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At least 37 records · Page 2

Cooling outweighs warming across phenological transitions in the Northern Hemisphere

Vegetation phenology, i.e., seasonal biological events such as leaf-out and leaf-fall, regulates local climate through biophysical processes like evapotranspiration (ET) and albedo. However, the net surface temperature impact of these processes—whether ET cooling or albedo-induced warming predominates—and how the dominance changes across phenological transitions and regions remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effects of vegetation foliage on daytime land surface temperature (LST) following six phenological transitions, spanning from the start of season to end of season, in deciduous and mixed forests across the mid- to high-latitude Northern Hemisphere during 2013–2021 using multiple satellite products and ground observations. We quantified vegetation effect as the difference between observed LST and LST estimates from the Annual Temperature Cycle (ATC) model, representing a no-foliage scenario. We found that vegetation-induced cooling consistently outweighs warming following all phenological transitions except for the end of the season. Cooling intensity increased with vegetation greenness, ranging from 1.0 ± 0.5 °C (mean ± 0.15 SD) in 59% of forests after the start of the season (SOS) to 6.1 ± 0.8 °C in 89% of forests following the onset of maturity, before declining toward the end of the season. Over half of the regions experiencing cooling showed intensification of surface cooling with climate warming, suggesting an amplified vegetation-mediated cooling under future climate change. The findings provide a more precise understanding of the role of vegetation in modulating climate at the intraseasonal scale, highlighting the importance of integrating phenological impacts into climate adaptation strategies and Earth system modeling.

albedo↗

Phenological shifts in lake stratification under climate change

One of the most important physical characteristics driving lifecycle events in lakes is stratification. Already subtle variations in the timing of stratification onset and break-up (phenology) are known to have major ecological effects, mainly by determining the availability of light, nutrients, carbon and oxygen to organisms. Despite its ecological importance, historic and future global changes in stratification phenology are unknown. Here, we used a lake-climate model ensemble and long-term observational data, to investigate changes in lake stratification phenology across the Northern Hemisphere from 1901 to 2099. Under the high-greenhouse-gas-emission scenario, stratification will begin 22.0 ± 7.0 days earlier and end 11.3 ± 4.7 days later by the end of this century. It is very likely that this 33.3 ± 11.7 day prolongation in stratification will accelerate lake deoxygenation with subsequent effects on nutrient mineralization and phosphorus release from lake sediments. Further misalignment of lifecycle events, with possible irreversible changes for lake ecosystems, is also likely.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Phenological responses of temperate and boreal trees to warming depend on ambient spring temperatures, leaf habit, and geographic range

Changes in plant phenology associated with climate change have been observed globally. What is poorly known is whether and how phenological responses to climate warming will differ from year to year, season to season, habitat to habitat, or species to species. Here, we present 5 y of phenological responses to experimental warming for 10 subboreal tree species. Research took place in the open-air B4WarmED experiment in Minnesota. The design is a two habitat (understory and open) × three warming treatments (ambient, +1.7 °C, +3.4 °C) factorial at two sites. Phenology was measured twice weekly during the growing seasons of 2009 through 2013. We found significant interannual variation in the effect of warming and differences among species in response to warming that relate to geographic origin and plant functional group. Moreover, responses to experimental temperature variation were similar to responses to natural temperature variation. Warming advanced the date of budburst more in early compared to late springs, suggesting that to simulate interannual variability in climate sensitivity of phenology, models should employ process-based or continuous development approaches. Differences among species in timing of budburst were also greater in early compared to late springs. Our results suggest that climate change—which will make most springs relatively “early”—could lead to a future with more variable phenology among years and among species, with consequences including greater risk of inappropriately early leafing and altered interactions among species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Photosynthetic decline in aging perennial grass is not fully explained by leaf nitrogen

Abstract Aging in perennial plants is traditionally observed in terms of changes in end-of-season biomass; however, the driving phenological and physiological changes are poorly understood. We found that 3-year-old (mature) stands of the perennial grass Miscanthus×giganteus had 19–30% lower Anet than 1-year-old M.×giganteus (juvenile) stands; 10–34% lower maximum carboxylation rates of Rubisco and 34% lower light-saturated Anet (Asat). These changes could be related to nitrogen (N) limitations, as mature plants were larger and had 14–34% lower leaf N on an area basis (Na) than juveniles. However, N fertilization restored Na to juvenile levels but compensated only 50% of the observed decline in leaf photosynthesis with age. Comparison of leaf photosynthesis per unit of leaf N (PNUE) showed that mature stands had at least 26% lower PNUE than juvenile stands across all N fertilization rates, suggesting that other factors, besides N, may be limiting photosynthesis in mature stands. We hypothesize that sink limitations in mature stands could be causing feedback inhibition of photosynthesis which is associated with the age-related decline in photosynthesis.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Photosynthesis phenology, as defined by solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, is overestimated by vegetation indices in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere

Vegetation phenology is highly sensitive to climate change, although the data and methods used to estimate key phenological states can influence this sensitivity. Because of its direct relation to leaf photosynthetic carbon uptake, remotely sensed solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) can provide new insight assessing changes in vegetation phenology. In this work, we investigated the potential of using a SIF time series product named contiguous SIF (CSIF) to estimate spring, summer, and autumn phenology in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere (>30°N) and compared the results with those based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the period 2001–2018. Overall, we found similar spatial patterns in phenological states. However, specific dates of key phenological events differed when using CSIF vs. MODIS NDVI data. NDVI data indicated that the growing season started earlier (by 10.1 days on average) and ended later (11.5 days on average) relative to CSIF data. This implies that actual periods for photosynthetic activity are shorter (by 21.6 days on average) than those estimated from vegetation indices more directly related to changes in canopy structure. These large differences between results from NDVI and that from CSIF suggest that vegetation indices such as NDVI seem to overestimate the period for active photosynthesis over the extratropical Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, while phenology of the early growing season is dominated by temperature for both NDVI and CSIF data, phenology of the late growing season is mainly controlled by temperature for NDVI but by precipitation for CSIF. Our findings were further confirmed by other SIF (GOME-2 SIF) and vegetation index (MODIS EVI) datasets. Phenology modes in Earth system modelling are often parameterized using leaf unfolding and senescence from either station or satellite observations. Our results imply that canopy structure-based parameterization schemes may have overestimated photosynthesis active period, and thus productivity responses. We conclude that SIF data offers a novel and unique approach for assessing phenological change - one that is more directly tied to the carbon cycle and how it is being influenced by climate change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Gross primary production (GPP) and red solar induced fluorescence (SIF) respond differently to light and seasonal environmental conditions in a subalpine conifer forest

The phenology of montane conifer forests is likely to shift in response to climate change and altered seasonal dynamics of light, temperature, and moisture. Solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) is expected to provide substantial improvement for mapping temporal changes in evergreen gross primary production (GPP) over greenness-based remote sensing indices. The utility of SIF to monitor seasonal changes in the phenology of conifer photosynthesis depends on the degree to which GPP and SIF respond in synchrony to key environmental drivers. However, to what extent SIF and GPP become decoupled by responding differently to the combined effects of light and other environmental conditions remains unknown. The goal of this study was to characterize the responses of GPP and SIFred to a suite of environmental drivers at the half-hour time scale and determine how these relationships change across seasons. We analyzed one year of tower-based SIFred and eddy covariance-derived GPP data from a conifer forest at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. We compared the light responses of GPP and SIFred across the year, finding that SIFred increased in response to light earlier in the year than did GPP. The light response of GPP had a positive temperature dependence in spring, and this dependency reversed in summer due to increased evaporative demand, while the light response of SIFred was less temperature dependent. Using artificial neural network ensemble analysis, we found that from spring to summer, SIFred did not exhibit a parallel response to the seasonally dynamic temperature and moisture controls on GPP. In summer SIFred was not correlated with canopy conductance, suggesting that SIF is less sensitive to stomatal control than GPP. Furthermore, our results suggest that, in conifers, photosystems begin to activate in spring prior to when water becomes available for photosynthesis, presenting a challenge for the use of SIF as a phenological indicator in conifer forests.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Natural soil microbiome variation affects spring foliar phenology with consequences for plant productivity and climate-driven range shifts

Identifying the potential for natural soil microbial communities to predictably affect complex plant traits is an important frontier in climate change research. Plant phenology varies with environmental and genetic factors, but few studies have examined if the soil microbiome interacts with plant population differentiation to affect phenology and ecosystem function. We compared soil microbial variation in a widespread tree species (Populus angustifolia) with different soil inoculum treatments in a common garden environment to test how the soil microbiome affects spring foliar phenology and subsequent biomass growth. We hypothesized and show that: 1) soil bacterial and fungal communities vary with tree conditioning from different populations and elevations, 2) this soil community variation influences patterns of foliar phenology and plant growth across populations and elevation gradients, and 3) transferring lower elevation plant genotypes to higher elevation soil communities delayed foliar phenology, thereby shortening the growing season and reducing annual biomass production. Our findings show the importance of plant-soil interactions that help shape the timing of tree foliar phenology and productivity. Here, these geographic patterns in plant population x microbiome interactions also broaden our understanding of how soil communities impact plant phenotypic variation across key climate change gradients, with consequences for ecosystem functioning.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Climate-driven divergence in plant-microbiome interactions generates range-wide variation in bud break phenology

Soil microbiomes are rapidly becoming known as an important driver of plant phenotypic variation and may mediate plant responses to environmental factors. However, integrating spatial scales relevant to climate change with plant intraspecific genetic variation and soil microbial ecology is difficult, making studies of broad inference rare. Here we hypothesize and show: 1) the degree to which tree genotypes condition their soil microbiomes varies by population across the geographic distribution of a widespread riparian tree, Populus angustifolia; 2) geographic dissimilarity in soil microbiomes among populations is influenced by both abiotic and biotic environmental variation; and 3) soil microbiomes that vary in response to abiotic and biotic factors can change plant foliar phenology. We show soil microbiomes respond to intraspecific variation at the tree genotype and population level, and geographic variation in soil characteristics and climate. Using a fully reciprocal plant population by soil location feedback experiment, we identified a climate-based soil microbiome effect that advanced and delayed bud break phenology by approximately 10 days. These results demonstrate a landscape-level feedback between tree populations and associated soil microbial communities and suggest soil microbes may play important roles in mediating and buffering bud break phenology with climate warming, with whole ecosystem implications.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Divergent responses of spring phenology to daytime and nighttime warming

Spring phenology (i.e., start of season, SOS) has shifted earlier in response to warmer temperatures. However, the respective influences of daytime and nighttime temperatures on SOS changes remain poorly understood. Here we characterized the responses of satellite-derived SOS to minimum temperature (Tmin) and maximum temperature (Tmax) across Appalachian Trail regions in the Eastern United States during 2000-2013. We found SOS responded differently to Tmin and Tmax at 81.5% of the study area. Furthermore, the SOS responses to Tmin and Tmax both changed across space, and specifically, these two responses showed significant divergent trends from cold to warm regions (P<0.001). We propose a new framework utilizing both Tmin and Tmax, instead of daily average temperature, in modeling phenology. This study, for the first time, disentangled phenological responses to daytime temperature from nighttime temperature across a wide range of temperatures. The findings suggest that model projections of future phenological changes should incorporate the divergent phenology responses to daytime and nighttime temperatures, in order to improve the representation of land-atmosphere interactions in Earth system models in light of asymmetric diurnal warming.

asymmetric warming, temperature sensitivity, Appal↗

Species-specific flowering phenology responses to experimental warming and drought alter herbaceous plant species overlap in a temperate–boreal forest community

