Continuous but diverse advancement of spring-summer phenology in response to climate warming across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Zheng, Zhoutao; Zhu, Wenquan; Chen, Guangsheng; Jiang, Nan; Fan, Deqin; Zhang, Donghai

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.04.012

Title: Continuous but diverse advancement of spring-summer phenology in response to climate warming across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Journal Article · Mon Apr 25 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2016.04.012· OSTI ID:1324175

Zheng, Zhoutao ^[1]; Zhu, Wenquan ^[1]; Chen, Guangsheng ^[2]; Jiang, Nan ^[1]; Fan, Deqin ^[1]; Zhang, Donghai ^[1]

Beijing Normal Univ., Beijing (China); Joint Center for Global Studies (JCGCS), Beijing (China)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is more vulnerable and sensitive to climate change than many other regions worldwide because of its high altitude, permafrost geography, and harsh physical environment. As a sensitive bio-indicator of climate change, plant phenology shift in this region has been intensively studied during the recent decades, primarily based on satellite-retrieved data. However, great controversy still exists regarding the change in direction and magnitudes of spring-summer phenology. Based on a large number (11,000+ records) of long-term and continuous ground observational data for various plant species, our study intended to more comprehensively assess the changing trends of spring-summer phenology and their relationships with climatic change across the QTP. The results indicated a continuous advancement (–2.69 days decade^–1) in spring-summer phenology from 1981 to 2011, with an even more rapid advancement during 2000–2011 (–3.13 days decade^–1), which provided new field evidence for continuous advancement in spring-summer phenology across the QTP. However, diverse advancing rates in spring-summer phenology were observed for different vegetation types, thermal conditions, and seasons. The advancing trends matched well with the difference in sensitivity of spring-summer phenology to increasing temperature, implying that the sensitivity of phenology to temperature was one of the major factors influencing spring-summer phenology shifts. Besides, increased precipitation could advance the spring-summer phenology. As a result, the response of spring-summer phenology to temperature tended to be stronger from east to west across all species, while the response to precipitation showed no consistent spatial pattern.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1324175

Journal Information:: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 223, Issue C; ISSN 0168-1923

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 46 works

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Effect of climate change on vegetation phenology of different land-cover types on the Tibetan Plateau Cheng, Min; Jin, Jiaxin; Zhang, Jinmeng International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 39, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1387308	journal	October 2017
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Title: Continuous but diverse advancement of spring-summer phenology in response to climate warming across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

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