What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra?
Deciduous shrubs are expected to rapidly expand in the Arctic during the coming decades due to climate warming. A transition towards more shrub-dominated tundra may have large implications for the regional surface energy balance, permafrost stability and carbon storage capacity, with consequences fo...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:d137266243064734aa9756d89c11ea61 2023-05-15T15:16:42+02:00 What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? D. Blok U. Sass-Klaassen G. Schaepman-Strub M. M. P. D. Heijmans P. Sauren F. Berendse 2011-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 https://doaj.org/article/d137266243064734aa9756d89c11ea61 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.biogeosciences.net/8/1169/2011/bg-8-1169-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/d137266243064734aa9756d89c11ea61 Biogeosciences, Vol 8, Iss 5, Pp 1169-1179 (2011) Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2011 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 2022-12-31T04:32:50Z Deciduous shrubs are expected to rapidly expand in the Arctic during the coming decades due to climate warming. A transition towards more shrub-dominated tundra may have large implications for the regional surface energy balance, permafrost stability and carbon storage capacity, with consequences for the global climate system. However, little information is available on the natural long-term shrub growth response to climatic variability. Our aim was to determine the climate factor and time period that are most important to annual shrub growth in our research site in NE-Siberia. Therefore, we determined annual radial growth rates in Salix pulchra and Betula nana shrubs by measuring ring widths. We constructed shrub ring width chronologies and compared growth rates to regional climate and remotely sensed greenness data. Early summer temperature was the most important factor influencing ring width of S. pulchra (Pearson's r = 0.73, p < 0.001) and B. nana (Pearson's r = 0.46, p < 0.001). No effect of winter precipitation on shrub growth was observed. In contrast, summer precipitation of the previous year correlated positively with B. nana ring width (Pearson's r = 0.42, p < 0.01), suggesting that wet summers facilitate shrub growth in the following growing season. S. pulchra ring width correlated positively with peak summer NDVI, despite the small coverage of S. pulchra shrubs (< 5 % surface cover) in our research area. We provide the first climate-growth study on shrubs for Northeast Siberia, the largest tundra region in the world. We show that two deciduous shrub species with markedly different growth forms have a similar growth response to changes in climate. The obtained shrub growth response to climate variability in the past increases our understanding of the mechanisms underlying current shrub expansion, which is required to predict future climate-driven tundra vegetation shifts. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Betula nana permafrost Tundra Siberia Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Biogeosciences 8 5 1169 1179 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 D. Blok U. Sass-Klaassen G. Schaepman-Strub M. M. P. D. Heijmans P. Sauren F. Berendse What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
topic_facet |
Ecology QH540-549.5 Life QH501-531 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Deciduous shrubs are expected to rapidly expand in the Arctic during the coming decades due to climate warming. A transition towards more shrub-dominated tundra may have large implications for the regional surface energy balance, permafrost stability and carbon storage capacity, with consequences for the global climate system. However, little information is available on the natural long-term shrub growth response to climatic variability. Our aim was to determine the climate factor and time period that are most important to annual shrub growth in our research site in NE-Siberia. Therefore, we determined annual radial growth rates in Salix pulchra and Betula nana shrubs by measuring ring widths. We constructed shrub ring width chronologies and compared growth rates to regional climate and remotely sensed greenness data. Early summer temperature was the most important factor influencing ring width of S. pulchra (Pearson's r = 0.73, p < 0.001) and B. nana (Pearson's r = 0.46, p < 0.001). No effect of winter precipitation on shrub growth was observed. In contrast, summer precipitation of the previous year correlated positively with B. nana ring width (Pearson's r = 0.42, p < 0.01), suggesting that wet summers facilitate shrub growth in the following growing season. S. pulchra ring width correlated positively with peak summer NDVI, despite the small coverage of S. pulchra shrubs (< 5 % surface cover) in our research area. We provide the first climate-growth study on shrubs for Northeast Siberia, the largest tundra region in the world. We show that two deciduous shrub species with markedly different growth forms have a similar growth response to changes in climate. The obtained shrub growth response to climate variability in the past increases our understanding of the mechanisms underlying current shrub expansion, which is required to predict future climate-driven tundra vegetation shifts. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
D. Blok U. Sass-Klaassen G. Schaepman-Strub M. M. P. D. Heijmans P. Sauren F. Berendse |
author_facet |
D. Blok U. Sass-Klaassen G. Schaepman-Strub M. M. P. D. Heijmans P. Sauren F. Berendse |
author_sort |
D. Blok |
title |
What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
title_short |
What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
title_full |
What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
title_fullStr |
What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
title_full_unstemmed |
What are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in Northeastern Siberian tundra? |
title_sort |
what are the main climate drivers for shrub growth in northeastern siberian tundra? |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 https://doaj.org/article/d137266243064734aa9756d89c11ea61 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Betula nana permafrost Tundra Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Betula nana permafrost Tundra Siberia |
op_source |
Biogeosciences, Vol 8, Iss 5, Pp 1169-1179 (2011) |
op_relation |
http://www.biogeosciences.net/8/1169/2011/bg-8-1169-2011.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4170 https://doaj.org/toc/1726-4189 doi:10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 1726-4170 1726-4189 https://doaj.org/article/d137266243064734aa9756d89c11ea61 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-8-1169-2011 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1169 |
op_container_end_page |
1179 |
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1766346997678211072 |