Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub
With the recent climate warming, tundra ecotones are facing a progressive acceleration of spring snowpack melting and extension of the growing season, with evident consequences to vegetation. Along with summer temperature, winter precipitation has been recently recognised as a crucial factor for tun...
Published in: | Frontiers in Plant Science |
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11368/3029259 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901/full |
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ftunitriestiris:oai:arts.units.it:11368/3029259 2023-05-15T18:39:49+02:00 Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub Lucrezia Unterholzner Angela Luisa Prendin Raffaella Dibona Roberto Menardi Valentino Casolo Sara Gargiulo Francesco Boscutti Marco Carrer Unterholzner, Lucrezia Luisa Prendin, Angela Dibona, Raffaella Menardi, Roberto Casolo, Valentino Gargiulo, Sara Boscutti, Francesco Carrer, Marco 2022 ELETTRONICO http://hdl.handle.net/11368/3029259 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901/full eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/35481143 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000791589900001 firstpage:"-" lastpage:"-" numberofpages:12 journal:FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/895233 http://hdl.handle.net/11368/3029259 doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85128746535 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901/full info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess snowmelt alpine tundra shrub phenology Juniperus communis leaf traits non-structural carbohydrates primary growth climate change info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2022 ftunitriestiris https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 2023-04-09T05:59:33Z With the recent climate warming, tundra ecotones are facing a progressive acceleration of spring snowpack melting and extension of the growing season, with evident consequences to vegetation. Along with summer temperature, winter precipitation has been recently recognised as a crucial factor for tundra shrub growth and physiology. However, gaps of knowledge still exist on long-living plant responses to different snowpack duration, especially on how intra-specific and year-to-year variability together with multiple functional trait adjustments could influence the long-term responses. To fill this gap, we conducted a 3 years snow manipulation experiment above the Alpine treeline on the typical tundra species Juniperus communis, the conifer with the widest distributional range in the north emisphere. We tested shoot elongation, leaf area, stomatal density, leaf dry weight and leaf non-structural carbohydrate content of plants subjected to anticipated, natural and postponed snowpack duration. Anticipated snowpack melting enhanced new shoot elongation and increased stomatal density. However, plants under prolonged snow cover seemed to compensate for the shorter growing period, likely increasing carbon allocation to growth. In fact, these latter showed larger needles and low starch content at the beginning of the growing season. Variability between treatments slightly decreased over time, suggesting a progressive acclimation of juniper to new conditions. In the context of future warming scenarios, our results support the hypothesis of shrub biomass increase within the tundra biome. Yet, the picture is still far from being complete and further research should focus on transient and fading effects of changing conditions in the long term. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Università degli studi di Trieste: ArTS (Archivio della ricerca di Trieste) Frontiers in Plant Science 13 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Università degli studi di Trieste: ArTS (Archivio della ricerca di Trieste) |
op_collection_id |
ftunitriestiris |
language |
English |
topic |
snowmelt alpine tundra shrub phenology Juniperus communis leaf traits non-structural carbohydrates primary growth climate change |
spellingShingle |
snowmelt alpine tundra shrub phenology Juniperus communis leaf traits non-structural carbohydrates primary growth climate change Lucrezia Unterholzner Angela Luisa Prendin Raffaella Dibona Roberto Menardi Valentino Casolo Sara Gargiulo Francesco Boscutti Marco Carrer Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
topic_facet |
snowmelt alpine tundra shrub phenology Juniperus communis leaf traits non-structural carbohydrates primary growth climate change |
description |
With the recent climate warming, tundra ecotones are facing a progressive acceleration of spring snowpack melting and extension of the growing season, with evident consequences to vegetation. Along with summer temperature, winter precipitation has been recently recognised as a crucial factor for tundra shrub growth and physiology. However, gaps of knowledge still exist on long-living plant responses to different snowpack duration, especially on how intra-specific and year-to-year variability together with multiple functional trait adjustments could influence the long-term responses. To fill this gap, we conducted a 3 years snow manipulation experiment above the Alpine treeline on the typical tundra species Juniperus communis, the conifer with the widest distributional range in the north emisphere. We tested shoot elongation, leaf area, stomatal density, leaf dry weight and leaf non-structural carbohydrate content of plants subjected to anticipated, natural and postponed snowpack duration. Anticipated snowpack melting enhanced new shoot elongation and increased stomatal density. However, plants under prolonged snow cover seemed to compensate for the shorter growing period, likely increasing carbon allocation to growth. In fact, these latter showed larger needles and low starch content at the beginning of the growing season. Variability between treatments slightly decreased over time, suggesting a progressive acclimation of juniper to new conditions. In the context of future warming scenarios, our results support the hypothesis of shrub biomass increase within the tundra biome. Yet, the picture is still far from being complete and further research should focus on transient and fading effects of changing conditions in the long term. |
author2 |
Unterholzner, Lucrezia Luisa Prendin, Angela Dibona, Raffaella Menardi, Roberto Casolo, Valentino Gargiulo, Sara Boscutti, Francesco Carrer, Marco |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lucrezia Unterholzner Angela Luisa Prendin Raffaella Dibona Roberto Menardi Valentino Casolo Sara Gargiulo Francesco Boscutti Marco Carrer |
author_facet |
Lucrezia Unterholzner Angela Luisa Prendin Raffaella Dibona Roberto Menardi Valentino Casolo Sara Gargiulo Francesco Boscutti Marco Carrer |
author_sort |
Lucrezia Unterholzner |
title |
Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
title_short |
Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
title_full |
Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
title_fullStr |
Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
title_full_unstemmed |
Transient Effects of Snow Cover Duration on Primary Growth and Leaf Traits in a Tundra Shrub |
title_sort |
transient effects of snow cover duration on primary growth and leaf traits in a tundra shrub |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11368/3029259 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901/full |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/35481143 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000791589900001 firstpage:"-" lastpage:"-" numberofpages:12 journal:FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/895233 http://hdl.handle.net/11368/3029259 doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85128746535 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901/full |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.822901 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Plant Science |
container_volume |
13 |
_version_ |
1766228805348753408 |