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The Toolik Field Station (TFS) plant phenology program monitors the timing of specific phenological developmental stages of plant species commonly found in the moist acidic tundra plant community. The TFS phenology program began in response to TFS research community requests to collect baseline environmental data that would be broadly applicable and provide context to research projects conducted near TFS. The TFS plant phenology data collection protocol is based on the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX, www.geog.ubc.ca/itex) protocol for the Toolik Snowfence Experiment. This moist acidic tundra dataset began in 2007 and continues through 2023.
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The tundra phenology database: More than two decades of tundra phenology responses to climate change
Observations of changes in phenology have provided some of the strongest signals of the effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX), initiated in the early 1990s, established a common protocol to measure plant phenology in tundra study areas across the globe. Today, this valuable collection of phenology measurements depicts the responses of plants at the colder extremes of our planet to experimental and ambient changes in temperature over the past decades. The database contains 150,434 phenology observations of 278 plant species taken at 28 study areas for periods of 1 to 26 years. Here we describe the full dataset to increase the visibility and use of these data in global analyses, and to invite phenology data contributions from underrepresented tundra locations. Portions of this tundra phenology database have been used in three recent syntheses, some datasets are expanded, others are from entirely new study areas, and the entirety of these data are now available at the Polar Data Catalogue (https://doi.org/10.21963/13215).
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- PAR ID:
- 10301463
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Arctic Science
- ISSN:
- 2368-7460
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The Toolik Field Station (TFS) plant phenology program monitors the timing of specific phenological developmental stages of plant species commonly found in the dry heath tundra plant community. The TFS phenology program began in response to TFS research community requests to collect baseline environmental data that would be broadly applicable and provide context to research projects conducted near TFS. The TFS plant phenology data collection protocol is based on the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) (www.geog.ubc.ca/itex) protocol for the Toolik Snowfence Experiment. This dry heath tundra dataset began in 2011 and continues through 2023.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Abstract Rapid climate warming is altering Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystem structure and function, including shifts in plant phenology. While the advancement of green up and flowering are well-documented, it remains unclear whether all phenophases, particularly those later in the season, will shift in unison or respond divergently to warming. Here, we present the largest synthesis to our knowledge of experimental warming effects on tundra plant phenology from the International Tundra Experiment. We examine the effect of warming on a suite of season-wide plant phenophases. Results challenge the expectation that all phenophases will advance in unison to warming. Instead, we find that experimental warming caused: (1) larger phenological shifts in reproductive versus vegetative phenophases and (2) advanced reproductive phenophases and green up but delayed leaf senescence which translated to a lengthening of the growing season by approximately 3%. Patterns were consistent across sites, plant species and over time. The advancement of reproductive seasons and lengthening of growing seasons may have significant consequences for trophic interactions and ecosystem function across the tundra.more » « less
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The below-ground growing season often extends beyond the above-ground growing season in tundra ecosystems. However, we do not yet know where and when this occurs and whether these phenological asynchronies are driven by variation in local vegetation communities or by spatial variation in microclimate. Here, we combined above- and below-ground plant phenology metrics to compare the relative timings and magnitudes of leaf and root growth and senescence across microclimates and plant communities at five sites across the tundra biome. We observed asynchronous growth between above-ground and below-ground plant tissue, with the below-ground season extending up to 74% beyond the onset of above-ground leaf senescence. Plant community type, rather than microclimate, was a key factor controlling the timing, productivity and growth rates of roots, with graminoid roots exhibiting a distinct ‘pulse’ of growth later into the growing season than shrub roots. Our findings indicate the potential of vegetation change to influence below-ground carbon storage as roots remain active in unfrozen soils for longer as the climate warms. Taken together, increased root growth in soils that remain thawed later into the growing season, in combination with ongoing tundra vegetation change including increased shrubs and graminoids, can act together to alter below-ground productivity and carbon cycling in the tundra biome.more » « less
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ABSTRACT The below‐ground growing season often extends beyond the above‐ground growing season in tundra ecosystems and as the climate warms, shifts in growing seasons are expected. However, we do not yet know to what extent, when and where asynchrony in above‐ and below‐ground phenology occurs and whether variation is driven by local vegetation communities or spatial variation in microclimate. Here, we combined above‐ and below‐ground plant phenology metrics to compare the relative timings and magnitudes of leaf and fine‐root growth and senescence across microclimates and plant communities at five sites across the Arctic and alpine tundra biome. We observed asynchronous growth between above‐ and below‐ground plant tissue, with the below‐ground season extending up to 74% (~56 days) beyond the onset of above‐ground leaf senescence. Plant community type, rather than microclimate, was a key factor controlling the timing, productivity, and growth rates of fine roots, with graminoid roots exhibiting a distinct ‘pulse’ of growth later into the growing season than shrub roots. Our findings indicate the potential of vegetation change to influence below‐ground carbon storage as the climate warms and roots remain active in unfrozen soils for longer. Taken together, our findings of increased root growth in soils that remain thawed later into the growing season, in combination with ongoing tundra vegetation change including increased shrub and graminoid abundance, indicate increased below‐ground productivity and altered carbon cycling in the tundra biome.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1139/AS-2020-0041
