Warming-induced increase in carbon uptake is linked to earlier spring phenology in temperate and boreal forests
Date
2022Author
Gu, Hongshuang
Qiao, Yuxin
Xi, Zhenxiang
Rossi, Sergio
Smith, Nicholas G (TTU)
Liu, Jianquan
Chen, Lei (TTU)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Under global warming, advances in spring phenology due to rising temperatures have been
widely reported. However, the physiological mechanisms underlying the advancement in
spring phenology still remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effect of temperature during the previous growing season on spring phenology of current year based on
the start of season extracted from multiple long-term and large-scale phenological datasets
between 1951 and 2018. Our findings indicate that warmer temperatures during previous
growing season are linked to earlier spring phenology of current year in temperate and boreal
forests. Correspondingly, we observed an earlier spring phenology with the increase in
photosynthesis of the previous growing season. These findings suggest that the observed
warming-induced earlier spring phenology is driven by increased photosynthetic carbon
assimilation in the previous growing season. Therefore, the vital role of warming-induced
changes in carbon assimilation should be considered to accurately project spring phenology
and carbon cycling in forest ecosystems under future climate warming.