Abstract

Empirical records of plant responses to climate warming increasingly rely on warming experiments which supposedly provide meaningful predictions of future scenarios. However, the accuracy of such predictions may be compromised by warming artifacts. In our study, we integrated two approaches, the use of in-situ open-top chambers (OTCs), as well as transplants along a latitudinal gradient, to study the biological responses of three wetland species to experimental warming over 4-5 years. Under ongoing warming, plant photosynthesis was negatively influenced by the OTCs, coupled with reduced species height and biomass accumulation, while unexpectedly, these trends were not reflected in the transplant experiments. Temperature patterns artificially altered with the use of OTCs included asymmetrical day/night warming and hot extreme events. To understand whether the significant mismatches in results between these two approaches could be attributed to these temperature alterations, we alleviated temperature artifacts by using two identical chamber types differing only in their opening sizes and making comparisons between these chambers. The negative impact of warming associated with the use of OTCs on wetland species was reversed when these temperature artifacts were canceled out, and consistent plant responses to warming were observed for both approaches. We highlight here, beyond the commonly-investigated reductions in soil moisture, that unintended temperature artifacts associated with the use of warming devices are major determinants of the negative responses to warming for wetland plant species.

Highlights

  • Global warming is worsening as a consequence of the increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution (Collins et al, 2013)

  • (2) We demonstrated empirically whether or not OTCinduced temperature artifacts are major factors causing negative responses of wetland plants to experimental warming, with the evidence derived from our combined open-top chambers (OTCs)-warming experiments and transplant experiments along a latitudinal gradient

  • Long-standing discrepancies between small-scale chamber-based manipulations and large-scale transplant experiments have been reconciled to a great extent by considering the side effects of the chambers, with particular attention being paid to chamberinduced temperature artifacts

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Summary

Introduction

Global warming is worsening as a consequence of the increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution (Collins et al, 2013). Field experiments with simulated temperature rises often show divergent responses in plant photosynthesis and the resultant reduced or increased biomass production in an ecological context (León-Sánchez et al, 2016; Wertin et al, 2017; Sáez et al, 2018). Research has highlighted intrinsically biological thermal traits, adaptation capacities, and phenotypic plasticity as determinants for species-specific responses to warming (Cui et al, 2018; Sáez et al, 2018). Productivity in wetter habitats is likely to be enhanced together with increases in temperature, while in contrast, more arid ecosystems are likely to experience declines in productivity (Reeves et al, 2014; Liu et al, 2018), resulting in habitat-specific responses to warming

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