Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: A systemic overreaction to years versus decades of warming in a subarctic grassland ecosystem

Journal Article · · Nature Ecology and Evolution
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7];  [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [10];  [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [14]; ORCiD logo [15]; ORCiD logo [16]; ORCiD logo [17]; ORCiD logo [2];  [6] more »;  [4];  [18]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [19]; ORCiD logo [20]; ORCiD logo [2] « less
  1. Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule, Zurich (Switzerland). Inst. for Integrative Biology; Univ. de Lausanne (Switzerland). Dept. of Ecology & Evolution
  2. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium). Dept. of Biology
  3. Vrije Univ., Amsterdam (Netherlands). Dept. of Ecological Sciences
  4. Agricultural Univ. of Iceland, Borgarnes (Iceland)
  5. Univ. of Vienna (Austria). Dept. of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science; International Inst. for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenberg (Austria). Ecosystems Services and Management Program
  6. CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra (Spain). CSIC Global Ecology Unit; CREAF, Cerdanoyla del Valles (Spain)
  7. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium). Dept. of Biology; Agricultural Univ. of Iceland, Borgarnes (Iceland)
  8. Univ. of Innsbruck (Austria). Dept. of Ecology
  9. CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra (Spain). CSIC Global Ecology Unit; Univ. of Vic-Central Univ. of Catalonia, Vic (Spain). Aquatic Ecology Group
  10. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium). Dept. of Biology; Univ. of Vienna (Austria). Dept. of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science
  11. CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra (Spain). CSIC Global Ecology Unit; CREAF, Cerdanoyla del Valles (Spain); Global Change Research Inst., Brno (Czech Republic)
  12. Agricultural Univ. of Iceland, Borgarnes (Iceland); Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, Hella (Iceland)
  13. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium). Dept. of Biology; CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra (Spain). CSIC Global Ecology Unit; CREAF, Cerdanoyla del Valles (Spain)
  14. Icelandic Forest Research, Reykjavík (Iceland)
  15. Univ. of Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Ecology and Earth Sciences
  16. Thünen Inst. of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Braunschweig (Germany)
  17. Univ. of Vienna (Austria). Dept. of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science
  18. Univ. of Antwerp, Wilrijk (Belgium). Dept. of Biology; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Climate and Ecosystem Science Division
  19. Lund Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Biology
  20. Cardinal St. Wyszynski Univ., Warsaw (Poland). Inst. of Ecology & Bioethics
+ Show Author Affiliations

Temperature governs most biotic processes, yet we know little about how warming affects whole ecosystems. In this research, we examined the responses of 128 components of a subarctic grassland to either 5–8 or >50 years of soil warming. Warming of >50 years drove the ecosystem to a new steady state possessing a distinct biotic composition and reduced species richness, biomass and soil organic matter. However, the warmed state was preceded by an overreaction to warming, which was related to organism physiology and was evident after 5–8 years. Ignoring this overreaction yielded errors of >100% for 83 variables when predicting their responses to a realistic warming scenario of 1 °C over 50 years, although some, including soil carbon content, remained stable after 5–8 years. This study challenges long-term ecosystem predictions made from short-term observations, and provides a framework for characterization of ecosystem responses to sustained climate change.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Austrian Science Fund (FWF); Catalan Government; European Research Council (ERC); European Union (EU); Flanders Research Foundation Aspiration Grant; Icelandic Research Fund; JPI Climate Project; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO); Spanish Government; Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1631625
Journal Information:
Nature Ecology and Evolution, Journal Name: Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 4; ISSN 2397-334X
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (45)

Extinction risk from climate change journal January 2004
Microbial temperature sensitivity and biomass change explain soil carbon loss with warming journal September 2018
Prolonged exposure does not increase soil microbial community compositional response to warming along geothermal gradients journal December 2017
Hierarchical responses of plant-soil interactions to climate change: consequences for the global carbon cycle journal February 2013
Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes journal November 2018
Sensitivity of soil carbon fractions and their specific stabilization mechanisms to extreme soil warming in a subarctic grassland journal September 2016
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming journal June 2017
Impact of Soil Warming on the Plant Metabolome of Icelandic Grasslands journal August 2017
A meta-analysis of responses of soil biota to global change journal January 2011
Geothermally warmed soils reveal persistent increases in the respiratory costs of soil microbes contributing to substantial C losses journal April 2018
Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems journal October 2001
Extinction risk from climate change journal January 2004
Biodiversity and ecosystem stability in a decade-long grassland experiment journal June 2006
Changes in plant community composition lag behind climate warming in lowland forests journal October 2011
Novel competitors shape species’ responses to climate change journal September 2015
Quantifying global soil carbon losses in response to warming journal November 2016
Land use alters the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to drought journal January 2012
Biogeochemical plant–soil microbe feedback in response to climate warming in peatlands journal December 2012
Shifts in Arctic vegetation and associated feedbacks under climate change journal March 2013
Warming-related increases in soil CO2 efflux are explained by increased below-ground carbon flux journal July 2014
Microbial temperature sensitivity and biomass change explain soil carbon loss with warming journal September 2018
Biodiversity increases and decreases ecosystem stability journal October 2018
Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming journal November 2016
Hierarchical responses of plant-soil interactions to climate change: consequences for the global carbon cycle journal February 2013
Shifts in the dynamics of productivity signal ecosystem state transitions at the biome-scale journal July 2018
Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes journal November 2018
Sensitivity of soil carbon fractions and their specific stabilization mechanisms to extreme soil warming in a subarctic grassland journal September 2016
Phenological responses of Icelandic subarctic grasslands to short-term and long-term natural soil warming journal June 2017
A 3,000-year lag between the geological and ecological shutdown of Florida's coral reefs journal August 2018
Ambient changes exceed treatment effects on plant species abundance in global change experiments journal October 2018
Phenology Feedbacks on Climate Change journal May 2009
Plant Species Richness and Ecosystem Multifunctionality in Global Drylands journal January 2012
The whole-soil carbon flux in response to warming journal March 2017
Long-term pattern and magnitude of soil carbon feedback to the climate system in a warming world journal October 2017
On the Sensitivity of Field Reconstruction and Prediction Using Empirical Orthogonal Functions Derived from Gappy Data journal October 2013
Geothermal ecosystems as natural climate change experiments: The ForHot research site in Iceland as a case study journal January 2016
A framework for assessing ecosystem dynamics in response to chronic resource alterations induced by global change journal December 2009
Impact of Soil Warming on the Plant Metabolome of Icelandic Grasslands journal August 2017
Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes text January 2019
Biodiversity increases and decreases ecosystem stability text January 2018
On the sensitivity of field reconstruction and prediction using Empirical Orthogonal Functions derived from gappy data text January 2013
On the sensitivity of field reconstruction and prediction using Empirical Orthogonal Functions derived from gappy data text January 2013
A systemic overreaction to years versus decades of warming in a subarctic grassland ecosystem - data dataset January 2019
A systemic overreaction to years versus decades of warming in a subarctic grassland ecosystem - data dataset January 2019
Phenology Feedbacks on Climate Change text January 2009

Cited By (1)

Massive warming-induced carbon loss from subalpine grassland soils in an altitudinal transplantation experiment journal June 2022

Similar Records

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
climate-change ecology
ecology
ecosystem ecology