Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems

Kröel-Dulay, György; Ransijn, Johannes; Schmidt, Inger Kappel; Beier, Claus; De Angelis, Paolo; de Dato, Giovanbattista; Dukes, Jeffrey S.; Emmett, Bridget ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2713-4389; Estiarte, Marc; Garadnai, János; Kongstad, Jane; Kovács-Láng, Edit; Larsen, Klaus Steenberg; Liberati, Dario; Ogaya, Romà; Riis-Nielsen, Torben; Smith, Andrew R.; Sowerby, Alwyn; Tietema, Albert; Penuelas, Josep. 2015 Increased sensitivity to climate change in disturbed ecosystems. Nature Communications, 6, 6682. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Emmett
ISSN:	2041-1723
Additional Keywords:	climate science, ecology, earth sciences
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	15 Jun 2015 13:58 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511044

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7682

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Emmett

ISSN:

2041-1723

Additional Keywords:

climate science, ecology, earth sciences

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment