BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have disclosed that plant growing season has not extended significantly with global warming slowing down.
Air temperatures data indicates that there was a temporary slowdown in global warming between 1998 and 2012 termed as a global warming hiatus, though its impacts on global phenology remains unclear.
Plant phenology, the timing of periodic biological events in relation to climate fluctuations, has a critical impact on various aspects of ecosystem functions, such as carbon, water and nutrient cycling. Therefore, monitoring phenological processes is important to understanding the impact of global warming on land ecosystems.
The researchers from the institutes and universities of China, the United States and Canada used the latest data to examine the trends in spring and autumn phenology in the northern hemisphere and to assess the effects of the warming hiatus on phenology trends, according to the research paper published in journal Nature Communications.
The lack of widespread phenology trends partly led to the lack of widespread trends in spring and autumn carbon fluxes, the paper said.
The results showed that the phenology change rate slowed during the warming hiatus and there were no widespread advancing or delaying trends in spring or autumn phenology.
The plant growing season has not had a significant extension with the stable condition of the plant phenology.
Air temperature is one of the major factors influencing phenology and global warming advances spring phenology or delays autumn phenology, while the carbon, water, and energy fluxes between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere can be changed by spring and autumn phenology.
The findings can help people better understand the responses of phenology to climate change and the climate-carbon feedback.
