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Earlier springs are causing reduced nitrogen availability in North American eastern deciduous forests

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16133 (2016) Cite this article

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Abstract

There is wide agreement that anthropogenic climate warming has influenced the phenology of forests during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries1,2. Longer growing seasons can lead to increased photosynthesis and productivity3, which would represent a negative feedback to rising CO2 and consequently warming4,5. Alternatively, increased demand for soil resources because of a longer photosynthetically active period in conjunction with other global change factors might exacerbate resource limitation6,7, restricting forest productivity response to a longer growing season8,9. In this case, increased springtime productivity has the potential to increase plant nitrogen limitation by increasing plant demand for nitrogen more than nitrogen supplies, or increasing early-season ecosystem nitrogen losses10,11. Here we show that for 222 trees representing three species in eastern North America earlier spring phenology during the past 30 years has caused declines in nitrogen availability to trees by increasing demand for nitrogen relative to supply. The observed decline in nitrogen availability is not associated with reduced wood production, suggesting that other environmental changes such as increased atmospheric CO2 and water availability are likely to have overwhelmed reduced nitrogen availability. Given current trajectories of environmental changes, nitrogen limitation is likely to continue to increase for these forests, possibly further limiting carbon sequestration potential.

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Figure 1: Vegetation fractions using pre- and post-2000 data.
Figure 2: Path diagram illustrating relationships between time, spring (DOYspr) and autumn (DOYaut) phenology, wood production (BAI), nitrogen availability (δ15N) and discrimination against 13C (Δ13C).
Figure 3: Relationships between mean δ15N, Δ13C, and spring anomaly.

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Acknowledgements

Funding provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (no. NNX12AK17G). We thank S.M. Guinn for remote sensing data processing and database development, R. Paulman for dendrochronology and analytical measurements, V. Cunningham and H. Ding for field assistance, D. Taillie for assistance with Fig. 2, and K. McLauchlan for insightful conversation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Frostburg, 21532, Maryland, USA

    Andrew J. Elmore & David M. Nelson

  2. Jonah Ventures, Manhattan, 66502, Kansas, USA

    Joseph M. Craine

Authors
  1. Andrew J. Elmore
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  2. David M. Nelson
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  3. Joseph M. Craine
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Contributions

A.J.E. and D.M.N. conceived the study, collected the data and oversaw analytical and geospatial measurements. A.J.E., D.M.N. and J.M.C. performed statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andrew J. Elmore.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Description of Figure 2, and Supplementary Table for figure 2, Supplementary Figures 1-10, Supplementary Tables 1-19 (PDF 3234 kb)

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Elmore, A., Nelson, D. & Craine, J. Earlier springs are causing reduced nitrogen availability in North American eastern deciduous forests. Nature Plants 2, 16133 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.133

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