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Increased drought effects on the phenology of autumn leaf senescence

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 943–949 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global warming delays the autumn date of foliar senescence (DFS) in recent decades, with positive implications for growing season length and therefore global carbon storage. However, warming-associated drought, leading to water limitation, may conversely stimulate earlier DFS. Using ground observations since 1940s and 34 years of satellite greenness data (1982‒2015) over the Northern Hemisphere (>30° N), we show the increased impact of drought on DFS. Earlier DFS is linked to decreased precipitation under warming and weaker drought resistance associated with various plant functional traits. For example, isohydric plants with strict regulation of water status may drop leaves fast during droughts. We derive an improved set of phenology models based on this influence and project earlier DFS by the end of the century, particularly at high latitudes (>50° N). Our results limit uncertainties in the later end of plant growth with warming, aiding estimation of carbon uptake of terrestrial ecosystems.

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Fig. 1: Temporal changes in the sensitivity of the autumnal foliar senescence date (DFS) to drought.
Fig. 2: Underlying mechanisms for enhanced drought effects.
Fig. 3: Accuracy comparisons with the enhanced drought effects.
Fig. 4: DFS difference predicted by the SIAMS and SIAM (SIAMS minus SIAM) under SSP 1-2.6 and SSP 5-8.5 scenarios.

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Data availability

All data used in this study are included in the article and the Supplementary Information. The specific link for each dataset can be found in Supplementary Table 1.

Code availability

All the data analyses and modelling were performed using MATLAB. The codes for Tsen calculation and the eight phenology models as well as the satellite LUD and DFS data used in our study are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6892387. Other codes and relevant data are available upon request to the corresponding authors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Strategic Priority Research Programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19040103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42125101) and the CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team (JCTD-2020-05). J.P. and P.C. were funded by European Research Council Synergy grant ERC-SyG-2013-610028 IMBALANCE-P. J.P. was also financially supported by the Fundación Ramon Areces grant ELEMENTAL-CLIMATE, the Spanish Government grant PID2019-110521GB-I00 and the Catalan Government grant SGR 2017-1005.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Chaoyang Wu, Jie Peng, Huanjiong Wang, Xiaoyue Wang, Hao Hua & Quansheng Ge

  2. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Chaoyang Wu, Jie Peng, Huanjiong Wang, Xiaoyue Wang, Hao Hua & Quansheng Ge

  3. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Jie Peng

  4. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, IPSL-LSCE CEA CNRS UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, France

    Philippe Ciais

  5. CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Peñuelas

  6. CREAF, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Peñuelas

  7. Estación Experimental de Aula Dei, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Zaragoza, Spain

    Santiago Beguería

  8. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada

    T. Andrew Black & Rachhpal S. Jassal

  9. Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (GSCE), Department of Geography, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA

    Xiaoyang Zhang

  10. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Center for Monsoon and Environment Research, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Wenping Yuan

  11. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China

    Eryuan Liang

  12. State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, China

    Ronggao Liu

  13. International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Weimin Ju

  14. College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Yongshuo H. Fu

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Contributions

C.W., J.P. and Q.G. designed the research. C.W. and J.P. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. J.P. performed data analyses and remote-sensing model simulations. X.W. and H.H. contributed to model simulation. P.C., J.P. and S.B. substantially revised the manuscript with intensive suggestions. H.W., A.B., R.J., X.Z., W.Y., E.L., R.L., W.J. and Y.F. contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chaoyang Wu, Jie Peng or Quansheng Ge.

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Nature Climate Change thanks Ainong Li, Constantin Zohner and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Wu, C., Peng, J., Ciais, P. et al. Increased drought effects on the phenology of autumn leaf senescence. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 943–949 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01464-9

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