Warm springs alter timing but not total growth of temperate deciduous trees

Cameron Dow, Albert Y. Kim, Loïc D’Orangeville, Erika B. Gonzalez-Akre, Ryan Helcoski, Valentine Herrmann, Grant L. Harley, Justin T. Maxwell, Ian R. McGregor, William J. McShea, Sean M. McMahon, Neil Pederson, Alan J. Tepley and Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira ()
Additional contact information
Cameron Dow: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Albert Y. Kim: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Loïc D’Orangeville: Harvard Forest
Erika B. Gonzalez-Akre: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Ryan Helcoski: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Valentine Herrmann: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Grant L. Harley: University of Idaho
Justin T. Maxwell: Indiana University
Ian R. McGregor: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
William J. McShea: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Sean M. McMahon: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Neil Pederson: Harvard Forest
Alan J. Tepley: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira: Conservation Ecology Center, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

Nature, 2022, vol. 608, issue 7923, 552-557

Abstract: Abstract As the climate changes, warmer spring temperatures are causing earlier leaf-out1–3 and commencement of CO2 uptake1,3 in temperate deciduous forests, resulting in a tendency towards increased growing season length3 and annual CO2 uptake1,3–7. However, less is known about how spring temperatures affect tree stem growth8,9, which sequesters carbon in wood that has a long residence time in the ecosystem10,11. Here we show that warmer spring temperatures shifted stem diameter growth of deciduous trees earlier but had no consistent effect on peak growing season length, maximum growth rates, or annual growth, using dendrometer band measurements from 440 trees across two forests. The latter finding was confirmed on the centennial scale by 207 tree-ring chronologies from 108 forests across eastern North America, where annual ring width was far more sensitive to temperatures during the peak growing season than in the spring. These findings imply that any extra CO2 uptake in years with warmer spring temperatures4,5 does not significantly contribute to increased sequestration in long-lived woody stem biomass. Rather, contradicting projections from global carbon cycle models1,12, our empirical results imply that warming spring temperatures are unlikely to increase woody productivity enough to strengthen the long-term CO2 sink of temperate deciduous forests.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05092-3

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