Abstract Background and Aims Warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns are expected to continue to occur as the climate changes. How these changes will impact the flowering phenology of herbaceous perennials in northern forests is poorly understood but could have consequences for forest functioning and species interactions. Here, we examine the flowering phenology responses of five herbaceous perennials to experimental warming and reduced summer rainfall over 3 years. Methods This study is part of the B4WarmED experiment located at two sites in northern Minnesota, USA. Three levels of warming (ambient, +1.6 °C and +3.1 °C) were crossed with two rainfall manipulations (ambient and 27 % reduced growing season rainfall). Key Results We observed species-specific responses to the experimental treatments. Warming alone advanced flowering for four species. Most notably, the two autumn blooming species showed the strongest advance of flowering to warming. Reduced rainfall alone advanced flowering for one autumn blooming species and delayed flowering for the other, with no significant impact on the three early blooming species. Only one species, Solidago spp., showed an interactive response to warming and rainfall manipulation by advancing in +1.6 °C warming (regardless of rainfall manipulation) but not advancing in the warmest, driest treatment. Species-specific responses led to changes in temporal overlap between species. Most notably, the two autumn blooming species diverged significantly in their flowering timing. In ambient conditions, these two species flowered within the same week. In the warmest, driest treatment, flowering occurred over a month apart. Conclusions Herbaceous species may differ in how they respond to future climate conditions. Changes to phenology may lead to fewer resources for insects or a mismatch between plants and pollinators.

Plant Sciences↗

Impact of vegetation physiology and phenology on watershed hydrology in a semiarid watershed in the Pacific Northwest in a changing climate

Concurrent with changes in climate conditions, increases in atmospheric composition and transport can affect land surface processes by regulating physiological and phenological responses of plants, and consequently perturb water, carbon, and nitrogen (N) dynamics at multiple scales. Howerver, the relationships bwtween plants physiological and phenological and land surface processes in a changing climate are less well known due to the limitation of representing palnts properties in traditional hydrological models. In this study, we use the Community Land Model version 5 (CLM5) to investigate how projected changes in large scale atmospheric conditions can affect hydrologic and biogeochemical dynamics in the Upper Columbia-Priest Rapids (UCPR) watershed, a typical semi-arid watershed located in the north-western United States dominated by croplands. Six numerical experiments considering climate change, CO2 concentration, and N deposition consistent with the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 are performed at 1-km resolution over the period of 2015-2099. Our results show that, compared with historical results (1985-2014), the elevated CO2 directly increases plants N uptake rates that provide additional leaf N to enhance photosynthesis by the end of 21st century (2070-2099). The higher GPP leads to changes in stomatal resistance and increased leaf area index (LAI) that affect evaporatranspiration (ET) and its components. As a result of stomatal responses to a higher CO2 concentration, ET over corn fields declines by 24.6 mm yr-1 under RCP4.5, and by 64.0 mm yr-1 under RCP8.5, respectively by the end of the century from its historical mean of 428 mm yr-1. Meanwhile, ET over soybean fields increases by 27.7 mm yr-1 under RCP4.5 and 9.98 mm yr-1 under RCP8.5 from its historical mean of 507 mm yr-1 as a result of CO2 fertilization as soybeans are able to uptake more N to increase LAI significantly. Furtherfore, the changes in physiological and phenological in corn and soybean can strongly modulate water budget terms over the watershed in response to expected changes in greenhouse gas concentrations and atmospheric composition. Additionally, increases in CO2 concentration and N deposition are beneficial for improving water use efficiency of corn and soybean, therefore lead to less water consumption per unit gram of carbon produced from these crops. Our study elucidates the need to jointly consider effects of surface climate and atmospheric composition and transport in understanding and predicting watershed hydrologic and biogeochemical responses, especially for an agricultural watershed.

Zhu, Bowen↗

AmeriFlux FLUXNET-1F US-xDC NEON Dakota Coteau Field School (DCFS)

