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Ač A, Jansen MAK, Grace J, Urban O. Unravelling the neglected role of ultraviolet radiation on stomata: A meta-analysis with implications for modelling ecosystem-climate interactions. PLANT, CELL & ENVIRONMENT 2024; 47:1769-1781. [PMID: 38314642 DOI: 10.1111/pce.14841] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/06/2024]
Abstract
Stomata play a pivotal role in regulating gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere controlling water and carbon cycles. Accordingly, we investigated the impact of ultraviolet-B radiation, a neglected environmental factor varying with ongoing global change, on stomatal morphology and function by a Comprehensive Meta-Analysis. The overall UV effect at the leaf level is to decrease stomatal conductance, stomatal aperture and stomatal size, although stomatal density was increased. The significant decline in stomatal conductance is marked (6% in trees and >10% in grasses and herbs) in short-term experiments, with more modest decreases noted in long-term UV studies. Short-term experiments in growth chambers are not representative of long-term field UV effects on stomatal conductance. Important consequences of altered stomatal function are hypothesized. In the short term, UV-mediated stomatal closure may reduce carbon uptake but also water loss through transpiration, thereby alleviating deleterious effects of drought. However, in the long term, complex changes in stomatal aperture, size, and density may reduce the carbon sequestration capacity of plants and increase vegetation and land surface temperatures, potentially exacerbating negative effects of drought and/or heatwaves. Therefore, the expected future strength of carbon sink capacity in high-UV regions is likely overestimated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Ač
- Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Marcel A K Jansen
- Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Research Institute, UCC, Cork, Ireland
| | - John Grace
- Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Otmar Urban
- Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
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Kirschbaum MUF, Cowie AL, Peñuelas J, Smith P, Conant RT, Sage RF, Brandão M, Cotrufo MF, Luo Y, Way DA, Robinson SA. Is tree planting an effective strategy for climate change mitigation? THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 909:168479. [PMID: 37951250 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 11/08/2023] [Indexed: 11/13/2023]
Abstract
The world's forests store large amounts of carbon (C), and growing forests can reduce atmospheric CO2 by storing C in their biomass. This has provided the impetus for world-wide tree planting initiatives to offset fossil-fuel emissions. However, forests interact with their environment in complex and multifaceted ways that must be considered for a balanced assessment of the value of planting trees. First, one needs to consider the potential reversibility of C sequestration in trees through either harvesting or tree death from natural factors. If carbon storage is only temporary, future temperatures will actually be higher than without tree plantings, but cumulative warming will be reduced, contributing both positively and negatively to future climate-change impacts. Alternatively, forests could be used for bioenergy or wood products to replace fossil-fuel use which would obviate the need to consider the possible reversibility of any benefits. Forests also affect the Earth's energy balance through either absorbing or reflecting incoming solar radiation. As forests generally absorb more incoming radiation than bare ground or grasslands, this constitutes an important warming effect that substantially reduces the benefit of C storage, especially in snow-covered regions. Forests also affect other local ecosystem services, such as conserving biodiversity, modifying water and nutrient cycles, and preventing erosion that could be either beneficial or harmful depending on specific circumstances. Considering all these factors, tree plantings may be beneficial or detrimental for mitigating climate-change impacts, but the range of possibilities makes generalisations difficult. Their net benefit depends on many factors that differ between specific circumstances. One can, therefore, neither uncritically endorse tree planting everywhere, nor condemn it as counter-productive. Our aim is to provide key information to enable appropriate assessments to be made under specific circumstances. We conclude our discussion by providing a step-by-step guide for assessing the merit of tree plantings under specific circumstances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miko U F Kirschbaum
- Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Private Bag 11052, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
| | - Annette L Cowie
- NSW Department of Primary Industries/University of New England, Armidale, Australia
| | - Josep Peñuelas
- CSIC, Global Ecology Unit, CREAF-CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Pete Smith
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, 23 St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK
| | - Richard T Conant
- Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA
| | - Rowan F Sage
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B2, Canada
| | - Miguel Brandão
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, Stockholm 100-44, Sweden
| | - M Francesca Cotrufo
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Yiqi Luo
- School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Danielle A Way
- Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Department of Biology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Sharon A Robinson
- Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future & Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia
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Lee D, Kim JS, Park SW, Kug JS. An abrupt shift in gross primary productivity over Eastern China-Mongolia and its inter-model diversity in land surface models. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22971. [PMID: 38151486 PMCID: PMC10752903 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49763-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The terrestrial ecosystem in East Asia mainly consists of semi-arid regions that are sensitive to climate change. Therefore, gross primary productivity (GPP) in East Asia could be highly variable and vulnerable to climate change, which can significantly affect the local carbon budget. Here, we examine the spatial and temporal characteristics of GPP variability in East Asia and its relationship with climate factors over the last three decades. We detect an abrupt decrease in GPP over Eastern China-Mongolia region around the year 2000. This is attributed to an abrupt decrease in precipitation associated with the phase shift of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). We also evaluate the reproducibility of offline land surface models to simulate these abrupt changes. Of the twelve models, eight were able to simulate this abrupt response, while the others failed due to the combination of an exaggerated CO2 fertilization effect and an underrated climate impact. For accurate prediction, it is necessary to improve the sensitivity of the GPP to changes in CO2 concentrations and the climate system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danbi Lee
- Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, South Korea
| | - Jin-Soo Kim
- Low-Carbon and Climate Impact Research Centre, School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China
| | - So-Won Park
- Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, South Korea.
| | - Jong-Seong Kug
- Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, South Korea.
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Moore J, Argles A, Cox P. A theory of demographic optimality in forests. Sci Rep 2023; 13:18712. [PMID: 37907540 PMCID: PMC10618179 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44860-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2023] [Accepted: 10/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Carbon uptake by the land is a key determinant of future climate change. Unfortunately, Dynamic Global Vegetation Models have many unknown internal parameters which leads to significant uncertainty in projections of the future land carbon sink. By contrast, observed forest inventories in both Amazonia and the USA show strikingly common tree-size distributions, pointing to a simpler modelling paradigm. The curvature of these size-distributions is related to the ratio of mortality to growth in Demographic Equilibrium Theory (DET). We extend DET to include recruitment limited by competitive exclusion from existing trees. From this, we find simultaneous maxima of tree density and biomass in terms of respectively the ratio of mortality to growth and the proportion of primary productivity allocated to reproduction, an idea we call Demographic Optimality (DO). Combining DO with the ratio of mortality to growth common to the US and Amazon forests, results in the prediction that about an eighth of productivity should be allocated to reproduction, which is broadly consistent with observations. Another prediction of the model is that seed mortality should decrease with increasing seed size, such that the advantage of having many small seeds is nullified by the higher seed mortality. Demographic Optimality is therefore consistent with the common shape of tree-size distributions seen in very different forests, and an allocation to reproduction that is independent of seed size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon Moore
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QF, UK
| | - Arthur Argles
- Met Office Hadley Centre, Fitzroy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK.
| | - Peter Cox
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QF, UK
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Bell SM, Raymond SJ, Yin H, Jiao W, Goll DS, Ciais P, Olivetti E, Leshyk VO, Terrer C. Quantifying the recarbonization of post-agricultural landscapes. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2139. [PMID: 37059844 PMCID: PMC10104816 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37907-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Stephen M Bell
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
- Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain.
| | - Samuel J Raymond
- MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - He Yin
- Department of Geography, Kent State University, 325 S. Lincoln Street, Kent, OH, 44242, USA
| | - Wenzhe Jiao
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Daniel S Goll
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Philippe Ciais
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Elsa Olivetti
- MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Victor O Leshyk
- Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA
| | - César Terrer
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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