Dataset Information

Ecological constraints increase the climatic debt in forests.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity changes are lagging behind current climate warming. The underlying determinants of this climatic debt are unknown and yet critical to understand the impacts of climate change on the present biota and improve forecasts of biodiversity changes. Here we assess determinants of climatic debt accumulated in French forest herbaceous plant communities between 1987 and 2008 (that is, a 1.05 °C mean difference between the observed and bioindicated temperatures). We show that warmer baseline conditions predispose plant communities to larger climatic debts, and that climate warming exacerbates this response. Forest plant communities, however, are absorbing part of the temperature increase mainly through the species' ability to tolerate changing climate. As climate warming is expected to accelerate during the twenty-first century, plant migration and tolerance to climatic stresses probably will be insufficient to absorb this impact posing threats to the sustainability of forest plant communities.

SUBMITTER: Bertrand R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5007460 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Ecological constraints increase the climatic debt in forests.

Bertrand Romain R Riofrío-Dillon Gabriela G Lenoir Jonathan J Drapier Jacques J de Ruffray Patrice P Gégout Jean-Claude JC Loreau Michel M

Nature communications 20160826

Biodiversity changes are lagging behind current climate warming. The underlying determinants of this climatic debt are unknown and yet critical to understand the impacts of climate change on the present biota and improve forecasts of biodiversity changes. Here we assess determinants of climatic debt accumulated in French forest herbaceous plant communities between 1987 and 2008 (that is, a 1.05 °C mean difference between the observed and bioindicated temperatures). We show that warmer baseline c ...[more]

PMID: 27561410

Similar Datasets

Project description:The frequency and severity of drought events are predicted to increase due to anthropogenic climate change, with cascading effects across forested ecosystems. Management activities such as forest thinning and prescribed burning, which are often intended to mitigate fire hazard and restore ecosystem processes, may also help promote tree resistance to drought. However, it is unclear whether these treatments remain effective during the most severe drought conditions or whether their impacts differ across environmental gradients. We used tree-ring data from a system of replicated, long-term (>20 years) experiments in the southwestern United States to evaluate the effects of forest restoration treatments (i.e., evidence-based thinning and burning) on annual growth rates (i.e., basal area increment; BAI) of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), a broadly distributed and heavily managed species in western North America. The study sites were established at the onset of the most extreme drought event in at least 1200 years and span much of the climatic niche of Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine. Across sites, tree-level BAI increased due to treatment, where trees in treated units grew 133.1% faster than trees in paired, untreated units. Likewise, trees in treated units grew an average of 85.6% faster than their pre-treatment baseline levels (1985 to ca. 2000), despite warm, dry conditions in the post-treatment period (ca. 2000-2018). Variation in the local competitive environment promoted variation in BAI, and larger trees were the fastest-growing individuals, irrespective of treatment. Tree thinning and prescribed fire altered the climatic constraints on growth, decreasing the effects of belowground moisture availability and increasing the effects of atmospheric evaporative demand over multi-year timescales. Our results illustrate that restoration treatments can enhance tree-level growth across sites spanning ponderosa pine's climatic niche, even during recent, extreme drought events. However, shifting climatic constraints, combined with predicted increases in evaporative demand in the southwestern United States, suggest that the beneficial effects of such treatments on tree growth may wane over the upcoming decades.

Dataset Information

Ecological constraints increase the climatic debt in forests.

Publications

Ecological constraints increase the climatic debt in forests.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets