DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Seasonal variability of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stresses: A synthesis based on carbon fluxes from North American forest ecosystems

Abstract

Climate extremes such as heat waves and droughts are projected to occur more frequently with increasing temperature and an intensified hydrological cycle. It is important to understand and quantify how forest carbon fluxes respond to heat and drought stress. In this study, we developed a series of daily indices of sensitivity to heat and drought stress as indicated by air temperature (Ta) and evaporative fraction (EF). Using normalized daily carbon fluxes from the FLUXNET Network for 34 forest sites in North America, the seasonal pattern of sensitivities of net ecosystem productivity (NEP), gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and ecosystem respiration (RE) in response to Ta and EF anomalies were compared for different forest types. The results showed that warm temperatures in spring had a positive effect on NEP in conifer forests but a negative impact in deciduous forests. GEP in conifer forests increased with higher temperature anomalies in spring but decreased in summer. The drought-induced decrease in NEP, which mostly occurred in the deciduous forests, was mostly driven by the reduction in GEP. In conifer forests, drought had a similar dampening effect on both GEP and RE, therefore leading to a neutral NEP response. The NEP sensitivity to Ta anomalies increasedmore » with increasing mean annual temperature. Drier sites were less sensitive to drought stress in summer. Natural forests with older stand age tended to be more resilient to the climate stresses compared to managed younger forests. The results of the Classification and Regression Tree analysis showed that seasons and ecosystem productivity were the most powerful variables in explaining the variation of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stress. Our results implied that the magnitude and direction of carbon flux changes in response to climate extremes are highly dependent on the seasonal dynamics of forests and the timing of the climate extremes.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [4]
  1. McMaster Univ., Hamilton, ON (Canada). School of Geography and Earth Sciences and McMaster Centre for Climate Change
  2. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
  3. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; Global Water Futures Program
OSTI Identifier:
1580926
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Global Change Biology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 26; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; climatic stresses; drought; eddy covariance technique; FLUXNET2015; forest carbon cycle; heat wave; net ecosystem productivity

Citation Formats

Xu, Bing, Arain, M. Altaf, Black, T. Andrew, Law, Beverly E., Pastorello, Gilberto Z., and Chu, Housen. Seasonal variability of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stresses: A synthesis based on carbon fluxes from North American forest ecosystems. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1111/gcb.14843.
Xu, Bing, Arain, M. Altaf, Black, T. Andrew, Law, Beverly E., Pastorello, Gilberto Z., & Chu, Housen. Seasonal variability of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stresses: A synthesis based on carbon fluxes from North American forest ecosystems. United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14843
Xu, Bing, Arain, M. Altaf, Black, T. Andrew, Law, Beverly E., Pastorello, Gilberto Z., and Chu, Housen. Tue . "Seasonal variability of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stresses: A synthesis based on carbon fluxes from North American forest ecosystems". United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14843. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1580926.
@article{osti_1580926,
title = {Seasonal variability of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stresses: A synthesis based on carbon fluxes from North American forest ecosystems},
author = {Xu, Bing and Arain, M. Altaf and Black, T. Andrew and Law, Beverly E. and Pastorello, Gilberto Z. and Chu, Housen},
abstractNote = {Climate extremes such as heat waves and droughts are projected to occur more frequently with increasing temperature and an intensified hydrological cycle. It is important to understand and quantify how forest carbon fluxes respond to heat and drought stress. In this study, we developed a series of daily indices of sensitivity to heat and drought stress as indicated by air temperature (Ta) and evaporative fraction (EF). Using normalized daily carbon fluxes from the FLUXNET Network for 34 forest sites in North America, the seasonal pattern of sensitivities of net ecosystem productivity (NEP), gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and ecosystem respiration (RE) in response to Ta and EF anomalies were compared for different forest types. The results showed that warm temperatures in spring had a positive effect on NEP in conifer forests but a negative impact in deciduous forests. GEP in conifer forests increased with higher temperature anomalies in spring but decreased in summer. The drought-induced decrease in NEP, which mostly occurred in the deciduous forests, was mostly driven by the reduction in GEP. In conifer forests, drought had a similar dampening effect on both GEP and RE, therefore leading to a neutral NEP response. The NEP sensitivity to Ta anomalies increased with increasing mean annual temperature. Drier sites were less sensitive to drought stress in summer. Natural forests with older stand age tended to be more resilient to the climate stresses compared to managed younger forests. The results of the Classification and Regression Tree analysis showed that seasons and ecosystem productivity were the most powerful variables in explaining the variation of forest sensitivity to heat and drought stress. Our results implied that the magnitude and direction of carbon flux changes in response to climate extremes are highly dependent on the seasonal dynamics of forests and the timing of the climate extremes.},
doi = {10.1111/gcb.14843},
journal = {Global Change Biology},
number = 2,
volume = 26,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Tue Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 38 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Contrasting responses of growing season ecosystem CO 2 exchange to variation in temperature and water table depth in two peatlands in northern Alberta, Canada
journal, January 2011

  • Adkinson, Angela C.; Syed, Kamran H.; Flanagan, Lawrence B.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue G1
  • DOI: 10.1029/2010JG001512

Ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes after disturbance in forests of North America
journal, January 2010

  • Amiro, B. D.; Barr, A. G.; Barr, J. G.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115
  • DOI: 10.1029/2010JG001390

Carbon, energy and water fluxes at mature and disturbed forest sites, Saskatchewan, Canada
journal, February 2006


Hydraulic diversity of forests regulates ecosystem resilience during drought
journal, September 2018

  • Anderegg, William R. L.; Konings, Alexandra G.; Trugman, Anna T.
  • Nature, Vol. 561, Issue 7724
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0539-7

Drier summers cancel out the CO2 uptake enhancement induced by warmer springs
journal, July 2005

  • Angert, A.; Biraud, S.; Bonfils, C.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 102, Issue 31
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0501647102

Net ecosystem production in a temperate pine plantation in southeastern Canada
journal, February 2005


Species composition determines resistance to drought in dry forests of the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence forest region of central Ontario
journal, June 2016

  • Arthur, Corinne M.; Dech, Jeffery P.
  • Journal of Vegetation Science, Vol. 27, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12416

Larger trees suffer most during drought in forests worldwide
journal, September 2015


Comparison of carbon dioxide fluxes over three boreal black spruce forests in Canada
journal, January 2007


Water availability limits tree productivity, carbon stocks, and carbon residence time in mature forests across the western US
journal, January 2017

  • Berner, Logan T.; Law, Beverly E.; Hudiburg, Tara W.
  • Biogeosciences, Vol. 14, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.5194/bg-14-365-2017

Recent shift in Eurasian boreal forest greening response may be associated with warmer and drier summers: BUERMANN ET. AL.; BOREAL FORESTS UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE
journal, March 2014

  • Buermann, Wolfgang; Parida, Bikash; Jung, Martin
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/2014GL059450

Near‐future forest vulnerability to drought and fire varies across the western United States
journal, November 2018

  • Buotte, Polly C.; Levis, Samuel; Law, Beverly E.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 25, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14490

Carbon, water and energy exchange dynamics of a young pine plantation forest during the initial fourteen years of growth
journal, February 2018


Observed forest sensitivity to climate implies large changes in 21st century North American forest growth
journal, July 2016

  • Charney, Noah D.; Babst, Flurin; Poulter, Benjamin
  • Ecology Letters, Vol. 19, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1111/ele.12650

Europe-wide reduction in primary productivity caused by the heat and drought in 2003
journal, September 2005


Carbon exchange and venting anomalies in an upland deciduous forest in northern Wisconsin, USA
journal, November 2004


Respiratory carbon losses and the carbon-use efficiency of a northern hardwood forest, 1999-2003
journal, April 2005


Classification and Regression Trees: a Powerful yet Simple Technique for Ecological data Analysis
journal, November 2000


Comparing net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide between an old-growth and mature forest in the upper Midwest, USA
journal, January 2005


Landscape-level terrestrial methane flux observed from a very tall tower
journal, February 2015


Drought impact on forest carbon dynamics and fluxes in Amazonia
journal, March 2015

  • Doughty, Christopher E.; Metcalfe, D. B.; Girardin, C. A. J.
  • Nature, Vol. 519, Issue 7541
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature14213

Immediate and potential long-term effects of consecutive heat waves on the photosynthetic performance and water balance in Douglas-fir
journal, October 2016


A long-term record of carbon exchange in a boreal black spruce forest: means, responses to interannual variability, and decadal trends
journal, March 2007


Evidence for environmentally enhanced forest growth
journal, June 2014

  • Fang, Jingyun; Kato, Tomomichi; Guo, Zhaodi
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 26
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1402333111

Linking LiDAR with streamwater biogeochemistry in coastal temperate rainforest watersheds
journal, June 2017

  • Fellman, Jason B.; Buma, Brian; Hood, Eran
  • Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Vol. 74, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2016-0130

The response of an Eastern Amazonian rain forest to drought stress: results and modelling analyses from a throughfall exclusion experiment
journal, November 2007


Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: concepts, processes and potential future impacts
journal, May 2015

  • Frank, Dorothea; Reichstein, Markus; Bahn, Michael
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12916

Ecosystem CO 2 /H 2 O fluxes are explained by hydraulically limited gas exchange during tree mortality from spruce bark beetles : CO
journal, June 2014

  • Frank, John M.; Massman, William J.; Ewers, Brent E.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Vol. 119, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/2013JG002597

Response of water use efficiency to summer drought in a boreal Scots pine forest in Finland
journal, January 2017


Net ecosystem exchange of an uneven-aged managed forest in central Ontario, and the impact of a spring heat wave event
journal, November 2014


Reduction of stand density increases drought resistance in xeric Scots pine forests
journal, December 2013


Effects of climate variability on the carbon dioxide, water, and sensible heat fluxes above a ponderosa pine plantation in the Sierra Nevada (CA)
journal, March 2000

  • Goldstein, A. H.; Hultman, N. E.; Fracheboud, J. M.
  • Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 101, Issue 2-3
  • DOI: 10.1016/S0168-1923(99)00168-9

Sustained carbon uptake and storage following moderate disturbance in a Great Lakes forest
journal, July 2013

  • Gough, Christopher M.; Hardiman, Brady S.; Nave, Lucas E.
  • Ecological Applications, Vol. 23, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1890/12-1554.1

An eddy covariance mesonet to measure the effect of forest age on land?atmosphere exchange
journal, November 2006


Ecophysiological controls on the carbon balances of three southern boreal forests
journal, June 2003


Spatial and temporal variability in forest-atmosphere CO2 exchange
journal, October 2004


Drought timing influences the legacy of tree growth recovery
journal, May 2018

  • Huang, Mengtian; Wang, Xuhui; Keenan, Trevor F.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 24, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14294

Carbon dioxide fluxes in coastal Douglas-fir stands at different stages of development after clearcut harvesting
journal, November 2006


Contrasting soil respiration in young and old-growth ponderosa pine forests
journal, December 2002


Water limitations to carbon exchange in old-growth and young ponderosa pine stands
journal, February 2002


Age-related changes in ecosystem structure and function and effects on water and carbon exchange in ponderosa pine
journal, July 2004


Effect of soil water stress on soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity in an 18-year-old temperate Douglas-fir stand
journal, June 2008


Refining light-use efficiency calculations for a deciduous forest canopy using simultaneous tower-based carbon flux and radiometric measurements
journal, March 2007


Seasonal and inter-annual variations in CO2 fluxes over 10 years in an alpine shrubland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China
journal, November 2016


CO 2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database
journal, December 2007


Photosynthetic responses to temperature across leaf–canopy–ecosystem scales: a 15-year study in a Californian oak-grass savanna
journal, April 2017


Carbon dioxide and energy fluxes from a boreal mixedwood forest ecosystem in Ontario, Canada
journal, November 2006


Seasonal and interannual patterns of carbon and water fluxes of a poplar plantation under peculiar eco-climatic conditions
journal, September 2009


Seasonal and interannual variation in net ecosystem production of an evergreen needleleaf forest in Japan
journal, June 2012

  • Mizoguchi, Yasuko; Ohtani, Yoshikazu; Takanashi, Satoru
  • Journal of Forest Research, Vol. 17, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10310-011-0307-0

Carbon sequestration in a high-elevation, subalpine forest
journal, May 2002


Characteristics of evapotranspiration from a permafrost black spruce forest in interior Alaska
journal, June 2013


Thermal optimality of net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide and underlying mechanisms
journal, March 2012


Drought during canopy development has lasting effect on annual carbon balance in a deciduous temperate forest
journal, August 2008


The increasing importance of atmospheric demand for ecosystem water and carbon fluxes
journal, September 2016

  • Novick, Kimberly A.; Ficklin, Darren L.; Stoy, Paul C.
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3114

Forest carbon storage in the northeastern United States: Net effects of harvesting frequency, post-harvest retention, and wood products
journal, March 2010


A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World's Forests
journal, July 2011


Synergy of a warm spring and dry summer
journal, June 2016


Carbon and greenhouse gas balances in an age sequence of temperate pine plantations
journal, January 2014


Age effects on carbon fluxes in temperate pine forests
journal, July 2010


Biometric and eddy-covariance based estimates of carbon fluxes in an age-sequence of temperate pine forests
journal, July 2010


Drought Sensitivity of the Amazon Rainforest
journal, March 2009


A belowground perspective on the drought sensitivity of forests: Towards improved understanding and simulation
journal, November 2016


Effects of climate warming on photosynthesis in boreal tree species depend on soil moisture
journal, October 2018


Climate extremes and the carbon cycle
journal, August 2013

  • Reichstein, Markus; Bahn, Michael; Ciais, Philippe
  • Nature, Vol. 500, Issue 7462
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature12350

On the separation of net ecosystem exchange into assimilation and ecosystem respiration: review and improved algorithm
journal, September 2005


Physiological Responses of Forest Trees to Heat and Drought
journal, September 2006


A classification and regression tree model of controls on dissolved inorganic nitrogen leaching from European forests
journal, November 2008


Effects of water availability on carbon and water exchange in a young ponderosa pine forest: Above- and belowground responses
journal, October 2012


Forest biogeochemistry in response to drought
journal, November 2015

  • Schlesinger, William H.; Dietze, Michael C.; Jackson, Robert B.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 22, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13105

Measurements of CO2 and energy fluxes over a mixed hardwood forest in the mid-western United States
journal, July 2000


Assimilation exceeds respiration sensitivity to drought: A FLUXNET synthesis
journal, February 2010


Ecosystem impacts of climate extremes crucially depend on the timing
journal, May 2016

  • Sippel, Sebastian; Zscheischler, Jakob; Reichstein, Markus
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 21
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1605667113

Age effects on the water-use efficiency and water-use dynamics of temperate pine plantation forests: Age Effects on the Water-use Efficiency in Plantation Forests
journal, July 2015

  • Skubel, Rachel; Arain, M. Altaf; Peichl, Matthias
  • Hydrological Processes, Vol. 29, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1002/hyp.10549

Seasonal variability of foliar photosynthetic and morphological traits and drought impacts in a Mediterranean mixed forest
journal, April 2015


Carbon Dynamics of Pinus palustris Ecosystems Following Drought
journal, April 2016

  • Starr, Gregory; Staudhammer, Christina; Wiesner, Susanne
  • Forests, Vol. 7, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.3390/f7050098

Seasonal drought effects on carbon sequestration of a mid-subtropical planted forest of southeastern China
journal, November 2006

  • Sun, Xiaomin; Wen, Xuefa; Yu, Guirui
  • Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences, Vol. 49, Issue S2
  • DOI: 10.1007/s11430-006-8310-6

The responses of soil and rhizosphere respiration to simulated climatic changes vary by season
journal, February 2013


How do disturbances and climate effects on carbon and water fluxes differ between multi-aged and even-aged coniferous forests?
journal, December 2017


A regional perspective on trends in continental evaporation: EVAPORATION TRENDS
journal, January 2009

  • Teuling, A. J.; Hirschi, M.; Ohmura, A.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2008GL036584

Seasonal hydrology explains interannual and seasonal variation in carbon and water exchange in a semiarid mature ponderosa pine forest in central Oregon
journal, January 2009

  • Thomas, Christoph K.; Law, Beverly E.; Irvine, James
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 114, Issue G4
  • DOI: 10.1029/2009JG001010

Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the “Angry Summer” of 2012/2013
journal, January 2016


Self-correlation between assimilation and respiration resulting from flux partitioning of eddy-covariance CO2 fluxes
journal, September 2009


Stable carbon isotope analysis reveals widespread drought stress in boreal black spruce forests
journal, April 2015

  • Walker, Xanthe J.; Mack, Michelle C.; Johnstone, Jill F.
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 21, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12893

A two-fold increase of carbon cycle sensitivity to tropical temperature variations
journal, January 2014

  • Wang, Xuhui; Piao, Shilong; Ciais, Philippe
  • Nature, Vol. 506, Issue 7487
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature12915

Data-based perfect-deficit approach to understanding climate extremes and forest carbon assimilation capacity
journal, May 2014


The sensitivity of carbon fluxes to spring warming and summer drought depends on plant functional type in boreal forest ecosystems
journal, December 2007


Soil moisture effect on the temperature dependence of ecosystem respiration in a subtropical Pinus plantation of southeastern China
journal, April 2006


Impacts of climate extremes on gross primary production under global warming
journal, September 2014


Warm spring reduced carbon cycle impact of the 2012 US summer drought
journal, April 2016

  • Wolf, Sebastian; Keenan, Trevor F.; Fisher, Joshua B.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 21
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1519620113

Diverse responses of vegetation production to interannual summer drought in North America
journal, April 2013

  • Wu, Chaoyang; Chen, Jing M.
  • International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Vol. 21
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2012.08.001

Differentiating drought legacy effects on vegetation growth over the temperate Northern Hemisphere
journal, October 2017

  • Wu, Xiuchen; Liu, Hongyan; Li, Xiaoyan
  • Global Change Biology, Vol. 24, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13920

Preface: Impacts of extreme climate events and disturbances on carbon dynamics
journal, January 2016


Long-term variability and environmental control of the carbon cycle in an oak-dominated temperate forest
journal, February 2014


Predicting autumn phenology: How deciduous tree species respond to weather stressors
journal, March 2018


Climate control of terrestrial carbon exchange across biomes and continents
journal, July 2010


Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape
journal, April 2018

  • Zald, Harold S. J.; Dunn, Christopher J.
  • Ecological Applications, Vol. 28, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1002/eap.1710

Relationship of Climatic and Forest Factors to Drought- and Heat-Induced Tree Mortality
journal, January 2017


A few extreme events dominate global interannual variability in gross primary production
journal, March 2014

  • Zscheischler, Jakob; Mahecha, Miguel D.; von Buttlar, Jannis
  • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 9, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/035001

Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: concepts, processes and potential future impacts
text, January 2015


Ecosystem carbon dioxide fluxes after disturbance in forests of North America
text, January 2010


A few extreme events dominate global interannual variability in gross primary production
text, January 2014