skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Expansion of high-latitude deciduous forests driven by interactions between climate warming and fire

Journal Article · · Nature Plants (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (United States)
  4. Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

High-latitude regions have experienced rapid warming in recent decades, and this trend is projected to continue over the twenty-first century. Fire is also projected to increase with warming. We show here, consistent with changes during the Holocene, that changes in twenty-first century climate and fire are likely to alter the composition of Alaskan boreal forests. We hypothesize that competition for nutrients after fire in early succession and for light in late succession in a warmer climate will cause shifts in plant functional type. Consistent with observations, our ecosystem model predicts evergreen conifers to be the current dominant tree type in Alaska. However, under future climate and fire, our analysis suggests the relative dominance of deciduous broadleaf trees nearly doubles, accounting for 58% of the Alaska ecosystem's net primary productivity by 2100, with commensurate declines in contributions from evergreen conifer trees and herbaceous plants. Post-fire deciduous broadleaf tree growth under a future climate is sustained from enhanced microbial nitrogen mineralization caused by warmer soils and deeper active layers, resulting in taller trees that compete more effectively for light. Finally, the expansion of deciduous broadleaf forests will affect the carbon cycle, surface energy fluxes and ecosystem function, thereby modifying important feedbacks with the climate system.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1581360
Journal Information:
Nature Plants (Online), Vol. 5, Issue 9; ISSN 2055-0278
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 65 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (45)

The response of boreal peatland community composition and NDVI to hydrologic change, warming, and elevated carbon dioxide journal October 2018
Accelerated Nutrient Cycling and Increased Light Competition Will Lead to 21st Century Shrub Expansion in North American Arctic Tundra journal May 2018
The evidence for shrub expansion in Northern Alaska and the Pan-Arctic journal April 2006
Interannual variation in net ecosystem productivity of Canadian forests as affected by regional weather patterns – A Fluxnet-Canada synthesis journal November 2009
Changes in fire regime break the legacy lock on successional trajectories in Alaskan boreal forest journal April 2010
Is Alaska’s Boreal Forest Now Crossing a Major Ecological Threshold? journal August 2012
Enhanced terrestrial carbon uptake in the Northern High Latitudes in the 21st century from the Coupled Carbon Cycle Climate Model Intercomparison Project model projections journal February 2010
Taiga Ecosystems in Interior Alaska journal January 1983
Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a meta‐analysis journal April 2009
Alaska’s changing fire regime — implications for the vulnerability of its boreal forestsThis article is one of a selection of papers from The Dynamics of Change in Alaska’s Boreal Forests: Resilience and Vulnerability in Response to Climate Warming. journal July 2010
Effects of nutrition and soil warming on stemwood production in a boreal Norway spruce stand journal December 2002
Structurally Novel Biomes: a Response to past Warming in Beringia journal July 2005
High-latitude cooling associated with landscape changes from North American boreal forest fires journal January 2013
Carbon loss from an unprecedented Arctic tundra wildfire journal July 2011
Assessing the response of area burned to changing climate in western boreal North America using a Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) approach journal March 2009
Boreal Fire Effects on Subsistence Resources in Alaska and Adjacent Canada journal January 2008
Patterns and dynamics of treeline advance on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska journal November 2002
A new data set for estimating organic carbon storage to 3 m depth in soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region journal January 2013
Quantifying fire severity, carbon, and nitrogen emissions in Alaska's boreal forest journal September 2010
Simulating the response of natural ecosystems and their fire regimes to climatic variability in Alaska journal September 2005
The advantages of being evergreen journal October 1995
Increases in heat-induced tree mortality could drive reductions of biomass resources in Canada’s managed boreal forest journal February 2019
Nutrient use efficiency in evergreen and deciduous species from heathlands journal October 1990
Projected changes in atmospheric heating due to changes in fire disturbance and the snow season in the western Arctic, 2003–2100 journal January 2009
Lightning as a major driver of recent large fire years in North American boreal forests journal June 2017
LANDFIRE: a nationally consistent vegetation, wildland fire, and fuel assessment journal January 2009
The worldwide leaf economics spectrum journal April 2004
The Unified North American Soil Map and its implication on the soil organic carbon stock in North America journal January 2013
Impacts of climate change on fire activity and fire management in the circumboreal forest journal March 2009
Modeling the effects of fire severity and climate warming on active layer thickness and soil carbon storage of black spruce forests across the landscape in interior Alaska journal October 2013
Locally Downscaled and Spatially Customizable Climate Data for Historical and Future Periods for North America journal June 2016
Changes in vegetation in northern Alaska under scenarios of climate change, 2003–2100: implications for climate feedbacks journal June 2009
Quantifying fire-wide carbon emissions in interior Alaska using field measurements and Landsat imagery: modeling fire emissions with dNBR journal August 2014
Fire effects on soil organic matter content, composition, and nutrients in boreal interior Alaska journal September 2005
The changing effects of Alaska’s boreal forests on the climate systemThis article is one of a selection of papers from The Dynamics of Change in Alaska’s Boreal Forests: Resilience and Vulnerability in Response to Climate Warming. journal July 2010
Sensitivity of modeled NEP to climate forcing and soil at site and regional scales: Implications for upscaling ecosystem models journal January 2016
Fire, climate change, and forest resilience in interior AlaskaThis article is one of a selection of papers from The Dynamics of Change in Alaska's Boreal Forests: Resilience and Vulnerability in Response to Climate Warming. journal July 2010
Influence of tree species on continental differences in boreal fires and climate feedbacks journal February 2015
Modelling changes in nitrogen cycling to sustain increases in forest productivity under elevated atmospheric CO 2 and contrasting site conditions journal January 2013
Recent acceleration of biomass burning and carbon losses in Alaskan forests and peatlands journal December 2010
Modeling impacts of fire severity on successional trajectories and future fire behavior in Alaskan boreal forests journal January 2011
Post-fire soil nitrogen content and vegetation composition in Sub-Boreal spruce forests of British Columbia's central interior, Canada journal August 1999
The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 2: Environmental driver data journal January 2014
The advantages of being evergreen journal June 1980
The North American Carbon Program Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 2: Environmental driver data journal January 2013

Cited By (1)

The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health: A Systematic Descriptive Review journal March 2020

Similar Records

VEGETATION MEDIATED THE IMPACTS OF POSTGLACIAL CLIMATIC CHANGE ON FIRE REGIMES IN THE SOUTHCENTRAL BROOKS RANGE, ALASKA
Journal Article · Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Ecological Monographs · OSTI ID:1581360
+2 more
Contrasting drivers and trends of coniferous and deciduous tree growth in interior Alaska
Journal Article · Mon Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Ecology · OSTI ID:1581360
+4 more
A model of northern treeline dynamics in response to transient changes in climate
Conference · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States) · OSTI ID:1581360

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
biogeochemistry
boreal ecology
plant ecology