Thermal acclimation of plant respiration is highly relevant to climate projections; when included in models, it reduces the future rate of atmospheric CO2 rise. Although all living plant tissues respire, few studies have examined differences in acclimation among tissues, and leaf responses have received greater attention than stems and roots. Here, we examine the short-term temperature acclimation of leaf, stem and root respiration within individuals of eight disparate species acclimated to five temperatures, ranging from 15 to 35 degrees C. To assess acclimation, we measured instantaneous tissue temperature response curves (14-50 degrees C) on each individual following a 7-day acclimation period. In leaves and photosynthetic stems, the acclimation temperature had little effect on the instantaneous tissue temperature response of respiration, indicating little to no thermal acclimation in these tissues. However, respiration did acclimate in non-photosynthetic tissues; respiratory rates measured at the acclimation temperature were similar across the different acclimation temperatures. Respiratory demand of photosynthetic tissue increased with acclimation temperature as a result of increased photosynthetic demands, resulting in rates measured at the acclimation temperature that increased with increasing acclimation temperature. In non-photosynthetic tissue, the homeostatic response of respiration suggests that acclimation temperature had little influence on respiratory demand. Our results indicate that respiratory temperature acclimation differs by tissue type and that this difference is the consequence of the coupling between photosynthesis and respiration in photosynthetic, but not non-photosynthetic tissue. These insights provide an avenue for improving the representation of respiratory temperature acclimation in large-scale models.

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration should stimulate biomass production directly via biochemical stimulation of carbon assimilation, and indirectly via water savings caused by increased plant water-use efficiency. Because of these water savings, the CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) should be stronger at drier sites, yet large differences among experiments in grassland biomass response to elevated CO2 appear to be unrelated to annual precipitation, preventing useful generalizations. Here, we show that, as predicted, the impact of elevated CO2 on biomass production in 19 globally distributed temperate grassland experiments reduces as mean precipitation in seasons other than spring increases, but that it rises unexpectedly as mean spring precipitation increases. Moreover, because sites with high spring precipitation also tend to have high precipitation at other times, these effects of spring and non-spring precipitation on the CO2 response offset each other, constraining the response of ecosystem productivity to rising CO2. This explains why previous analyses were unable to discern a reliable trend between site dryness and the CFE. Thus, the CFE in temperate grasslands worldwide will be constrained by their natural rainfall seasonality such that the stimulation of biomass by rising CO2 could be substantially less than anticipated.

Reductions in the diurnal temperature range (DTR), for example, greater increases in daily minimum than maximum temperatures, have occurred for several decades and are projected to continue over this century, which could affect terrestrial carbon (C) cycling. Carbon-use efficiency of plants (CUEp) and ecosystems (CUEe) represents the capacity of plants to capture C and ecosystems to store C fixed from the atmosphere, respectively. Few studies have examined how grassland CUE responds to asymmetric warming.

Past research has shown that plants possess the capacity to alter their instantaneous response of photosynthesis to temperature in response to a longer-term change in temperature (i.e. acclimate). This acclimation is typically the result of processes that influence net photosynthesis (A(net)), including leaf biochemical processes such as the maximum rate of Rubisco carboxylation (V-cmax) and the maximum rate of photosynthetic electron transport (J(max)), stomatal conductance (g(s)) and dark respiration (R-d). However, these processes are rarely examined in the field or in concert with other environmental factors, such as precipitation amount. Here, we use a fully factorial warming (active heating up to +4 degrees C; mean = +3.1 degrees C) by precipitation (-50 % ambient to 150 % ambient) manipulation experiment in an old-field ecosystem in the north-eastern USA to examine the degree to which Ulmus americana saplings acclimate through biochemical and stomatal adjustments. We found that rates of A net at ambient CO2 levels of 400 mu mol mol(-1) (A 400) did not differ across climate treatments or with leaf temperatures from 20 to 30 degrees C. Canopy temperatures rarely reached above 30 degrees C in any treatment, suggesting that seasonal carbon assimilation was relatively homeostatic across all treatments. Assessments of the component processes of A 400 revealed that decreases in g s with leaf temperature from 20 to 30 degrees C were balanced by increases in V-cmax, resulting in stable A 400 rates despite concurrent increases in R-d. Photosynthesis was not affected by precipitation treatments, likely because the relatively dry year led to small treatment effects on soil moisture. As temperature acclimation is likely to come at a cost to the plant via resource reallocation, it may not benefit plants to acclimate to warming in cases where warming would not otherwise reduce assimilation. These results suggest that photosynthetic temperature acclimation to future warming will be context-specific and that it is important to consider assimilatory benefit when assessing acclimation responses.

The Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) is a collaborative effort to provide professionals, decision makers, and the public with information about how climate change affects state and local interests throughout Indiana, USA. This assessment effort has three interrelated goals: (1) analyze and document the best available climate change impacts research, (2) develop and maintain a network of stakeholders and experts, and (3) start a dialog about climate change throughout Indiana. The project adopted a process that prioritized stakeholder engagement, re-envisioned traditional dissemination approaches, and that had limited state government involvement, setting the IN CCIA apart from most other state climate assessments (SCAs) in the USA. This overview describes the motivations, principles, and processes that guided the IN CCIA development, explores how Indiana's approach compares with those of other SCAs, and briefly summarizes the papers presented in this special issue. As interest in SCAs grows in non-coastal and politically conservative locations, the IN CCIA serves as one example of how a bottom-up assessment with limited funding can deliver credible climate science to diverse stakeholder groups in the absence of state-level mandates or direction and attract public attention over an extended period of time.

As Earth's climate rapidly changes, species range shifts are considered key to species persistence. However, some range-shifting species will alter community structure and ecosystem processes. By adapting existing invasion risk assessment frameworks, we can identify characteristics shared with high-impact introductions and thus predict potential impacts. There are fundamental differences between introduced and range-shifting species, primarily shared evolutionary histories between range shifters and their new community. Nevertheless, impacts can occur via analogous mechanisms, such as wide dispersal, community disturbance and low biotic resistance. As ranges shift in response to climate change, we have an opportunity to develop plans to facilitate advantageous movements and limit those that are problematic.

While all sectors of the economy can be impacted by climate variability and change, the agricultural sector is arguably the most tightly coupled to climate where changes in precipitation and temperature directly control plant growth and yield, as well as livestock production. This paper analyzes the direct and cascading effects of temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide (CO2) on agronomic and horticultural crops, and livestock production in Indiana through 2100. Due to increased frequency of drought and heat stress, models predict that the yield of contemporary corn and soybean varieties will decline by 8-21% relative to yield potential, without considering CO2 enhancement, which may offset soybean losses. These losses could be partially compensated by adaptation measures such as changes in cropping systems, planting date, crop genetics, soil health, and providing additional water through supplemental irrigation or drainage management. Changes in winter conditions will pose a threat to some perennial crops, including tree and fruit crops, while shifts in the USDA Hardiness Zone will expand the area suitable for some fruits. Heat stress poses a major challenge to livestock production, with decreased feed intake expected with temperatures exceeding 29 degrees C over 100 days per year by the end of the century. Overall, continued production of commodity crops, horticultural crops, and livestock in Indiana is expected to continue with adaptations in management practice, cultivar or species composition, or crop rotation.

