Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems

György Kroël-Dulay; Johannes Ransijn; Inger Kappel Schmidt; Claus Beier; Paolo De Angelis; Giovanbattista De Dato; Jeffrey S. Dukes; Bridget Emmett; Marc Estiarte; János Garadnai; Jane  Kongstad; Edit Kovács-Láng; Klaus Steenberg Larsen; Dario Liberati; Romà Ogaya; Torben Riis-Nielsen; Andrew R. Smith; Alwyn Sowerby; Albert Tietema; Josep Penuelas

doi:10.1038/ncomms7682

Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems

György Kroël-Dulay^*, Johannes Ransijn, Inger Kappel Schmidt, Claus Beier, Paolo De Angelis, Giovanbattista De Dato, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Bridget Emmett, Marc Estiarte, János Garadnai, Jane Kongstad, Edit Kovács-Láng, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Dario Liberati, Romà Ogaya, Torben Riis-Nielsen, Andrew R. Smith, Alwyn Sowerby, Albert Tietema, Josep Penuelas

^*Corresponding author for this work

Forest, Nature and Biomass

70 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Human domination of the biosphere includes changes to disturbance regimes, which push many ecosystems towards early-successional states. Ecological theory predicts that early-successional ecosystems are more sensitive to perturbations than mature systems, but little evidence supports this relationship for the perturbation of climate change. Here we show that vegetation (abundance, species richness and species composition) across seven European shrublands is quite resistant to moderate experimental warming and drought, and responsiveness is associated with the dynamic state of the ecosystem, with recently disturbed sites responding to treatments. Furthermore, most of these responses are not rapid (2-5 years) but emerge over a longer term (7-14 years). These results suggest that successional state influences the sensitivity of ecosystems to climate change, and that ecosystems recovering from disturbances may be sensitive to even modest climatic changes. A research bias towards undisturbed ecosystems might thus lead to an underestimation of the impacts of climate change.

Original language	English
Article number	6682
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	6
ISSN	2041-1723
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682
Publication status	Published - 2015

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Kroël-Dulay, G., Ransijn, J., Schmidt, I. K., Beier, C., De Angelis, P., De Dato, G., Dukes, J. S., Emmett, B., Estiarte, M., Garadnai, J., Kongstad, J., Kovács-Láng, E., Larsen, K. S., Liberati, D., Ogaya, R., Riis-Nielsen, T., Smith, A. R., Sowerby, A., Tietema, A., & Penuelas, J. (2015). Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems. Nature Communications, 6, [6682]. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682

Kroël-Dulay, G, Ransijn, J, Schmidt, IK, Beier, C, De Angelis, P, De Dato, G, Dukes, JS, Emmett, B, Estiarte, M, Garadnai, J, Kongstad, J, Kovács-Láng, E, Larsen, KS, Liberati, D, Ogaya, R, Riis-Nielsen, T, Smith, AR, Sowerby, A, Tietema, A & Penuelas, J 2015, 'Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems', Nature Communications, vol. 6, 6682. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682

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abstract = "Human domination of the biosphere includes changes to disturbance regimes, which push many ecosystems towards early-successional states. Ecological theory predicts that early-successional ecosystems are more sensitive to perturbations than mature systems, but little evidence supports this relationship for the perturbation of climate change. Here we show that vegetation (abundance, species richness and species composition) across seven European shrublands is quite resistant to moderate experimental warming and drought, and responsiveness is associated with the dynamic state of the ecosystem, with recently disturbed sites responding to treatments. Furthermore, most of these responses are not rapid (2-5 years) but emerge over a longer term (7-14 years). These results suggest that successional state influences the sensitivity of ecosystems to climate change, and that ecosystems recovering from disturbances may be sensitive to even modest climatic changes. A research bias towards undisturbed ecosystems might thus lead to an underestimation of the impacts of climate change.",

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AU - Kroël-Dulay, György

AU - Ransijn, Johannes

AU - Schmidt, Inger Kappel

AU - Beier, Claus

AU - De Angelis, Paolo

AU - De Dato, Giovanbattista

AU - Dukes, Jeffrey S.

AU - Emmett, Bridget

AU - Estiarte, Marc

AU - Garadnai, János

AU - Kongstad, Jane

AU - Kovács-Láng, Edit

AU - Larsen, Klaus Steenberg

AU - Liberati, Dario

AU - Ogaya, Romà

AU - Riis-Nielsen, Torben

AU - Smith, Andrew R.

AU - Sowerby, Alwyn

AU - Tietema, Albert

AU - Penuelas, Josep

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Human domination of the biosphere includes changes to disturbance regimes, which push many ecosystems towards early-successional states. Ecological theory predicts that early-successional ecosystems are more sensitive to perturbations than mature systems, but little evidence supports this relationship for the perturbation of climate change. Here we show that vegetation (abundance, species richness and species composition) across seven European shrublands is quite resistant to moderate experimental warming and drought, and responsiveness is associated with the dynamic state of the ecosystem, with recently disturbed sites responding to treatments. Furthermore, most of these responses are not rapid (2-5 years) but emerge over a longer term (7-14 years). These results suggest that successional state influences the sensitivity of ecosystems to climate change, and that ecosystems recovering from disturbances may be sensitive to even modest climatic changes. A research bias towards undisturbed ecosystems might thus lead to an underestimation of the impacts of climate change.

AB - Human domination of the biosphere includes changes to disturbance regimes, which push many ecosystems towards early-successional states. Ecological theory predicts that early-successional ecosystems are more sensitive to perturbations than mature systems, but little evidence supports this relationship for the perturbation of climate change. Here we show that vegetation (abundance, species richness and species composition) across seven European shrublands is quite resistant to moderate experimental warming and drought, and responsiveness is associated with the dynamic state of the ecosystem, with recently disturbed sites responding to treatments. Furthermore, most of these responses are not rapid (2-5 years) but emerge over a longer term (7-14 years). These results suggest that successional state influences the sensitivity of ecosystems to climate change, and that ecosystems recovering from disturbances may be sensitive to even modest climatic changes. A research bias towards undisturbed ecosystems might thus lead to an underestimation of the impacts of climate change.

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SN - 2041-1723

VL - 6

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

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Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems

Abstract

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