scholarly journals A temperature threshold to identify the driving climate forces of the respiratory process in terrestrial ecosystems

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyuan Zhang ◽  
Renduo Zhang ◽  
Yang Zhou ◽  
Alessandro Cescatti ◽  
Georg Wohlfahrt ◽  
...  

Abstract. Terrestrial ecosystem respiration (Re) is the major source of CO2 release and constitutes the second largest carbon flux between the biosphere and atmosphere. Therefore, climate-driven changes of Re may greatly impact on future atmospheric CO2 concentration. The aim of this study was to derive an air temperature threshold for identifying the driving climate forces of the respiratory process in terrestrial ecosystems within different temperature zones. For this purpose, a global dataset of 647 site-years of ecosystem flux data collected at 152 sites has been examined. Our analysis revealed an ecosystem threshold of mean annual air temperature (MAT) of 11 ± 2.3 °C. In ecosystems with the MAT below this threshold, the maximum Re rates were primarily dependent on temperature and respiration was mainly a temperature-driven process. On the contrary, in ecosystems with the MAT greater than 11 ± 2.3 °C, in addition to temperature, other driving forces, such as water availability and surface heat flux, became significant drivers of the maximum Re rates and respiration was a multi-factor-driven process. The information derived from this study highlight the key role of temperature as main controlling factor of the maximum Re rates on a large fraction of the terrestrial biosphere, while other driving forces reduce the maximum Re rates and temperature sensitivity of the respiratory process. These findings are particularly relevant under the current scenario of rapid global warming, given that the potential climate-induced changes in ecosystem respiration may lead to substantial anomalies in the seasonality and magnitude of the terrestrial carbon budget.

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1810) ◽  
pp. 20190513 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ramonet ◽  
P. Ciais ◽  
F. Apadula ◽  
J. Bartyzel ◽  
A. Bastos ◽  
...  

During the summer of 2018, a widespread drought developed over Northern and Central Europe. The increase in temperature and the reduction of soil moisture have influenced carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems in various ways, such as a reduction of photosynthesis, changes in ecosystem respiration, or allowing more frequent fires. In this study, we characterize the resulting perturbation of the atmospheric CO 2 seasonal cycles. 2018 has a good coverage of European regions affected by drought, allowing the investigation of how ecosystem flux anomalies impacted spatial CO 2 gradients between stations. This density of stations is unprecedented compared to previous drought events in 2003 and 2015, particularly thanks to the deployment of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) network of atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring stations in recent years. Seasonal CO 2 cycles from 48 European stations were available for 2017 and 2018. Earlier data were retrieved for comparison from international databases or national networks. Here, we show that the usual summer minimum in CO 2 due to the surface carbon uptake was reduced by 1.4 ppm in 2018 for the 10 stations located in the area most affected by the temperature anomaly, mostly in Northern Europe. Notwithstanding, the CO 2 transition phases before and after July were slower in 2018 compared to 2017, suggesting an extension of the growing season, with either continued CO 2 uptake by photosynthesis and/or a reduction in respiration driven by the depletion of substrate for respiration inherited from the previous months due to the drought. For stations with sufficiently long time series, the CO 2 anomaly observed in 2018 was compared to previous European droughts in 2003 and 2015. Considering the areas most affected by the temperature anomalies, we found a higher CO 2 anomaly in 2003 (+3 ppm averaged over 4 sites), and a smaller anomaly in 2015 (+1 ppm averaged over 11 sites) compared to 2018. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Impacts of the 2018 severe drought and heatwave in Europe: from site to continental scale'.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 419
Author(s):  
Jordi Sardans ◽  
Josep Peñuelas

Potassium, mostly as a cation (K+), together with calcium (Ca2+) are the most abundant inorganic chemicals in plant cellular media, but they are rarely discussed. K+ is not a component of molecular or macromolecular plant structures, thus it is more difficult to link it to concrete metabolic pathways than nitrogen or phosphorus. Over the last two decades, many studies have reported on the role of K+ in several physiological functions, including controlling cellular growth and wood formation, xylem–phloem water content and movement, nutrient and metabolite transport, and stress responses. In this paper, we present an overview of contemporary findings associating K+ with various plant functions, emphasizing plant-mediated responses to environmental abiotic and biotic shifts and stresses by controlling transmembrane potentials and water, nutrient, and metabolite transport. These essential roles of K+ account for its high concentrations in the most active plant organs, such as leaves, and are consistent with the increasing number of ecological and agricultural studies that report K+ as a key element in the function and structure of terrestrial ecosystems, crop production, and global food security. We synthesized these roles from an integrated perspective, considering the metabolic and physiological functions of individual plants and their complex roles in terrestrial ecosystem functions and food security within the current context of ongoing global change. Thus, we provide a bridge between studies of K+ at the plant and ecological levels to ultimately claim that K+ should be considered at least at a level similar to N and P in terrestrial ecological studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhao Feng ◽  
Haojie Su ◽  
Zhiyao Tang ◽  
Shaopeng Wang ◽  
Xia Zhao ◽  
...  

