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The dynamics of carbon allocation in trees affect carbon storage of forest ecosystems and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on Earth. Here, using carbon fluxes and xylem phenology from 84 conifer forests across the Northern Hemisphere, we quantify the phenology of carbon sources (photosynthesis) and sinks (stem growth) along a thermal gradient from −4.4 to 18.2 °C in mean annual temperature. The onset of stem growth advances by 2.3 days per degree Celsius with rising temperatures, 2 times slower than photosynthesis. Warmer sites accumulate less chilling than colder sites, thus trees require more heat to reactivate. The ending of photosynthesis and wood formation is delayed by 2.0 days per degree Celsius. Overall, the photosynthetic season lengthens by one month more than the growing season towards the warmest sites. Climate warming tends to intensify the mismatch between the phenology of carbon sources and sinks, potentially affecting the carbon sequestration in conifer forests.

Warming increases the phenological mismatch between carbon sources and sinks in conifers / Li, X., Silvestro, R., Liang, E., Mencuccini, M., Camarero, J.J., Rathgeber, C.B.K.S.J.D., Nabais, C., Giovannelli, A., Saracino, A., Saulino, L., Guerrieri, R., Gričar, J., Prislan, P., Peters, R.L., Čufar, K., Yang, B., Antonucci, S., Babushkina, E.B.F., Campelo, F., Carrer, M., et al.. - In: NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE. - ISSN 1758-678X. - (2025), pp. 1-19. [10.1038/s41558-025-02474-z]

Warming increases the phenological mismatch between carbon sources and sinks in conifers

Lombardi F.;
2025-01-01

Abstract

The dynamics of carbon allocation in trees affect carbon storage of forest ecosystems and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on Earth. Here, using carbon fluxes and xylem phenology from 84 conifer forests across the Northern Hemisphere, we quantify the phenology of carbon sources (photosynthesis) and sinks (stem growth) along a thermal gradient from −4.4 to 18.2 °C in mean annual temperature. The onset of stem growth advances by 2.3 days per degree Celsius with rising temperatures, 2 times slower than photosynthesis. Warmer sites accumulate less chilling than colder sites, thus trees require more heat to reactivate. The ending of photosynthesis and wood formation is delayed by 2.0 days per degree Celsius. Overall, the photosynthetic season lengthens by one month more than the growing season towards the warmest sites. Climate warming tends to intensify the mismatch between the phenology of carbon sources and sinks, potentially affecting the carbon sequestration in conifer forests.
2025
21-nov-2025
Inglese
1
19
19
2-s2.0-105022658474
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02474-z
Esperti anonimi
Sì
Any methods, additional references, Nature Portfolio reporting summaries, source data, extended data, supplementary information, acknowledgements, peer review information; details of author contributions and competing interests; and statements of data and code availability are available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02474-z. This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFF0809101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42271065, 42361144710, 42361144856), the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion Project (M-0393), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020073), the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (2025PD0108) and the State Scholarship Fund (202004910219) provided by the China Scholarship Council. This research is also a product of the FAIRWOOD project funded by the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) of the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB). Other funding agencies included the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec (Quebec, Canada, project number 112332139 conducted at the Direction de la recherche forestière and led by J.D.S. and G.D.), Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Nature et Technologies (AccFor, project number 309064), the Observatoire régional de recherche en forêt boréale and Forêt d’Enseignement et de Recherche Simoncouche and Université Laval’s Forêt Montmorency. R. Silvestro received the Merit scholarship for international PhD students (PBEEE) by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) and a scholarship for an internship by the Centre d’étude de la forêt (CEF) realized at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF). F.B. was funded, in part, by the Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources at the University of Nevada, Reno. V.S. appreciated the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (project number FSRZ-2023-0007). C.B.K.R. acknowledges support from ‘Laboratoire d’Excellence’ ARBRE (Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), Investissements d’Avenir, ANR-11-LABX-0002-01) and the SILVATECH facility (https://doi.org/10.1 5454/1.5572400113627854E12) for its contribution to the acquisition of wood formation data. K.Č., J.G. and P.P. were funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS), research core funding numbers P4-0430 and P4-0015, projects J4-2541, J4-4541 and Z4-7318, while K.Č., V.G., P.P. and H.V. were also funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme ASFORCLIC under the grant agreement 36 number 952314. V.T. was supported by the Johannes Amos Comenius Programme (P JAC), project number CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004605, Natural and Anthropogenic Georisks. A. Giovannelli received funding from National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4-Call for tender number 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by decree number 3175 of 18 December 2021 of the Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union–NextGeneration EU; project code CN_00000033, concession decree number 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Unique Project Code (CUP) B83C22002930006, project title ‘National Biodiversity Future Center—NBFC’. A. Gruber was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (grant number https://doi.org/10.55776/ P34706). P.F. was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation through projects ‘INtra-seasonal Tree growth along Elevational GRAdients in the European ALps (INTEGRAL)’ (grant number 121859).
Internazionale
Sì
Li, X.; Silvestro, R.; Liang, E.; Mencuccini, M.; Camarero, J. J.; Rathgeber, C. B. K. Sylvain J. D.; Nabais, C.; Giovannelli, A.; Saracino, A.; Sauli...espandi
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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Warming increases the phenological mismatch between carbon sources and sinks in conifers / Li, X., Silvestro, R., Liang, E., Mencuccini, M., Camarero, J.J., Rathgeber, C.B.K.S.J.D., Nabais, C., Giovannelli, A., Saracino, A., Saulino, L., Guerrieri, R., Gričar, J., Prislan, P., Peters, R.L., Čufar, K., Yang, B., Antonucci, S., Babushkina, E.B.F., Campelo, F., Carrer, M., et al.. - In: NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE. - ISSN 1758-678X. - (2025), pp. 1-19. [10.1038/s41558-025-02474-z]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12318/162346
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