Exposure to cold temperature affects the spring phenology of Alaskan deciduous vegetation types

Temperature is a dominant factor driving arctic and boreal ecosystem phenology, including leaf budburst and gross primary production (GPP) onset in Alaskan spring. Previous studies hypothesized that both accumulated growing degree day (GDD) and cold temperature (chilling) exposure are important to l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Research Letters
Main Authors: Mingjie Shi, Nicholas C Parazoo, Su-Jong Jeong, Leah Birch, Peter Lawrence, Eugenie S Euskirchen, Charles E Miller
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2020
Subjects:
Alaskan deciduous vegetation
leaf budburst
GPP onset
community land model
chilling requirement
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
TD1-1066
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Science
Q
Physics
QC1-999
Arctic
Tundra
Alaska
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab6502
https://doaj.org/article/c00660f11482457e8452c0ae912c9b3b
Description
Summary:Temperature is a dominant factor driving arctic and boreal ecosystem phenology, including leaf budburst and gross primary production (GPP) onset in Alaskan spring. Previous studies hypothesized that both accumulated growing degree day (GDD) and cold temperature (chilling) exposure are important to leaf budburst. We test this hypothesis by combining both satellite and aircraft vegetation measurements with the Community Land Model Version 4.5 (CLM), in which the end of plant dormancy depends on thermal conditions (i.e. GDD). We study the sensitivity of GPP onset of different Alaskan deciduous vegetation types to a GDD model with chilling requirement (GC model) included. The default CLM simulations have a 1–12 d earlier day of year GPP onset over Alaska vegetated regions compared to satellite constrained estimates from the Polar Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model. Integrating a GC model into CLM shifts the phase and amplitude of GPP. During 2007–2016, mean GPP onset is postponed by 5 ± 7, 4 ± 8, and 1 ± 6 d over Alaskan northern tundra, shrub, and forest, respectively. The GC model has the greatest impact during warm springs, which is critical for predicting phenology response to future warming. Overall, spring GPP high bias is reduced by 10%. Thus, including chilling requirement in thermal forcing models improves northern high-latitude phenology, but leads to other impacts during the growing season which require further investigation.

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