AbstractGlobal climate change likely alters the structure and function of vegetation and the stability of terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to assess the factors controlling ecosystem resilience from local to global scales. Here we assess terrestrial vegetation resilience over the past 35 years using early warning indicators calculated from normalized difference vegetation index data. On a local scale we find that climate change reduced the resilience of ecosystems in 64.5% of the global terrestrial vegetated area. Temperature had a greater influence on vegetation resilience than precipitation, while climate mean state had a greater influence than climate variability. However, there is no evidence for decreased ecological resilience on larger scales. Instead, climate warming increased spatial asynchrony of vegetation which buffered the global-scale impacts on resilience. We suggest that the response of terrestrial ecosystem resilience to global climate change is scale-dependent and influenced by spatial asynchrony on the global scale.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lechleitner ◽  
Christopher C. Day ◽  
Oliver Kost ◽  
Micah Wilhelm ◽  
Negar Haghipour ◽  
...  

<p>Terrestrial ecosystems are intimately linked with the global climate system, but their response to ongoing and future anthropogenic climate change remains poorly understood. Reconstructing the response of terrestrial ecosystem processes over past periods of rapid and substantial climate change can serve as a tool to better constrain the sensitivity in the ecosystem-climate response.</p><p>In this talk, we will present a new reconstruction of soil respiration in the temperate region of Western Europe based on speleothem carbon isotopes (δ<sup>13</sup>C). Soil respiration remains poorly constrained over past climatic transitions, but is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and its response to ongoing anthropogenic warming. Our study builds upon two decades of speleothem research in Western Europe, which has shown clear correlation between δ<sup>13</sup>C and regional temperature reconstructions during the last glacial and the deglaciation, with exceptional regional coherency in timing, amplitude, and absolute δ<sup>13</sup>C variation. By combining innovative multi-proxy geochemical analysis (δ<sup>13</sup>C, Ca isotopes, and radiocarbon) on three speleothems from Northern Spain, and quantitative forward modelling of processes in soil, karst, and cave, we show how deglacial variability in speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C is best explained by increasing soil respiration. Our study is the first to quantify and remove the effects of prior calcite precipitation (PCP, using Ca isotopes) and bedrock dissolution (open vs closed system, using the radiocarbon reservoir effect) from the speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C signal to derive changes in respired δ<sup>13</sup>C over time. Our approach allows us to estimate the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q<sub>10</sub>), which is higher than current measurements, suggesting that part of the speleothem signal may be related to a change in the composition of the soil respired δ<sup>13</sup>C. This is likely related to changing substrate through increasing contribution from vegetation biomass with the onset of the Holocene.</p><p>These results highlight the exciting possibilities speleothems offer as a coupled archive for quantitative proxy-based reconstructions of climate and ecosystem conditions.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luomeng Chao ◽  
Zhiqiang Wan ◽  
Yulong Yan ◽  
Rui Gu ◽  
Yali Chen ◽  
...  

Aspects of carbon exchange were investigated in typical steppe east of Xilinhot city in Inner Mongolia. Four treatments with four replicates were imposed in a randomised block design: Control (C), warming (T), increased precipitation (P) and combined warming and increased precipitation (TP). Increased precipitation significantly increased both ecosystem respiration (ER) and soil respiration (SR) rates. Warming significantly reduced the ER rate but not the SR rate. The combination of increased precipitation and warming produced an intermediate response. The sensitivity of ER and SR to soil temperature and air temperature was assessed by calculating Q10 values: the increase in respiration for a 10°C increase in temperature. Q10 was lowest under T and TP, and highest under P. Both ER and SR all had significantly positive correlation with soil moisture. Increased precipitation increased net ecosystem exchange and gross ecosystem productivity, whereas warming reduced them. The combination of warming and increased precipitation had an intermediate effect. Both net ecosystem exchange and gross ecosystem productivity were positively related to soil moisture and negatively related to soil and air temperature. These findings suggest that predicted climate change in this region, involving both increased precipitation and warmer temperatures, will increase the net ecosystem exchange in the Stipa steppe meaning that the ecosystem will fix more carbon.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 809-848
Author(s):  
C. Zhu ◽  
H. Yoshikawa-Inoue

