Warmer springs make some trees end their growing season sooner
Vitasse Y, Ren S, Grossiord C, Saurer M, Luo Y
Phenology
If you've noticed the maples or lindens on your street coloring up earlier some years, this research suggests the culprit may be a warm spring months earlier, not just a cold snap in fall.
Scientists grew young hornbeam, linden, and Norway maple trees in heated outdoor chambers to mimic a warmer spring, then let them experience a normal autumn. The heated hornbeams and lindens leafed out up to four weeks early and grew faster, but they also started dropping their leaves up to a month sooner than trees grown in normal spring conditions. Curiously, the maples didn't respond this way at all, hinting that some tree species may be more sensitive to spring warming than others when it comes to timing their autumn shutdown.
Key Findings
A +5°C spring warming treatment advanced leaf-out by 14-28 days across three tree species (hornbeam, linden, Norway maple).
Early signs of autumn senescence occurred significantly earlier in warmed hornbeam (-31 days) and linden (-24 days), while Norway maple showed no change.
Radial (trunk) growth increased with warming in hornbeam and linden but not maple, linking early-season growth vigor to earlier autumn senescence.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Warming up spring temperatures made hornbeam and linden trees leaf out earlier but also drop their leaves earlier in autumn, suggesting that how fast a tree grows early in the year shapes when it shuts down for winter.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Early-Season Warming Advances Autumn Senescence in Temperate Tree Saplings in Association With Early Growth Dynamics.
The timing of autumn leaf senescence is driven by external cues such as temperature and photoperiod and is strongly regulated by internal developmental processes. Correlative evidence suggests that...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Street trees cut heat deaths by 39 percent in European cities
Trees in your local park or street aren't just pretty — they are literally keeping people alive during heatwaves, and planting even a modest number of the ri...
Acer platanoides, commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to North America in the mid-1700s as a shade tree. It is a ...