Abstract

While climate warming reduces the occurrence of frost events, the warming-induced lengthening of the growing season of plants in the Northern Hemisphere may actually induce more frequent frost days during the growing season (GSFDs, days with minimum temperature < 0 °C). Direct evidence of this hypothesis, however, is limited. Here we investigate the change in the number of GSFDs at latitudes greater than 30° N using remotely-sensed and in situ phenological records and three minimum temperature (Tmin) data sets from 1982 to 2012. While decreased GSFDs are found in northern Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau, and northwestern North America (mainly in autumn), ~43% of the hemisphere, especially in Europe, experienced a significant increase in GSFDs between 1982 and 2012 (mainly during spring). Overall, regions with larger increases in growing season length exhibit larger increases in GSFDs. Climate warming thus reduces the total number of frost days per year, but GSFDs nonetheless increase in many areas.

Details

Title
Extension of the growing season increases vegetation exposure to frost
Author
Liu, Qiang 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Piao, Shilong 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Janssens, Ivan A 3 ; Fu, Yongshuo 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Peng, Shushi 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Xu, Lian 1 ; Ciais, Philippe 5 ; Myneni, Ranga B 6 ; Peñuelas, Josep 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Wang, Tao 8 

1  Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China 
2  Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Center for Excellence in Tibetan Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
3  Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium 
4  Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium; College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China 
5  Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA CNRS UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France 
6  Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA 
7  CREAF, Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF- CSIC-UAB, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 
8  Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Center for Excellence in Tibetan Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
Pages
1-8
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Jan 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02690-y
ProQuest document ID
1992654533
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.