Microclimate moderates plant responses to macroclimate warming

P. De Frenne, F. Rodríguez-Sánchez, D. Coomes, L. Baeten, G. Verstraeten, P.W.F.M. Hommel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

528 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent global warming is acting across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems to favor species adapted to warmer conditions and/or reduce the abundance of cold-adapted organisms (i.e., “thermophilization” of communities). Lack of community responses to increased temperature, however, has also been reported for several taxa and regions, suggesting that “climatic lags” may be frequent. Here we show that microclimatic effects brought about by forest canopy closure can buffer biotic responses to macroclimate warming, thus explaining an apparent climatic lag. Using data from 1,409 vegetation plots in European and North American temperate forests, each surveyed at least twice over an interval of 12–67 y, we document significant thermophilization of ground-layer plant communities. These changes reflect concurrent declines in species adapted to cooler conditions and increases in species adapted to warmer conditions. However, thermophilization, particularly the increase of warm-adapted species, is attenuated in forests whose canopies have become denser, probably reflecting cooler growing-season ground temperatures via increased shading. As standing stocks of trees have increased in many temperate forests in recent decades, local microclimatic effects may commonly be moderating the impacts of macroclimate warming on forest understories. Conversely, increases in harvesting woody biomass—e.g., for bioenergy—may open forest canopies and accelerate thermophilization of temperate forest biodiversity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18561-18565
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume110
Issue number46
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Keywords

  • recent climate-change
  • forest
  • vegetation
  • communities
  • ecosystem
  • scale
  • debt

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