and warming may alter process rates and deteriorate the state and performance of ecosystems, it could also lead to more fundamental changes in the mechanisms governing ecosystem functioning. Here we argue that climate change will induce unprecedented shifts in these mechanisms in historically wetter climatic zones, towards mechanisms currently prevalent in dry regions, which we refer to as 'dryland mechanisms'. We discuss 12 dryland mechanisms affecting multiple processes of ecosystem functioning, including vegetation development, water flow, energy budget, carbon and nutrient cycling, plant production and organic matter decomposition. We then examine mostly rare examples of the operation of these mechanisms in non-dryland regions where they have been considered irrelevant at present. Current and future climate trends could force microclimatic conditions across thresholds and lead to the emergence of dryland mechanisms and their increasing control over ecosystem functioning in many biomes on Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- José M Grünzweig
- Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
| | - Hans J De Boeck
- Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Ana Rey
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural History, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Maria J Santos
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ori Adam
- The Fredy and Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Michael Bahn
- Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Jayne Belnap
- US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT, USA
| | - Gaby Deckmyn
- Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Stefan C Dekker
- Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Omar Flores
- Plants and Ecosystems, Department of Biology, Universiteit Antwerpen, Wilrijk, Belgium.,Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural History, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Daniel Gliksman
- Institute for Hydrology and Meteorology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden, Tharandt, Germany.,Institute of Geography, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - David Helman
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.,Advanced School for Environmental Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Kevin R Hultine
- Department of Research, Conservation and Collections, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Lingli Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing, China
| | - Ehud Meron
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.,Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel
| | - Yaron Michael
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Efrat Sheffer
- Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Heather L Throop
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Omer Tzuk
- Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.,Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel
| | - Dan Yakir
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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8
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Küçük Ç, Koirala S, Carvalhais N, Miralles DG, Reichstein M, Jung M. Characterizing the Response of Vegetation Cover to Water Limitation in Africa Using Geostationary Satellites. JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS 2022; 14:e2021MS002730. [PMID: 35865621 PMCID: PMC9286687 DOI: 10.1029/2021ms002730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 01/22/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi-arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large-scale modeling of vegetation-water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over Africa at ca. 5 km spatial resolution for ecohydrological analysis. Their spatial patterns are based on Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) time series and emphasize limiting conditions of the seasonal wet to dry transition: the minimum and maximum FVC of temporal record, the FVC decay rate and the FVC integral over the decay period. We investigate the relevance of these metrics for large scale ecohydrological studies by assessing their co-variation with soil moisture, and with topographic, soil, and vegetation factors. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, FVC minimum and maximum increase with soil moisture, while the FVC integral and decay rate peak at intermediate soil moisture. We find evidence for the relevance of topographic moisture variations in arid regions, which, counter-intuitively, is detectable in the maximum but not in the minimum FVC. We find no clear evidence for wide-spread occurrence of the "inverse texture effect" on FVC. The FVC integral over the decay period correlates with independent data sets of plant water storage capacity or rooting depth while correlations increase with aridity. In arid regions, the FVC decay rate decreases with canopy height and tree cover fraction as expected for ecosystems with a more conservative water-use strategy. Thus, our observation-based products have large potential for better understanding complex vegetation-water interactions from regional to continental scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Çağlar Küçük
- Department of Biogeochemical IntegrationMax Planck Institute for BiogeochemistryJenaGermany
- Hydro‐Climate Extremes Lab (H‐CEL)Faculty of Bioscience EngineeringGhent UniversityGhentBelgium
| | - Sujan Koirala
- Department of Biogeochemical IntegrationMax Planck Institute for BiogeochemistryJenaGermany
| | - Nuno Carvalhais
- Department of Biogeochemical IntegrationMax Planck Institute for BiogeochemistryJenaGermany
- Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do AmbienteCENSEFaculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaUniversidade NOVA de LisboaCaparicaPortugal
| | - Diego G. Miralles
- Hydro‐Climate Extremes Lab (H‐CEL)Faculty of Bioscience EngineeringGhent UniversityGhentBelgium
