Boreal conifers maintain carbon uptake with warming despite failure to track optimal temperatures

Mirindi Eric Dusenge; Jeffrey M. Warren; Peter B. Reich; Eric J. Ward; Bridget K. Murphy; Artur Stefanski; Raimundo Bermudez; Marisol Cruz; David A. McLennan; Anthony W. King; Rebecca A. Montgomery; Paul J. Hanson; Danielle A. Way

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40248-3

Boreal conifers maintain carbon uptake with warming despite failure to track optimal temperatures

Mirindi Eric Dusenge, Jeffrey M. Warren, Peter B. Reich, Eric J. Ward, Bridget K. Murphy, Artur Stefanski, Raimundo Bermudez, Marisol Cruz, David A. McLennan, Anthony W. King, Rebecca A. Montgomery, Paul J. Hanson, Danielle A. Way

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Warming shifts the thermal optimum of net photosynthesis (T _optA) to higher temperatures. However, our knowledge of this shift is mainly derived from seedlings grown in greenhouses under ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) conditions. It is unclear whether shifts in T _optA of field-grown trees will keep pace with the temperatures predicted for the 21^st century under elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Here, using a whole-ecosystem warming controlled experiment under either ambient or elevated CO₂ levels, we show that T _optA of mature boreal conifers increased with warming. However, shifts in T _optA did not keep pace with warming as T _optA only increased by 0.26–0.35 °C per 1 °C of warming. Net photosynthetic rates estimated at the mean growth temperature increased with warming in elevated CO₂ spruce, while remaining constant in ambient CO₂ spruce and in both ambient CO₂ and elevated CO₂ tamarack with warming. Although shifts in T _optA of these two species are insufficient to keep pace with warming, these boreal conifers can thermally acclimate photosynthesis to maintain carbon uptake in future air temperatures.

Original language	English
Article number	4667
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	14
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40248-3
State	Published - Dec 2023

Funding

Research was sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research Program in the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy managed by UT- Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DEAC05-00OR22725. M.E.D., J.M.W., E.J.W., D.A.M., A.W.K. and P.J.H. were supported under this contract. E.J.W. also acknowledges support from USGS Climate Research and Development Program. P.B.R., A.S., R.B., and R.A.M acknowledge funding support by the U.S. NSF Biological Integration Institutes grant DBI-2021898. D.A.W. acknowledges funding from the NSERC Discovery and Strategic programs (RGPIN/04677-2019 and STPGP/521445-2018), the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University, and the U.S. Department of Energy contract No. DE-SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).The DOI link for the dataset used in this paper can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.25581/spruce.056/1455138 and https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22645030 . Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Research was sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research Program in the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy managed by UT- Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DEAC05-00OR22725. M.E.D., J.M.W., E.J.W., D.A.M., A.W.K. and P.J.H. were supported under this contract. E.J.W. also acknowledges support from USGS Climate Research and Development Program. P.B.R., A.S., R.B., and R.A.M acknowledge funding support by the U.S. NSF Biological Integration Institutes grant DBI-2021898. D.A.W. acknowledges funding from the NSERC Discovery and Strategic programs (RGPIN/04677-2019 and STPGP/521445-2018), the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University, and the U.S. Department of Energy contract No. DE-SC0012704 to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).The DOI link for the dataset used in this paper can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.25581/spruce.056/1455138 and https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22645030. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Funders	Funder number
DOE Public Access Plan
U.S. Government
National Science Foundation	DBI-2021898
U.S. Department of Energy	DEAC05-00OR22725
U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Science
Biological and Environmental Research
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	DE-AC05-00OR22725, DE-SC0012704, RGPIN/04677-2019, STPGP/521445-2018

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10.1038/s41467-023-40248-3

Cite this

Dusenge, M. E., Warren, J. M., Reich, P. B., Ward, E. J., Murphy, B. K., Stefanski, A., Bermudez, R., Cruz, M., McLennan, D. A., King, A. W., Montgomery, R. A., Hanson, P. J., & Way, D. A. (2023). Boreal conifers maintain carbon uptake with warming despite failure to track optimal temperatures. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 4667. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40248-3

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title = "Boreal conifers maintain carbon uptake with warming despite failure to track optimal temperatures",

abstract = "Warming shifts the thermal optimum of net photosynthesis (T optA) to higher temperatures. However, our knowledge of this shift is mainly derived from seedlings grown in greenhouses under ambient atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) conditions. It is unclear whether shifts in T optA of field-grown trees will keep pace with the temperatures predicted for the 21st century under elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Here, using a whole-ecosystem warming controlled experiment under either ambient or elevated CO2 levels, we show that T optA of mature boreal conifers increased with warming. However, shifts in T optA did not keep pace with warming as T optA only increased by 0.26–0.35 °C per 1 °C of warming. Net photosynthetic rates estimated at the mean growth temperature increased with warming in elevated CO2 spruce, while remaining constant in ambient CO2 spruce and in both ambient CO2 and elevated CO2 tamarack with warming. Although shifts in T optA of these two species are insufficient to keep pace with warming, these boreal conifers can thermally acclimate photosynthesis to maintain carbon uptake in future air temperatures.",

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Boreal conifers maintain carbon uptake with warming despite failure to track optimal temperatures

Abstract

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