Climate Warming Alters Nutrient Storage in Seasonally Dry Forests: Insights From a 2,300 m Elevation Gradient

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding potential response of forest carbon (C) and nutrient storage to warming is important for climate mitigation policies. Unfortunately, those responses are difficult to predict in seasonally dry forests, in part, because ecosystem processes are highly sensitive to both changes in temperature and precipitation. We investigated how warming might alter stocks of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) in vegetation and the entire regolith (soil + weathered bedrock or “saprock”) using a space‐for‐time substitution along a bioclimatic gradient in the Sierra Nevada, California. The pine‐oak and mixed‐conifer forests between 1,160–2,015 m elevation have more optimal climates (not too dry or hot) for ecosystem productivity, soil weathering, and cycling of essential elements than the oak savannah (405 m) and subalpine forest (2,700 m). We found decreases in overstory vegetation nutrient stocks with decreasing elevation because of enhanced water limitation and greater occurrence of disturbances. Stocks of C, N, and P in the entire regolith peaked at the pine‐oak and mixed‐conifer forests across the bioclimatic gradient, driven by thicker regolith profiles and greater nutrient input rates. These observations suggest long‐term warming will decrease ecosystem nutrient storage at the warmer, transitional pine‐oak zone, but will increase nutrient storage at the colder, subalpine zone. Assuming steady‐state conditions, we found the mean residence time of ecosystem C decreased with projected rising air temperatures and increased following a major drought event across the bioclimatic gradient. Our study emphasizes potentially elevation‐dependent changes in nutrient storage and C persistence with warming in seasonally dry forests.