| | - Markus Reichstein
- Department of Biogeochemical IntegrationMax Planck Institute for BiogeochemistryJenaGermany
| | - Martin Jung
- Department of Biogeochemical IntegrationMax Planck Institute for BiogeochemistryJenaGermany
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9
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Bose AK, Rigling A, Gessler A, Hagedorn F, Brunner I, Feichtinger L, Bigler C, Egli S, Etzold S, Gossner MM, Guidi C, Lévesque M, Meusburger K, Peter M, Saurer M, Scherrer D, Schleppi P, Schönbeck L, Vogel ME, Arx G, Wermelinger B, Wohlgemuth T, Zweifel R, Schaub M. Lessons learned from a long‐term irrigation experiment in a dry Scots pine forest: Impacts on traits and functioning. ECOL MONOGR 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Arun K. Bose
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline Khulna University Khulna Bangladesh
| | - Andreas Rigling
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16 Zurich Switzerland
| | - Arthur Gessler
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16 Zurich Switzerland
| | - Frank Hagedorn
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Ivano Brunner
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Linda Feichtinger
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Christof Bigler
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Universitätstrasse 22 ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland
| | - Simon Egli
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Sophia Etzold
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Martin M. Gossner
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16 Zurich Switzerland
| | - Claudia Guidi
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Mathieu Lévesque
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, Forest Ecology, Universitätstrasse 22 ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland
| | - Katrin Meusburger
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Martina Peter
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Matthias Saurer
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Daniel Scherrer
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Patrick Schleppi
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Leonie Schönbeck
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
- Plant Ecology Research Laboratory, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering ENAC École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, Station 2 Lausanne Switzerland
| | - Michael E. Vogel
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Georg Arx
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Beat Wermelinger
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Thomas Wohlgemuth
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Roman Zweifel
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
| | - Marcus Schaub
- Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111 Birmensdorf Switzerland
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10
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Do details matter? Disentangling the processes related to plant species interactions in two grassland models of different complexity. Ecol Modell 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2021.109737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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11
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Timing outweighs magnitude of rainfall in shaping population dynamics of a small mammal species in steppe grassland. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2023691118. [PMID: 34649988 PMCID: PMC8545474 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2023691118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Disentangling the effects of rainfall timing and magnitude on animal and plant populations is essential to reveal the biological consequence of diverse climate change scenarios around the world. We conducted a 10-y, large-scale, manipulative experiment to examine the bottom-up effects of changes in rainfall regime on the population dynamics of Brandt’s voles in the steppe grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. We found that a moderate rainfall increase during the early growing season could produce marked increases in vole population size by increasing the biomass of preferred plant species, whereas large increases in rainfall produced no additional increase in vole population growth. Our study highlights the importance of rainfall magnitude and timing on the nonlinear population dynamics of herbivores. Climate change–induced shifts in species phenology differ widely across trophic levels, which may lead to consumer–resource mismatches with cascading population and ecosystem consequences. Here, we examined the effects of different rainfall patterns (i.e., timing and amount) on the phenological asynchrony of population of a generalist herbivore and their food sources in semiarid steppe grassland in Inner Mongolia. We conducted a 10-y (2010 to 2019) rainfall manipulation experiment in 12 0.48-ha field enclosures and found that moderate rainfall increases during the early rather than late growing season advanced the timing of peak reproduction and drove marked increases in population size through increasing the biomass of preferred plant species. By contrast, greatly increased rainfall produced no further increases in vole population growth due to the potential negative effect of the flooding of burrows. The increases in vole population size were more coupled with increased reproduction of overwintered voles and increased body mass of young-of-year than with better survival. Our results provide experimental evidence for the fitness consequences of phenological mismatches at the population level and highlight the importance of rainfall timing on the population dynamics of small herbivores in the steppe grassland environment.
