Journal
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
Volume 24, Issue 5, Pages 2159-2168Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14021
Keywords
climate change; leaf phenology; leaf senescence; leaf-out; summer and autumn warming; temperature sensitivity
Funding
- General program of National Nature science foundation of China [31770516]
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2017YFA06036001]
- European Research Council (ERC) through Synergy grant [ERC-2013-SyG-610028]
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Climate warming is substantially shifting the leaf phenological events of plants, and thereby impacting on their individual fitness and also on the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Previous studies have largely focused on the climate impact on spring phenology, and to date the processes underlying leaf senescence and their associated environmental drivers remain poorly understood. In this study, experiments with temperature gradients imposed during the summer and autumn were conducted on saplings of European beech to explore the temperature responses of leaf senescence. An additional warming experiment during winter enabled us to assess the differences in temperature responses of spring leaf-out and autumn leaf senescence. We found that warming significantly delayed the dates of leaf senescence both during summer and autumn warming, with similar temperature sensitivities (6-8days delay per degrees C warming), suggesting that, in the absence of water and nutrient limitation, temperature may be a dominant factor controlling the leaf senescence in European beech. Interestingly, we found a significantly larger temperature response of autumn leaf senescence than of spring leaf-out. This suggests a possible larger contribution of delays in autumn senescence, than of the advancement in spring leaf-out, to extending the growing season under future warmer conditions.
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