The temperature sensitivity (ST) of the vegetation greenup onset date (VGD) is critical for the assessment and prediction of phenological response to climate warming. Spatial variations in ST, though well documented based on satellite observations in recent studies, have remained largely under-explained. We determined VGD from satellite observation of the normalized difference vegetation index over

Winter hardiness depends on the ability of plants to tolerate a wide spectrum of environmental stresses, which can be affected by climate change in complex ways. Here, empirical Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSS) models of winter survival (WS) of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and triticale (Triticosecale x Wittmack) were created using data from six years of field experiments at multiple

Various models have been developed to simulate rainfall interception by vegetation but their formulations and applications rely on a number of assumptions and parameter estimation procedures. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of different model assumptions and parameter derivation approaches on the performance of the Rutter, Gash and Liu interception models. The Rutter model, in contrast

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are increasingly being recognized as sustainable land-use systems that can increase carbon (C) sequestration and improve food security. However, the relative contributions of various C pools to the overall C stock of AFS and their dependence on factors such as tree age, species diversity and density is still unclear in many regions. Using an equivalent soil mass approach

Some adaptation measures in response to the severe impacts of climate change on Mediterranean olive orchards were evaluated under a wide range of weather conditions. For this task, a decision support system for improving resources management by the integration of the AdaptaOlive simulation model, perturbed climate and impact and adaptation response surfaces for the model output analysis was developed

Plants modify the climate and provide natural cooling through transpiration. However, plant response is not only dependent on the atmospheric evaporative demand due to the combined effects of wind speed, air temperature, humidity, and solar radiation, but is also dependent on the water transport within the plant leaf-xylem-root system. These interactions result in a dynamic response of the plant where

Accurate early season predictions of crop yield at the within-field scale can be used to address a range of crop production, management, and precision agricultural challenges. While the remote sensing of within-field insights has been a research goal for many years, it is only recently that observations with the required spatio-temporal resolutions, together with efficient assimilation methods to integrate

Where nitrogen input from fertilizer application exceeds plant demands, hotspots of microbially produced nitrous oxide (N 2 O) can exhibit disproportionately high rates of emissions relative to longer periods of time, known as hot moments. Hotspots and hot moments of N2O are sensitive to changes in agricultural management and weather, making it difficult to accurately quantify N 2 O emissions. This

Accurate quantification of soil moisture contributes significantly to an understanding of land surface processes. In-situ observable soil moisture data are often sparsely distributed, and model performance is influenced by many factors. In this study, 14 numerical experimental schemes about the effects of uncertainties in multiple factors (soil property, time step, assimilation interval, precipitation

Changes in soil moisture strongly affect vegetation growth, which may in turn feed back on soil moisture by directly affecting evapotranspiration and indirectly regulating precipitation. Previous studies often focused on the unidirectional effects of soil moisture on temporal vegetation dynamics, yet bidirectional dependencies have rarely been studied. Here we analyzed the bidirectional dependency

Increasing planting density is one of the main management practices contributing to maize grain yield improvements across the world, but the soil water sustainability after long-term continuous high-density under rainfed farming systems is not clear. Crop simulation models may help explore suitable management systems for increasing crop productivity and economic benefits. The present study calibrated

Peatlands transformation in Indonesia has caused immense ecological and environmental degradation. Land use conversion has changed this natural carbon sink to a drought- and fire-prone ecosystem. Public awareness to tackle the drought and fire risk in peatlands has led to the development of drought-fire index. Current knowledge states that both climate and hydrology have a strong influence on drought-induced

With global warming, the soil freeze-thaw state has greatly changed, which has profoundly impacted the balance between water resources, ecological security and regional agriculture and forestry production in frozen regions. Based on daily soil freezing/thawing depth data in Heilongjiang Province over the last 60 years, Mann-Kendall trend analysis, Sen's slope and Hurst exponent were performed to analyze

