Widespread spring phenology effects on drought recovery of Northern Hemisphere ecosystems

Yang Li; Wen Zhang; Christopher R. Schwalm; Pierre Gentine; William K. Smith; Philippe Ciais; John S. Kimball; Antonio Gazol; Steven A. Kannenberg; Anping Chen; Shilong Piao; Hongyan Liu; Deliang Chen; Xiuchen Wu

doi:10.1038/s41558-022-01584-2

Widespread spring phenology effects on drought recovery of Northern Hemisphere ecosystems

Yang Li
, Wen Zhang
, Christopher R. Schwalm
, Pierre Gentine
, William K. Smith
, Philippe Ciais
, John S. Kimball
, Antonio Gazol
, Steven A. Kannenberg
, Anping Chen
, Shilong Piao
, Hongyan Liu
, Deliang Chen
, Xiuchen Wu

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

157 Scopus citations

Abstract

The time required for an ecosystem to recover from severe drought is a key component of ecological resilience. The phenology effects on drought recovery are, however, poorly understood. These effects centre on how phenology variations impact biophysical feedbacks, vegetation growth and, ultimately, recovery itself. Using multiple remotely sensed datasets, we found that more than half of ecosystems in mid- and high-latitudinal Northern Hemisphere failed to recover from extreme droughts within a single growing season. Earlier spring phenology in the drought year slowed drought recovery when extreme droughts occurred in mid-growing season. Delayed spring phenology in the subsequent year slowed drought recovery for all vegetation types (with importance of spring phenology ranging from 46% to 58%). The phenology effects on drought recovery were comparable to or larger than other well-known postdrought climatic factors. These results strongly suggest that the interactions between vegetation phenology and drought must be incorporated into Earth system models to accurately quantify ecosystem resilience.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	182-188
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	13
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01584-2
State	Published - Jan 2023

Funding

X.W. was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 41922001 and 42171050), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (grant no. 2019QZKK0306) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2022YFF0801800). S.A.K. was supported by the US Department of Energy Environmental System Science program grant no. DE-SC0022052. A.G. is supported by the Ramon y Cajal Program of the Spanish MICINN under grant RyC2020- 030647-I, and by CSIC under grant PIE-20223AT003. W.K.S. and W.Z. were supported by the NASA Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Program under grant 80NSSC21K1709.

Funders	Funder number
DE-SC0022052
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	80NSSC21K1709
National Natural Science Foundation of China	2019QZKK0306, 42171050, 41922001
RyC2020- 030647-I
2022YFF0801800
PIE-20223AT003

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title = "Widespread spring phenology effects on drought recovery of Northern Hemisphere ecosystems",

abstract = "The time required for an ecosystem to recover from severe drought is a key component of ecological resilience. The phenology effects on drought recovery are, however, poorly understood. These effects centre on how phenology variations impact biophysical feedbacks, vegetation growth and, ultimately, recovery itself. Using multiple remotely sensed datasets, we found that more than half of ecosystems in mid- and high-latitudinal Northern Hemisphere failed to recover from extreme droughts within a single growing season. Earlier spring phenology in the drought year slowed drought recovery when extreme droughts occurred in mid-growing season. Delayed spring phenology in the subsequent year slowed drought recovery for all vegetation types (with importance of spring phenology ranging from 46\% to 58\%). The phenology effects on drought recovery were comparable to or larger than other well-known postdrought climatic factors. These results strongly suggest that the interactions between vegetation phenology and drought must be incorporated into Earth system models to accurately quantify ecosystem resilience.",

author = "Yang Li and Wen Zhang and Schwalm, \{Christopher R.\} and Pierre Gentine and Smith, \{William K.\} and Philippe Ciais and Kimball, \{John S.\} and Antonio Gazol and Kannenberg, \{Steven A.\} and Anping Chen and Shilong Piao and Hongyan Liu and Deliang Chen and Xiuchen Wu",

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doi = "10.1038/s41558-022-01584-2",

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AU - Li, Yang

AU - Zhang, Wen

AU - Schwalm, Christopher R.

AU - Gentine, Pierre

AU - Smith, William K.

AU - Ciais, Philippe

AU - Kimball, John S.

AU - Gazol, Antonio

AU - Kannenberg, Steven A.

AU - Chen, Anping

AU - Piao, Shilong

AU - Liu, Hongyan

AU - Chen, Deliang

AU - Wu, Xiuchen

PY - 2023/1

Y1 - 2023/1

N2 - The time required for an ecosystem to recover from severe drought is a key component of ecological resilience. The phenology effects on drought recovery are, however, poorly understood. These effects centre on how phenology variations impact biophysical feedbacks, vegetation growth and, ultimately, recovery itself. Using multiple remotely sensed datasets, we found that more than half of ecosystems in mid- and high-latitudinal Northern Hemisphere failed to recover from extreme droughts within a single growing season. Earlier spring phenology in the drought year slowed drought recovery when extreme droughts occurred in mid-growing season. Delayed spring phenology in the subsequent year slowed drought recovery for all vegetation types (with importance of spring phenology ranging from 46% to 58%). The phenology effects on drought recovery were comparable to or larger than other well-known postdrought climatic factors. These results strongly suggest that the interactions between vegetation phenology and drought must be incorporated into Earth system models to accurately quantify ecosystem resilience.

AB - The time required for an ecosystem to recover from severe drought is a key component of ecological resilience. The phenology effects on drought recovery are, however, poorly understood. These effects centre on how phenology variations impact biophysical feedbacks, vegetation growth and, ultimately, recovery itself. Using multiple remotely sensed datasets, we found that more than half of ecosystems in mid- and high-latitudinal Northern Hemisphere failed to recover from extreme droughts within a single growing season. Earlier spring phenology in the drought year slowed drought recovery when extreme droughts occurred in mid-growing season. Delayed spring phenology in the subsequent year slowed drought recovery for all vegetation types (with importance of spring phenology ranging from 46% to 58%). The phenology effects on drought recovery were comparable to or larger than other well-known postdrought climatic factors. These results strongly suggest that the interactions between vegetation phenology and drought must be incorporated into Earth system models to accurately quantify ecosystem resilience.

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Widespread spring phenology effects on drought recovery of Northern Hemisphere ecosystems

Abstract

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