Deciduous Tundra Shrubs Shift Toward More Acquisitive Light Absorption Strategy Under Climate Change Treatments ...

• Main Authors: Heim, Ramona Julia, Iturrate-Garcia, Maitane, Reji Chacko, Merin, Karsanaev, Sergey, Maximov, Trofim Chr, Heijmans, Monique M.P.D., Schaepman-Strub, Gabriela
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2023
• Subjects: FAPAR; Leaf economics spectrum; Shrub encroachment; Betula nana; Salix pulchra; Plant traits; Arctic; Climate change; Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000630567; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/630567

The effects of climate change on plants are particularly pronounced in the Arctic region. Warming relaxes the temperature and nutrients boundaries that limit tundra plant growth. Increased resource availability under future climate conditions may induce a shift from a conservative economic strategy to an acquisitive one. Following the leaf economics spectrum that hypothesizes a strategy gradient between survival, plant size and costs for the photosynthetic leaf area, light absorption of tundra plants may increase. We investigated climate change effects on light absorptance and the relationship between light absorptance (fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, FAPAR) and structural and nutritional leaf traits, performing a soil warming and surface soil fertilization experiment on two deciduous tundra shrub species. Our results show that fertilization and warming combined increase light absorptance in Arctic shrubs and that FAPAR is correlated with leaf nutrients but not with structural leaf ... : Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 128 (9) ...