Land surface temperature-fractional vegetation coverage (LST-fc) trapezoid framework based models have been widely developed, applied, and verified to estimate regional latent heat flux (LE) and its partitioning process. The basis of operating these models lies in the determination of end-members within the LST-fc trapezoid. However, the knowledge of how the end-members affect the LE and ratio of vegetation

Tree-ring analysis provides an effective way to detect complex responses of trees to climate warming and has been extensively used in ecological studies; however, there is often a lack of simultaneous physiological investigations explaining the observed patterns. Here, we paralleled dendroclimatic analyses with hydraulics measurements in co-occurring Larix olgensis and Pinus koraiensis trees along

Lightning ignition is the major cause of natural wildfires in several regions worldwide. Determining if wildfires in remote uncontrolled areas result from natural lightning as opposed to anthropic action is a relevant and yet-unsolved challenge for large regions of the planet, with scientific and management implications ranging from environmental conservation to mitigation of climate-related emissions

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Sentinel-1 (S1) surface soil moisture (SSM) retrieval is promising but challenging in canopy areas. Additional data from optical-thermal infrared (TIR) sensors (e.g., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS) have potential to compensate for SSM monitoring from single S1 product, suggesting their synergistic use for SSM retrieval in vegetated terrains. A physical

Ecosystem respiration (ER) is greatly affected by global warming and responds nonlinearly to different warming levels. However, the mechanisms of the response of ER to gradient warming in paddy field remain obscure. Studying the effects and mechanisms of different warming levels on ER and its components in paddy field ecosystems will provide a theoretical basis for predicting future carbon budgets

Few studies have evaluated the effect of humid weather on wheat productivity and yield gaps. Humid weather conditions before, during, and after flowering cause losses associated with Fusarium head blight and pre-harvest sprouting. To increase the actual yield, efforts such as ensuring that farm yield is commensurate with yield potential via wheat breeding activities have been made in the wake of increasingly

Trees typically survive prolonged droughts by absorbing water from deeper layers. Where soils are shallow, roots may be extract water from the underlying fractured bedrocks. In dry seasons, surface-soil moisture dynamics reflect hydraulic redistribution (HR). HR is usually estimated based on the gradient of mean, or bulk, soil water potential among layers in the rooting zone (HRB). This approach neglects

The sensitivity of photosynthesis to environmental changes is essential for understanding carbon cycle responses to global climate change and for the development of modeling approaches that explains its spatial and temporal variability. We collected a large variety of published sensitivity functions of gross primary productivity (GPP) to different forcing variables to assess the response of GPP to

Climate models predict rising temperatures and more frequent and prolonged urban heat islands (UHI) in southern China. The urban vegetations have become a focal point to mitigate the detrimental effects of UHI and to provide cooling through transpiration. However, transpiration in trees such as Ficus concinna in relation to extreme long-term conditions of UHI is scarcely documented. Here, we investigated

Periodic drought is one of the most frequent stressors for grassland plants under climate change, potentially inhibiting ecosystem productivity and stability through its legacy effects. Recent findings on plant stress memory and microbial legacy effects provide some unique perspectives on this issue. However, the mechanisms underlying intra- and inter-generational adaptation to drought in grassland

Economic tree species growing in the semi-arid Loess Plateau of China are important for maintaining sound economic viability and protecting the fragile hydro-ecological environment. However, their water use strategies and ecological adaptation to dryland environments remain poorly understood. In this study, we measured variations in soil water content, root distribution, water isotopic signature for

Wildfires are the main disturbance of boreal ecosystems, one of the largest reservoirs of terrestrial carbon. Two-thirds of boreal forests are in Siberia, where peatlands commonly appear mixed with mineral soils. Siberian forests are currently facing a dual shift in environmental conditions regarding climate change and increased fire activity. Therefore, assessing growth patterns of trees subjected

The controlled experiments are increasingly used to examine the effect of chilling on the spring phenology of temperate woody plants. Previous studies demonstrated a delaying effect of lack of chilling on spring events due to a negative relationship between chilling accumulation (CA) and heat requirement (HR). However, most experiments only lasted for one year, and limited studies examined the consistency

