Kobayashi Makoto, Takuya Kajimoto, Lina Koyama, Gaku Kudo, Hideaki Shibata, Yosuke Yanai, J. H. C. Cornelissen

Ecological Research

Published date December 31, 2013

Winter climate change in plant–soil systems: summary of recent findings and future perspectives

  • Summarizes recent findings related to the effects of winter climate and its changes on soil nitrogen (N) dynamics, greenhouse gas (N2O) emissions from the soil, N use by individual plants, vegetation development, and interactions between vegetation and pollinators to generate an integrative understanding of the response of the plant–soil system to winter climate change
  • Review indicates that the net effects on plants, soil microbes, pollinators, and the associated biogeochemical cycles are balanced among several processes and are highly variable depending on the context, such as the target species/functional group, original winter condition of the habitat, and type of climate change
  • Finds the consequences of winter climate change for species interactions among plants, associated animals, and biogeochemical cycles are largely unknown