Abstract. Surface observation of the atmospheric CO2 mixing ratio implies the combined influences of both natural fluctuations and anthropogenic activities on the carbon cycle. Atmospheric CO2 has been measured on Rishiri Island in the outflow region of Eurasia since May 2006. We report the first 7 year temporal atmospheric CO2 variations from diurnal to interannual scales. In the diurnal scale, an obvious cycle appeared as a minimum in the afternoon and maximum at midnight in the summer months. Seasonally, the maximum CO2 concentration appeared around the beginning of April, while the minimum appeared around the middle of August. A mean growing season length of ~126 days was estimated. In the period from 2007 to 2012, the peak-to-peak amplitude increased until 2009 and decreased thereafter, with a mean value of 19.7 ppm. In the long term, atmospheric CO2 is increasing by a mean growth rate of 2.1 ppm year−1. Investigations on the driving climatic factors on the interannual variation in amplitude indicated that temperature in East Asia (40–60° N, 90–150° E) affected the CO2 amplitude by affecting the seasonal maximum, with a time lag of 1–2 years. On the contrary, precipitation did not likely affect CO2 amplitudes. The amplitude also responded to a natural carbon source/sink variation in East Asia. We suggest that temperature in the first year would affect carbon sinks in the second year in the fetch regions, which further affect CO2 amplitude mainly through ecosystem respiration. Circulation changes also likely contributed to the decreasing amplitude since 2009, as indicated by the simultaneous decrease in the 222Rn concentration in spring and summer.


2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Papale ◽  
M. Reichstein ◽  
M. Aubinet ◽  
E. Canfora ◽  
C. Bernhofer ◽  
...  

Abstract. Eddy covariance technique to measure CO2, water and energy fluxes between biosphere and atmosphere is widely spread and used in various regional networks. Currently more than 250 eddy covariance sites are active around the world measuring carbon exchange at high temporal resolution for different biomes and climatic conditions. In this paper a new standardized set of corrections is introduced and the uncertainties associated with these corrections are assessed for eight different forest sites in Europe with a total of 12 yearly datasets. The uncertainties introduced on the two components GPP (Gross Primary Production) and TER (Terrestrial Ecosystem Respiration) are also discussed and a quantitative analysis presented. Through a factorial analysis we find that generally, uncertainties by different corrections are additive without interactions and that the heuristic u*-correction introduces the largest uncertainty. The results show that a standardized data processing is needed for an effective comparison across biomes and for underpinning inter-annual variability. The methodology presented in this paper has also been integrated in the European database of the eddy covariance measurements.


2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
WEI-MING ZHOU ◽  
MING-LI WAN ◽  
JOSEF PŠENIČKA ◽  
JUN WANG

Plants and arthropods interact with each other and constitute an important part of the modern terrestrial ecosystem (Schoonhoven et al., 2005). Historically, fossil records of plant-arthropod interactions have been well documented in Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems, which were evidenced by large coprolites containing various plant fragments (e.g., Salter et al., 2012), small larvae and coprolites remained in plant organs (e.g., Feng et al., 2017), and diverse functional feeding groups discovered on plant stems, rachises, roots, leaves and fertile organs (e.g., Liu et al., 2020).


Author(s):  
Banwari Dandotiya ◽  
Harendra K. Sharma

This chapter provides a general overview of the effects of climate change on the terrestrial ecosystem and is meant to set the stage for the specific papers. The discussion in this chapter focuses basically on the effects of climatic disturbances on terrestrial flora and fauna, including increasing global temperature and changing climatic patterns of terrestrial areas of the globe. Basically, climate disturbances derived increasing temperature and greenhouse gases have the ability to induce this phenomenon. Greenhouse gases are emitted by a number of sources in the atmosphere such as urbanization, industrialization, transportation, and population growth, so these contributing factors and its effects on climatic events like temperature rise, change precipitation pattern, extreme weather events, survival and shifting of biodiversity, seasonal disturbances, and effects on glaciers are relatively described in this chapter.


<em>Abstract.</em>—Much is known about the importance of the physical characteristics of salmonid habitat in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, with far less known about the food sources and trophic processes within these habitats, and the role they play in regulating salmonid productivity. Freshwater food webs supporting salmonids in Alaska rely heavily on nutrient, detritus, and prey subsidies from both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Adult salmon provide a massive input of marine biomass to riverine ecosystems each year when they spawn, die, and decompose, and are a critical food source for young salmon in late summer and fall; riparian forests provide terrestrial invertebrates to streams, which at times comprise over half of the food ingested by stream-resident salmonids; up-slope, fishless headwater streams are a year-round source of invertebrates and detritus for fish downstream. The quantity of these food resources vary widely depending on source, season, and spatial position within a watershed. Terrestrial invertebrate inputs from riparian habitats are generally the most abundant food source in summer. Juvenile salmonids in streams consume roughly equal amounts of freshwater and terrestrially-derived invertebrates during most of the growing season, but ingest substantial amounts of marine resources (salmon eggs and decomposing salmon tissue) when these food items are present. Quantity, quality, and timing of food resources all appear to be important driving forces in aquatic food web dynamics, community nutrition, and salmonid growth and survival in riverine ecosystems.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document