Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming
Abstract: The phenology of vegetation, particularly the length of the growing season (LOS; i.e., the period from greenup to senescence), is highly sensitive to climate change, which could imply potent feedbacks to the climate system, for example, by altering the ecosystem carbon (C) balance. In rece...
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ftunivantwerpen:c:irua:146655 2023-07-16T04:01:03+02:00 Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming Leblans, Niki Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. Vicca, Sara Fu, Yongshuo Penuelas, Josep Janssens, Ivan 2017 pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1466550151162165141 https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/54b123/146655_2018_06_01.pdf eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/GCB.13749 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/isi/000412322700040 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 1354-1013 Global change biology Chemistry Biology info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2017 ftunivantwerpen https://doi.org/10.1111/GCB.13749 2023-06-26T22:23:58Z Abstract: The phenology of vegetation, particularly the length of the growing season (LOS; i.e., the period from greenup to senescence), is highly sensitive to climate change, which could imply potent feedbacks to the climate system, for example, by altering the ecosystem carbon (C) balance. In recent decades, the largest extensions of LOS have been reported at high northern latitudes, but further warming-induced LOS extensions may be constrained by too short photoperiod or unfulfilled chilling requirements. Here, we studied subarctic grasslands, which cover a vast area and contain large C stocks, but for which LOS changes under further warming are highly uncertain. We measured LOS extensions of Icelandic subarctic grasslands along natural geothermal soil warming gradients of different age (short term, where the measurements started after 5 years of warming and long term, i.e., warmed since 50 years) using ground-level measurements of normalized difference vegetation index. We found that LOS linearly extended with on average 2.1 days per degrees C soil warming up to the highest soil warming levels (ca. +10 degrees C) and that LOS had the potential to extend at least 1 month. This indicates that the warming impact on LOS in these subarctic grasslands will likely not saturate in the near future. A similar response to short- and long-term warming indicated a strong physiological control of the phenological response of the subarctic grasslands to warming and suggested that genetic adaptations and community changes were likely of minor importance. We conclude that the warming-driven extension of the LOSs of these subarctic grasslands did not saturate up to +10 degrees C warming, and hence that growing seasons of high-latitude grasslands are likely to continue lengthening with future warming (unless genetic adaptations or species shifts do occur). This persistence of the warming-induced extension of LOS has important implications for the C-sink potential of subarctic grasslands under climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Subarctic IRUA - Institutional Repository van de Universiteit Antwerpen Global Change Biology 23 11 4932 4945 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
IRUA - Institutional Repository van de Universiteit Antwerpen |
op_collection_id |
ftunivantwerpen |
language |
English |
topic |
Chemistry Biology |
spellingShingle |
Chemistry Biology Leblans, Niki Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. Vicca, Sara Fu, Yongshuo Penuelas, Josep Janssens, Ivan Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
topic_facet |
Chemistry Biology |
description |
Abstract: The phenology of vegetation, particularly the length of the growing season (LOS; i.e., the period from greenup to senescence), is highly sensitive to climate change, which could imply potent feedbacks to the climate system, for example, by altering the ecosystem carbon (C) balance. In recent decades, the largest extensions of LOS have been reported at high northern latitudes, but further warming-induced LOS extensions may be constrained by too short photoperiod or unfulfilled chilling requirements. Here, we studied subarctic grasslands, which cover a vast area and contain large C stocks, but for which LOS changes under further warming are highly uncertain. We measured LOS extensions of Icelandic subarctic grasslands along natural geothermal soil warming gradients of different age (short term, where the measurements started after 5 years of warming and long term, i.e., warmed since 50 years) using ground-level measurements of normalized difference vegetation index. We found that LOS linearly extended with on average 2.1 days per degrees C soil warming up to the highest soil warming levels (ca. +10 degrees C) and that LOS had the potential to extend at least 1 month. This indicates that the warming impact on LOS in these subarctic grasslands will likely not saturate in the near future. A similar response to short- and long-term warming indicated a strong physiological control of the phenological response of the subarctic grasslands to warming and suggested that genetic adaptations and community changes were likely of minor importance. We conclude that the warming-driven extension of the LOSs of these subarctic grasslands did not saturate up to +10 degrees C warming, and hence that growing seasons of high-latitude grasslands are likely to continue lengthening with future warming (unless genetic adaptations or species shifts do occur). This persistence of the warming-induced extension of LOS has important implications for the C-sink potential of subarctic grasslands under climate change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leblans, Niki Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. Vicca, Sara Fu, Yongshuo Penuelas, Josep Janssens, Ivan |
author_facet |
Leblans, Niki Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. Vicca, Sara Fu, Yongshuo Penuelas, Josep Janssens, Ivan |
author_sort |
Leblans, Niki |
title |
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
title_short |
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
title_full |
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
title_fullStr |
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
title_sort |
phenological responses of icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1466550151162165141 https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/54b123/146655_2018_06_01.pdf |
genre |
Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Subarctic |
op_source |
1354-1013 Global change biology |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/GCB.13749 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/isi/000412322700040 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/GCB.13749 |
container_title |
Global Change Biology |
container_volume |
23 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
4932 |
op_container_end_page |
4945 |
_version_ |
1771550478360903680 |