Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska
The expansion of woody shrubs in arctic tundra alters many aspects of high-latitude ecosystems, including carbon cycling and wildlife habitat. Dendroecology, the study of annual growth increments in woody plants, has shown promise in revealing how climate and environmental conditions interact with s...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 https://doaj.org/article/a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 2023-09-05T13:17:05+02:00 Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska Daniel E Ackerman Daniel Griffin Sarah E Hobbie Kelly Popham Erin Jones Jacques C Finlay 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 https://doaj.org/article/a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 4, p 044013 (2018) arctic tundra shrubs climate change dendroecology glacial history Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 2023-08-13T00:37:40Z The expansion of woody shrubs in arctic tundra alters many aspects of high-latitude ecosystems, including carbon cycling and wildlife habitat. Dendroecology, the study of annual growth increments in woody plants, has shown promise in revealing how climate and environmental conditions interact with shrub growth to affect these key ecosystem properties. However, a predictive understanding of how shrub growth response to climate varies across the heterogeneous landscape remains elusive. Here we use individual-based mixed effects modeling to analyze 19 624 annual growth ring measurements in the stems of Salix pulchra (Cham.), a rapidly expanding deciduous shrub. Stem samples were collected at six sites throughout the North Slope of Alaska. Sites spanned four landscapes that varied in time since glaciation and hence in soil properties, such as nutrient availability, that we expected would modulate shrub growth response to climate. Ring growth was remarkably coherent among sites and responded positively to mean June temperature. The strength of this climate response varied slightly among glacial landscapes, but in contrast to expectations, this variability was not systematically correlated with landscape age. Additionally, shrubs at all sites exhibited diminishing marginal growth gains in response to increasing temperatures, indicative of alternative growth limiting mechanisms in particularly warm years, such as temperature-induced moisture limitation. Our results reveal a regionally-coherent and robust shrub growth response to early season growing temperature, with local soil properties contributing only a minor influence on shrub growth. Our conclusions strengthen predictions of changes to wildlife habitat and improve the representation of tundra vegetation dynamics in earth systems models in response to future arctic warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change north slope Tundra Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 13 4 044013 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
arctic tundra shrubs climate change dendroecology glacial history Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
arctic tundra shrubs climate change dendroecology glacial history Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Daniel E Ackerman Daniel Griffin Sarah E Hobbie Kelly Popham Erin Jones Jacques C Finlay Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
topic_facet |
arctic tundra shrubs climate change dendroecology glacial history Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
The expansion of woody shrubs in arctic tundra alters many aspects of high-latitude ecosystems, including carbon cycling and wildlife habitat. Dendroecology, the study of annual growth increments in woody plants, has shown promise in revealing how climate and environmental conditions interact with shrub growth to affect these key ecosystem properties. However, a predictive understanding of how shrub growth response to climate varies across the heterogeneous landscape remains elusive. Here we use individual-based mixed effects modeling to analyze 19 624 annual growth ring measurements in the stems of Salix pulchra (Cham.), a rapidly expanding deciduous shrub. Stem samples were collected at six sites throughout the North Slope of Alaska. Sites spanned four landscapes that varied in time since glaciation and hence in soil properties, such as nutrient availability, that we expected would modulate shrub growth response to climate. Ring growth was remarkably coherent among sites and responded positively to mean June temperature. The strength of this climate response varied slightly among glacial landscapes, but in contrast to expectations, this variability was not systematically correlated with landscape age. Additionally, shrubs at all sites exhibited diminishing marginal growth gains in response to increasing temperatures, indicative of alternative growth limiting mechanisms in particularly warm years, such as temperature-induced moisture limitation. Our results reveal a regionally-coherent and robust shrub growth response to early season growing temperature, with local soil properties contributing only a minor influence on shrub growth. Our conclusions strengthen predictions of changes to wildlife habitat and improve the representation of tundra vegetation dynamics in earth systems models in response to future arctic warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Daniel E Ackerman Daniel Griffin Sarah E Hobbie Kelly Popham Erin Jones Jacques C Finlay |
author_facet |
Daniel E Ackerman Daniel Griffin Sarah E Hobbie Kelly Popham Erin Jones Jacques C Finlay |
author_sort |
Daniel E Ackerman |
title |
Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
title_short |
Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
title_full |
Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Uniform shrub growth response to June temperature across the North Slope of Alaska |
title_sort |
uniform shrub growth response to june temperature across the north slope of alaska |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 https://doaj.org/article/a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change north slope Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change north slope Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 4, p 044013 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a9493c09a5304971a1750e14315e5c71 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aab326 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
044013 |
_version_ |
1776198403082944512 |