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12
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Hou E, Litvak ME, Rudgers JA, Jiang L, Collins SL, Pockman WT, Hui D, Niu S, Luo Y. Divergent responses of primary production to increasing precipitation variability in global drylands. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:5225-5237. [PMID: 34260799 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Interannual variability in precipitation has increased globally as climate warming intensifies. The increased variability impacts both terrestrial plant production and carbon (C) sequestration. However, mechanisms driving these changes are largely unknown. Here, we examined mechanisms underlying the response of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to interannual precipitation variability in global drylands with mean annual precipitation (MAP) <500 mm year-1 , using a combined approach of data synthesis and process-based modeling. We found a hump-shaped response of ANPP to precipitation variability along the MAP gradient. The response was positive when MAP < ~300 mm year-1 and negative when MAP was higher than this threshold, with a positive peak at 140 mm year-1 . Transpiration and subsoil water content mirrored the response of ANPP to precipitation variability; evaporation responded negatively and water loss through runoff and drainage responded positively to precipitation variability. Mean annual temperature, soil type, and plant physiological traits all altered the magnitude but not the pattern of the response of ANPP to precipitation variability along the MAP gradient. By extrapolating to global drylands (<500 mm year-1 MAP), we estimated that ANPP would increase by 15.2 ± 6.0 Tg C year-1 in arid and hyper-arid lands and decrease by 2.1 ± 0.5 Tg C year-1 in dry sub-humid lands under future changes in interannual precipitation variability. Thus, increases in precipitation variability will enhance primary production in many drylands in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enqing Hou
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
| | - Marcy E Litvak
- Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Jennifer A Rudgers
- Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Lifen Jiang
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
| | - Scott L Collins
- Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - William T Pockman
- Department of Biology, MSC03-2020, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Dafeng Hui
- Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Shuli Niu
- Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yiqi Luo
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
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13
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Fatichi S, Peleg N, Mastrotheodoros T, Pappas C, Manoli G. An ecohydrological journey of 4500 years reveals a stable but threatened precipitation-groundwater recharge relation around Jerusalem. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabe6303. [PMID: 34516766 PMCID: PMC8442904 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe6303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Groundwater is a key water resource in semiarid and seasonally dry regions around the world, which is replenished by intermittent precipitation events and mediated by vegetation, soil, and regolith properties. Here, a climate reconstruction of 4500 years for the Jerusalem region was used to determine the relation between climate, vegetation, and groundwater recharge. Despite changes in air temperature and vegetation characteristics, simulated recharge remained linearly related to precipitation over the entire analyzed period, with drier decades having lower rates of recharge for a given annual precipitation due to soil memory effects. We show that in recent decades, the lack of changes in the precipitation–groundwater recharge relation results from the compensating responses of vegetation to increasing CO2, i.e., increased leaf area and reduced stomatal conductance. This multicentury relation is expected to be modified by climate change, with changes up to −20% in recharge for unchanged precipitation, potentially jeopardizing water resource availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Fatichi
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, 117576 Singapore, Singapore
| | - Nadav Peleg
- Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Géopolis, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Theodoros Mastrotheodoros
- Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Christoforos Pappas
- Centre d’étude de la forêt, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada
- Département Science et Technologie, Téluq, Université du Québec, 5800 rue Saint-Denis, Bureau 1105, Montréal, QC H2S 3L5, Canada
| | - Gabriele Manoli
- Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT London, UK
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14
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Ukkola AM, De Kauwe MG, Roderick ML, Burrell A, Lehmann P, Pitman AJ. Annual precipitation explains variability in dryland vegetation greenness globally but not locally. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:4367-4380. [PMID: 34091984 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Dryland vegetation productivity is strongly modulated by water availability. As precipitation patterns and variability are altered by climate change, there is a pressing need to better understand vegetation responses to precipitation variability in these ecologically fragile regions. Here we present a global analysis of dryland sensitivity to annual precipitation variations using long-term records of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). We show that while precipitation explains 66% of spatial gradients in NDVI across dryland regions, precipitation only accounts for <26% of temporal NDVI variability over most (>75%) dryland regions. We observed this weaker temporal relative to spatial relationship between NDVI and precipitation across all global drylands. We confirmed this result using three alternative water availability metrics that account for water loss to evaporation, and growing season and precipitation timing. This suggests that predicting vegetation responses to future rainfall using space-for-time substitution will strongly overestimate precipitation control on interannual variability in aboveground growth. We explore multiple mechanisms to explain the discrepancy between spatial and temporal responses and find contributions from multiple factors including local-scale vegetation characteristics, climate and soil properties. Earth system models (ESMs) from the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project overestimate the observed vegetation sensitivity to precipitation variability up to threefold, particularly during dry years. Given projections of increasing meteorological drought, ESMs are likely to overestimate the impacts of future drought on dryland vegetation with observations suggesting that dryland vegetation is more resistant to annual precipitation variations than ESMs project.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna M Ukkola
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Martin G De Kauwe
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Michael L Roderick
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | | | - Peter Lehmann
- Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Andy J Pitman
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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15
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Cheng H, Gong Y, Zuo X. Precipitation Variability Affects Aboveground Biomass Directly and Indirectly via Plant Functional Traits in the Desert Steppe of Inner Mongolia, Northern China. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:674527. [PMID: 34456934 PMCID: PMC8385370 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.674527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Clarifying the response of community and dominance species to climate change is crucial for disentangling the mechanism of the ecosystem evolution and predicting the prospective dynamics of communities under the global climate scenario. We examined how precipitation changes affect community structure and aboveground biomass (AGB) according to manipulated precipitation experiments in the desert steppe of Inner Mongolia, China. Bayesian model and structural equation models (SEM) were used to test variation and causal relationship among precipitation, plant diversity, functional attributes, and AGB. The results showed that the responses of species richness, evenness, and plant community weighted means traits to precipitation changes in amount and year were significant. The SEM demonstrated that precipitation change in amount and year has a direct effect on richness, evenness, and community-weighted mean (CWM) for height, leaf area (LA), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), leaf nitrogen content (LNC), and leaf carbon content (LCC) and AGB; there into CWM for height and LDMC had a direct positive effect on AGB; LA had a direct negative effect on AGB. Three dominant species showed diverse adaptation and resource utilization strategies in response to precipitation changes. A. polyrhizum showed an increase in height under the precipitation treatments that promoted AGB, whereas the AGB of P. harmala and S. glareosa was boosted through alterations in height and LA. Our results highlight the asynchronism of variation in community composition and structure, leaf functional traits in precipitation-AGB relationship. We proposed that altered AGB resulted from the direct and indirect effects of plant functional traits (plant height, LA, LDMC) rather than species diversity, plant functional traits are likely candidate traits, given that they are mechanistically linked to precipitation changes and affected aboveground biomass in a desert steppe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huan Cheng
- College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
- Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Yuanbo Gong
- College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
| | - Xiaoan Zuo
- Urat Desert-Grassland Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou, China
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16
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Bassiouni M, Vico G. Parsimony vs predictive and functional performance of three stomatal optimization principles in a big-leaf framework. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2021; 231:586-600. [PMID: 33864268 DOI: 10.1111/nph.17392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/02/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Stomatal optimization models can improve estimates of water and carbon fluxes with relatively low complexity, yet there is no consensus on which formulations are most appropriate for ecosystem-scale applications. We implemented three existing analytical equations for stomatal conductance, based on different water penalty functions, in a big-leaf comparison framework, and determined which optimization principles were most consistent with flux tower observations from different biomes. We used information theory to dissect controls of soil water supply and atmospheric demand on evapotranspiration in wet to dry conditions and to quantify missing or inadequate information in model variants. We ranked stomatal optimization principles based on parameter uncertainty, parsimony, predictive accuracy, and functional accuracy of the interactions between soil moisture, vapor pressure deficit, and evapotranspiration. Performance was high for all model variants. Water penalty functions with explicit representation of plant hydraulics did not substantially improve predictive or functional accuracy of ecosystem-scale evapotranspiration estimates, and parameterizations were more uncertain, despite having physiological underpinnings at the plant level. Stomatal optimization based on water use efficiency thus provided more information about ecosystem-scale evapotranspiration compared to those based on xylem vulnerability and proved more useful in improving ecosystem-scale models with less complexity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maoya Bassiouni
- Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, 750 07, Sweden
| | - Giulia Vico
- Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, 750 07, Sweden
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17
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Feng X. Marching in step: The importance of matching model complexity to data availability in terrestrial biosphere models. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2020; 26:3190-3192. [PMID: 32202030 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Xue Feng
- Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
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