Daylength helps temperate deciduous trees to leaf-out at the optimal time
Fu, Yongshuo H.. (Beijing Normal University. College of Water Sciences)
Zhang, Xuan (Beijing Normal University. College of Water Sciences)
Piao, Shilong (Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science)
Hao, Fanghua (Beijing Normal University. College of Water Sciences)
Geng, Xiaojun (Beijing Normal University. College of Water Sciences)
Vitasse, Yann (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest. Snow and Landscape Research)
Zohner, Constantin (ETH Zurich. Institute of Integrative Biology)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Janssens, Ivan (Universiteit Antwerpen. Departement Biologie)

Date:	2019
Abstract:	Global warming has led to substantially earlier spring leaf-out in temperate-zone deciduous trees. The interactive effects of temperature and daylength underlying this warming response remain unclear. However, they need to be accurately represented by earth system models to improve projections of the carbon and energy balances of temperate forests and the associated feedbacks to the Earth's climate system. We studied the control of leaf-out by daylength and temperature using data from six tree species across 2,377 European phenological network (www. pep725. eu), each with at least 30 years of observations. We found that, in addition to and independent of the known effect of chilling, daylength correlates negatively with the heat requirement for leaf-out in all studied species. In warm springs when leaf-out is early, days are short and the heat requirement is higher than in an average spring, which mitigates the warming-induced advancement of leaf-out and protects the tree against precocious leaf-out and the associated risks of late frosts. In contrast, longer-than-average daylength (in cold springs when leaf-out is late) reduces the heat requirement for leaf-out, ensuring that trees do not leaf-out too late and miss out on large amounts of solar energy. These results provide the first large-scale empirical evidence of a widespread daylength effect on the temperature sensitivity of leaf-out phenology in temperate deciduous trees.
Grants:	European Commission 610028
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Climate change ; Daylength ; Deciduous trees ; Spring phenology ; Temperature response
Published in:	Global change biology, Vol. 25, issue 7 (July 2019) , p. 2410-2418, ISSN 1365-2486

DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14633
PMID: 30927554

Postprint 38 p, 2.3 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals) > Imbalance-P
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