This is the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP) created FLUXNET-1F version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xDC NEON Dakota Coteau Field School (DCFS). This is the FLUXNET version of the carbon flux data for the site US-xDC NEON Dakota Coteau Field School (DCFS) produced by applying the standard ONEFlux (1F) software. Site Description - The Dakota Coteau Field School (DCFS) and Prairie Lake (PRLA) field sites are co-located in an agricultural area used primarily for cattle grazing, just a few miles east of the Woodworth and Prairie Pothole sites at the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge. DCFS covers 7.8 km2 (3 square miles) of grazing land in Stutsman County, ND, between the tiny communities of Pingree and Woodworth. The population here is sparse, but the land has been transformed by agricultural activities over the last 150 years. The field site has been used only for grazing, but other land in the surrounding area has been converted to corn and soybean production. DCFS is located in an area known as the "Prairie Pothole Region," a band of tall and mixed prairie that stretches across parts of North and South Dakota, Minnesota and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Historically, this area supported tall to mid-height prairie grasses, including blue gamma and green needlegrass. The land here is pocked by thousands of depressions left behind by glaciers 10,000 years ago, resulting in a series of small lakes and wetland areas known as prairie potholes. These potholes receive most of their water from spring snowmelt and are a primary source of groundwater recharge for the region. NEON data will help researchers monitor the effects of climate change on the Northern Plains ecosystem. Over the last 30 years, the hydrological cycle in the plains has changed dramatically, trending wetter overall and diverging from the historical ten-year cycles. Temperatures are also rising, leading to changes in plant phenology cycles and species distribution that could negatively impact migratory bird populations and other animal species.

Network), NEON (National Ecological Observatory↗

Evaluation and modification of ELM seasonal deciduous phenology against observations in a southern boreal peatland forest

Phenological transitions determine the timing of changes in land surface properties and the seasonality of exchanges of biosphere-atmosphere energy, water, and carbon. Accurate mechanistic modeling of phenological processes is therefore critical to understand and correctly predict terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks with changing atmospheric and climate conditions. However, the phenological components in the land model of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Exascale Earth System Model (ELM of E3SM) were previously unable to accurately capture the observed phenological responses to environmental conditions in a well-studied boreal peatland forest. In this research, we introduced new seasonal-deciduous phenology schemes into version 1.0 of ELM and evaluated their performance against the PhenoCam observations at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment in northern Minnesota from 2015 to 2018. We found that phenology simulated by the revised ELM (i.e., earlier spring onsets and stronger warming responses of spring onsets and autumn senescence) was closer to observations than simulations from the original algorithms for both the deciduous conifer (Larix laricina) and mixed shrub layers. Moreover, the revised ELM generally produced higher carbon and water fluxes (e.g., photosynthesis and evapotranspiration) during the growing season and stronger flux responses to warming than the default ELM. A parameter sensitivity analysis further indicated the significant contribution of phenology parameters to uncertainty in key carbon and water cycle variables, underscoring the importance of precise phenology parameterization. Furthermore, this phenological modeling effort demonstrates the potential to enhance the E3SM representation of land-climate interactions at broader spatiotemporal scales, especially under anticipated elevated CO 2 and warming conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Remote sensing of seasonal variation of LAI and fAPAR in a deciduous broadleaf forest

Climate change is affecting the phenology of terrestrial ecosystems. In deciduous forests, phenology in leaf area index (LAI) is the primary driver of seasonal variation in the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR), which drives photosynthesis. Remote sensing has been widely used to estimate LAI and fAPAR. However, while many studies have examined both empirical and model-based relationships among LAI, fAPAR, and spectral vegetation indices (SVI) from remote sensing, few studies have systematically and empirically examined how relationships among these variables change over the growing season. In this study, we examine how and why seasonal-scale covariation differs among time series of remotely sensed SVIs and both LAI and fAPAR based on current understanding and theory. To do this we use newly available remote sensing data sets in combination with time series of in-situ measurements and a canopy radiative transfer model to analyze how seasonal variation in canopy and environmental conditions affect relationships among remotely sensed SVIs, LAI, and fAPAR at a temperate deciduous forest site in central Massachusetts. Our results show that accounting for seasonal variation in canopy shadowing, which is driven by variation in solar zenith angle, improved remote sensing-based estimates of LAI, fAPAR, and daily total APAR. Specifically, we show that the phenology of SVIs is strongly influenced by seasonal variation in near infrared (NIR) reflectance arising from systematic variation in the canopy shadow fraction that is independent of changes in LAI or fAPAR. Therefore, results of this work provide a refined basis for understanding how remote sensing can be used to monitor and model the phenology of LAI, fAPAR, APAR, and gross primary productivity in temperate deciduous forests.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Predicting spring phenology in deciduous broadleaf forests: NEON phenology forecasting community challenge

Accurate models are important to predict how global climate change will continue to alter plant phenology and near-term ecological forecasts can be used to iteratively improve models and evaluate predictions that are made a priori. The Ecological Forecasting Initiative's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Forecasting Challenge, is an open challenge to the community to forecast daily greenness values, measured through digital images collected by the PhenoCam Network at NEON sites before the data are collected. For the first round of the challenge, which is presented here, we forecasted canopy greenness throughout the spring at eight deciduous broadleaf sites to investigate when, where, and for what model type phenology forecast skill is highest. A total of 192,536 predictions were submitted, representing eighteen models, including a persistence and a day of year mean null models. We found that overall forecast skill was highest when forecasting earlier in the greenup curve compared to the end, for shorter lead times, for sites that greened up earlier, and when submitting forecasts during times other than near budburst. The models based on day of year historical mean had the highest predictive skill across the challenge period. In this first round of the challenge, by synthesizing across forecasts, we started to elucidate what factors affect the predictive skill of near-term phenology forecasts.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Quantifying the long-term changes of terrestrial water storage and their driving factors

Global warming is expected to cause changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) across the land surface, with widespread impacts on ecosystems and society. Although extensive research has been performed to analyze TWS changes and possible drivers during the post-2000 period, longer-term evolution of TWS and associated environmental forcings remain relatively unexplored. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the Energy Exascale Earth System model (E3SM) land model ELM version 1 (ELM v1) in simulating global TWS, and used factorial simulations of ELMv1 to quantify global TWS changes and their drivers during 1948–2012. We found that ELM’s agreed best with existing satellites and reconstruction datasets in temperate regions unaffected by irrigation. Biome- and climate zone-averaged TWS mainly increased at rates between 0 and 10 mm/year over 1948–2012, but the second half of that period saw smaller positive trends than the first half or even negative trends. Climate change explained >80 % of the TWS trends across most biomes and climate zones, followed by land use and land cover change. The physiological and phenological effects of CO2 primarily induced noticeable TWS trends in the more humid biomes and climate zones across different latitudes. In contrast, nitrogen deposition and aerosol deposition generally had smaller and negative impacts across the biomes and climate regions. Among the meteorological drivers analyzed, the long-term average imbalance between precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (E), and runoff (Q) contributed >50 % of the TWS trends in most biomes and climate zones, with nonlinearity being induced by spatially heterogenous changes in E/P and Q/P ratios. The accumulated detrended anomalies in P, E, and Q also often contributed substantially, while the trends difference between P, E, and Q contributed little. Together, these findings unveiled an intensification of the global TWS and its diverse patterns of climate change and different non-withdrawal human-induced alterations, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding and projection of the global water cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Revegetation affects the response of land surface phenology to climate in Loess Plateau, China

Land surface phenology (LSP), defined as the plant's growth rhythm retrieved from satellite sensing products, is proven to shift with climate change and affect the carbon cycles of terrestrial ecosystems. Global afforested area is largely increasing and consequently affecting local and global climate. However, how and to what extent revegetation affects LSP remains relatively unexplored. Here we investigated the difference in four LSPs (i.e., greenup, maturity, senescence, and dormancy) and the response of LSP to climate between restored and native vegetation on Loess Plateau, China, where a remarkable process of vegetation restoration happened during 1982–2015. Most study regions showed a longer growing season (LOS) over time, specifically, with a slight delay in greenup but a relatively large delay in senescence. We found that air temperature was the dominant factor affecting greenup and maturity, while precipitation mostly controlled the senescence and dormancy in the study area. Under similar climate conditions, the LSP of restored vegetation (i.e., restored forest and grassland) showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) from native ones during 1999–2015. Compared to the native forest, restored forest from cropland and grassland showed a delayed greenup date by 0.3 and 3.6 days (p < 0.05) and an advanced dormancy date of 6.6 and 9.0 days (p < 0.05), respectively. Furthermore, the restored vegetation became less sensitive to air temperature than native vegetation, while the restored forest was more sensitive to precipitation, and its growth was affected by the water limitation to a larger extent in the study area. In conclusion, our study highlights the necessity of considering land use management and its effect on the LSP change to better understand the effect of afforestation on global climate and carbon cycles.

Climate change↗