The oasis cold island effect, a common phenomenon whereby surface temperatures in oases are lower than those in surrounding desert areas, profoundly impacts the lives of oasis residents. Although previous studies have verified the importance of the Bowen ratio regarding the oasis cold island effect intensity during summer, the contributions of other factors (e.g., aerodynamic resistance) remain to

The magnitude and spatial patterns of carbon fluxes in alpine grasslands determine the regional terrestrial carbon balance of the Tibetan Plateau. However, the patterns and controlling factors of carbon fluxes on the plateau remain unclear, hampering the understanding of the carbon cycle of these vulnerable ecosystems. In this study, we compared the spatial variations of carbon fluxes of ten alpine

Climate warming potentially changes the flowering seasons of terrestrial plants, and thus species interaction, with consequently substantial impacts on ecosystem structure and function. However, the general response patterns of flowering seasons to warming and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, a meta-analysis of data from 26 experimental studies examining 168 species was conducted

The disparity in unit irrigation water consumption (UIWC) of different cropping systems provides an opportunity to reduce total irrigation water consumption (TIWC) by optimizing cropping systems. However, the UIWC for diverse cropping systems has neither been systematically quantified nor been optimized at a national scale. Here, we quantify the cropping system-specific UIWC and TIWC for the major

Accurately quantifying ecosystem respiration (ER) is crucial for understanding the feedback between the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle and climate change. However, the current estimation of ER by partitioning net ecosystem exchange (NEE) meets a great challenge due to the response difference of daytime and nighttime respiration to temperature and the effects of air humidity. In this study, we modified

GLYCIM is a comprehensive soybean crop simulator that simulates soil, plant, and atmospheric interactions at the physical and physiological process level. The current research focused on replacing the original photosynthesis equation with a leaf-level coupled energy balance model of photosynthesis, transpiration, and stomatal conductance to more accurately simulate responses to climate change. Soybean

There has been a debate regarding whether the Amazon rainforest is greening during the dry season. This is partially because of the great uncertainty associated with the ability of different vegetation indices to accurately assess tropical vegetation status. This paper, revisit this issue by comprehensively examining the seasonal variations in vegetation recorded in various satellite-based vegetation

Global forest cover is heavily fragmented. Due to high edge-to-surface ratios in small forest patches, a large proportion of forests is affected by edge influences involving steep microclimatic gradients. Although forest edges are important ecotones and account for 20% of the global forested area, it remains unclear how biotic and abiotic drivers affect forest edge microclimates at the continental

Plant response to soil and atmospheric water stresses is the dominant control of Dryland ecosystem functions, affecting water resources, ecosystem stability and biodiversity. The link between water stresses and plant water status is regulated by plant hydraulics, of which the corresponding impact on plant water use and the susceptibility of Dryland ecosystems remains under-explored. We used a plant

The leaf area index (LAI), defined as one-half of the total green leaf area per unit horizontal ground surface area, is a key parameter in agriculture, forestry, ecology, and other fields. The clumping index (CI) accounts for the nonrandom spatial distribution of the foliage elements in the canopy, thereby considerably influencing the accuracy of LAI estimation with optical field-based instruments

Understanding interspecific differences in tree water use will aid in the assessment of both tree-level ecophysiological adaptation to climate change and forecasts of forest dynamics. We investigated the seasonal variation of water sources between two co-occurring trees species with contrasting leaf phenology and rooting traits: the deciduous Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. and the evergreen Picea

In West Africa, Harmattan-induced atmospheric and soil droughts represent seasonally recurring hazards for Theobroma cacao L. agro-ecosystems. Under the influence of the Harmattan winds, precipitation is impaired and air humidity and temperature reach stressful levels. Climate change is causing an increase in temperature that will drive up the evaporative power of the atmosphere, risking to harshen