In the face of ongoing and projected climatic changes, precipitation manipulation experiments (PMEs) have produced a wealth of data about the effects of precipitation changes on soils. In response, researchers have undertaken a number of synthetic efforts. Several meta-analyses have been conducted, each revealing new aspects of soil responses to precipitation changes. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of the findings of 16 meta-analyses focused on the effects of precipitation changes on 42 soil response variables, covering a wide range of soil processes. We examine responses of individual variables as well as more integrative responses of carbon and nitrogen cycles. We find strong agreement among meta-analyses that belowground carbon and nitrogen cycling accelerate under increased precipitation and slow under decreased precipitation, while bacterial and fungal communities are relatively resistant to decreased precipitation. Much attention has been paid to fluxes and pools in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles, such as gas emissions, soil carbon, soil phosphorus, extractable nitrogen ions, and biomass. The rates of processes underlying these variables (e.g., mineralization, fixation, and (de)nitrification) are less frequently covered in meta-analytic studies, with the major exception of respiration rates. Shifting scientific attention to these less broadly evaluated processes would deepen the current understanding of the effects of precipitation changes on soil and provide new insights. By jointly evaluating meta- analyses focused on a wide range of variables, we provide here a holistic view of soil responses to changes in precipitation.

Tropical vegetation influences local, regional, and global climates, largely through its relationship with the atmosphere, including seasonal patterns of photosynthesis and transpiration. Removal and replacement of natural vegetation can alter both of these processes. In the Amazon, land use/land cover change (LULCC; e.g. deforestation) started decades ago and is expected to continue, with potentially strong effects on climate. However, long-term data on tropical photosynthetic activity and transpiration are scarce, limiting our ability to estimate large-scale effects of LULCC. Here, we use remote sensing data to analyze the impact of LULCC on seasonal patterns of photosynthetic activity and transpiration in the southern Amazon. This region, naturally dominated by forest and Cerrado, has seen high rates of LULCC. Within each of these two ecosystems, we compare estimates of photosynthetic activity (from GOME-2 and GOSIF solar induced fluorescence, SIF) and transpiration (from the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model, GLEAM) in paired sites with high and low rates of LULCC. In forest-dominated regions, deforestation has reduced photosynthetic activity and transpiration, particularly during the dry season, and replaced dry season greening with dry season browning. The SIF datasets disagree on wet season responses; SIF increases with deforestation according to GOME-2, but decreases according to GOSIF. In Cerrado-dominated areas, LULCC has increased photosynthetic activity during the wet season. In both ecosystems, LULCC has resulted in a higher seasonal or annual range of photosynthetic activity levels. The observed effects are often stronger in regions with more extensive LULCC. We found large differences between the two SIF products in both forest- and Cerrado-dominated pixels, with GOME-2 consistently providing higher maximum SIF values. These discrepancies merit further consideration. This analysis broadly characterizes the effects of LULCC on photosynthetic activity and transpiration in this region, and can be used to validate model representations of these effects.

Ongoing climate change is increasing rainfall variability in many parts of the world; in particular, the heaviest rainfall events are becoming heavier. In terrestrial ecosystems, nitrogen deposition is increasing as a result of emissions from fossil fuel burning and volatilization of nitrogen-based fertilizers. These changes in the timing and rate of resource inputs can impact plant communities by altering competitive dynamics, succession, and community composition. In many systems, these are occurring alongside successional dynamics, making it difficult to tease apart mechanisms. Here, we resampled a nitrogen by rainfall variability manipulation experiment in a restored tallgrass prairie to examine the relative role of background community dynamics and treatment effects on plant diversity. During the treatment period, nitrogen addition and increased rainfall variability reduced diversity. Here, four and five years after the treatments were halted, we found similarly low levels of diversity across all treatments-an effect driven by dominance of a tall, fast-growing, clonal forb, Solidago canadensis. The convergence of plots toward a low diversity state suggests that all experimental communities were gradually becoming dominated by S. canadensis, including in the absence of rainfall or nitrogen treatments. In contrast to short-term findings from the same experiment, we conclude that our treatments accelerated succession toward a tall, clonal forb-dominated community along an existing sere, but did not fundamentally alter longer-term community composition-a result that was only apparent several years after the conclusion of the experiment. These findings reinforce the need to interpret the results from short-term experimental manipulations within the context of long-term successional change.