The high northern latitudes (>50°) experienced a pronounced surface stilling (i.e., decline in winds) with climate change. As a drying factor, the influences of changes in winds on the date of autumn foliar senescence (DFS) remain largely unknown and are potentially important as a mechanism explaining the interannual variability of autumn phenology. Using 183,448 phenological observations at 2,405 sites, long-term site-scale water vapor and carbon dioxide flux measurements, and 34 y of satellite greenness data, here we show that the decline in winds is significantly associated with extended DFS and could have a relative importance comparable with temperature and precipitation effects in contributing to the DFS trends. We further demonstrate that decline in winds reduces evapotranspiration, which results in less soil water losses and consequently more favorable growth conditions in late autumn. In addition, declining winds also lead to less leaf abscission damage which could delay leaf senescence and to a decreased cooling effect and therefore less frost damage. Our results are potentially useful for carbon flux modeling because an improved algorithm based on these findings projected overall widespread earlier DFS than currently expected by the end of this century, contributing potentially to a positive feedback to climate.

随着气候变化，北半球高纬度地区 (>50°) 经历了明显的地表静止（即风力减弱）。作为一种干燥因素，风的变化对秋季叶衰老（DFS）日期的影响在很大程度上仍然未知，并且作为解释秋季物候的年际变化的机制具有潜在的重要意义。利用 2,405 个地点的 183,448 次物候观测、长期地点规模的水蒸气和二氧化碳通量测量以及 34 年的卫星绿度数据，我们在此表明​​风的减弱与延长的 DFS 显着相关，并且可能具有相对重要性与温度和降水对 DFS 趋势的影响相当。我们进一步证明，风的减弱会减少蒸散量，从而减少土壤水分流失，从而为深秋的生长条件提供更有利的条件。此外，风力减弱还会减少叶片脱落损伤，从而延迟叶片衰老，并降低冷却效果，从而减少霜冻损伤。我们的结果对于碳通量建模可能有用，因为基于这些发现的改进算法预计到本世纪末，DFS 总体上会比目前预期的更早，从而可能对气候产生积极的反馈。