Mediterranean trees and shrubs adjust physiological processes to ensure their functioning under shifting dry conditions. However, little is known about spatial and between-species differences in cambial dynamics and how their temporal variability determines climatic adaptability. We used the Vaganov‒Shashkin process-based model to simulate five decades of daily cambial dynamics of coexisting junipers

Permafrost degradation leads to the release of organic carbon to the atmosphere, and in turn, affects climate change. The amount of organic carbon released to the atmosphere depends on the thawing rate of peat-rich permafrost. However, the exact mechanism of peat-rich permafrost thawing is still unclear. Here we choose two locations on the northeast Tibetan Plateau: the peat-rich EBoTA (“peatland”)

Despite a perennial evergreen canopy, tropical evergreen forests continuously shed old leaves and grow new leaves at different time across different tropical regions. To examine how water and light availability control the leaf phenology of tropical evergreen forests, we used monthly litterfall mass data from 30 sites in Pan-Asian tropics and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) as leaf shedding

A recent trend in crop modeling has been the use of multi-model ensembles (MMEs) for impact assessment, especially as it relates to climate change. Studies have shown that, compared to individual models, the mean or median of a MME is a better predictor that is more accurate in making predictions and capable of providing model uncertainty information. In previous studies that used MMEs, each individual

Reliable values of relative humidity are basic inputs for modelling in many disciplines and in the most disparate scientific fields. Unfortunately, humidity variables remain less focused than other meteorological parameters and generally suffer from considerable uncertainty mainly due to the fact that their observations are not widely available, fostering the use of the observations of other meteorological

The magnitude and spatial patterns of carbon fluxes in alpine grasslands determine the regional terrestrial carbon balance of the Tibetan Plateau. However, the patterns and controlling factors of carbon fluxes on the plateau remain unclear, hampering the understanding of the carbon cycle of these vulnerable ecosystems. In this study, we compared the spatial variations of carbon fluxes of ten alpine

Grazing lands, including the native rangelands, cover an extensive area of the southeastern United States, representing an important component of the carbon balance for the region. In Florida, native rangelands extend over 3.1 Mha, experiencing a natural fire frequency between 2 – 5 years and a strong climatic variability. Management includes prescribed fire and mechanical brush control. This study

With degradation and desertification of alpine meadows due to climate warming and overgrazing, the distribution of annual plant species has greatly expanded on the Tibetan Plateau. Most phenological studies in the past decades have mainly focused on perennial plants, and few have studied the phenology of annual plants, despite their different life history. Lack of knowledge regarding how phenological

Owing to the increased need to assess global forest behavior under changing climatic conditions within a long-term context, spatial coherence in tree-ring records is of widespread interest. Spatial networks of tree growth have been widely discussed from regional to global scales, but few studies have reported stable oxygen isotopes in networks of tree rings (δ18Otree), thus impeding a comprehensive

Rising temperatures and frequent extreme high temperature events under future climate scenarios have posed pressing challenges with respect to global food security. Previous climate-crop modelling studies have investigated the impacts of rising temperature and heat stress on grain yield. However, the potential and priority of dealing with rising mean temperature or heat stress using genetically different

Development of predictive algorithms accounting for uncertainty in processes underpinning the maize (Zea Mays L.) yield response to nitrogen (N) are needed in order to provide new N fertilization guidelines. The aims of this study were to unravel the relative importance of crop management, soil, and weather factors on both the estimate and the size of uncertainty (as a risk magnitude assessment) of

Soil respiration (RS) is the largest terrestrial carbon (C) flux to the atmosphere, and it can be influenced by changing input of plant C from above- and/or below ground. Especially in tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems, the contributions of litter respiration (RL), autotrophic respiration (RA) and mineral soil respiration (RM) are still poorly understood. In the present study, RS was measured under

Semiarid forests are experiencing unprecedented hotter drought, which could have a profound impact on tree growth. In addition to increasing temperature, the warming climate may cause more frequent and intense heatwaves further increasing the stress on tree growth. In this study, we measured tree ring width of 1139 cores collected from 12 Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) forest patches in the northern