TY - JOUR T1 - Acclimation of phenology relieves leaf longevity constraints in deciduous forests JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2022.01.17.476561 SP - 2022.01.17.476561 AU - Laura Marqués AU - Koen Hufkens AU - Christof Bigler AU - Thomas W. Crowther AU - Constantin M. Zohner AU - Benjamin D. Stocker Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/20/2022.01.17.476561.abstract N2 - Leaf phenology is key for regulating total growing season mass and energy fluxes. Long-term temporal trends towards earlier leaf unfolding are observed across Northern Hemisphere forests. Phenological dates also vary between years, whereby end-of-season (EOS) dates correlate positively with start-of-season (SOS) dates and negatively with growing season total net CO2 assimilation (Anet). These associations have been interpreted as the effect of a constrained leaf longevity or of premature carbon (C) sink saturation - with far-reaching consequences for long-term phenology projections under climate change and rising CO2. Here, we use multi-decadal ground and remote-sensing observations to show that the relationships between Anet and EOS are opposite at the interannual and the decadal time scales. A decadal trend towards later EOS persists in parallel with a trend towards increasing Anet - in spite of the negative Anet-EOS relationship at the interannual scale. This indicates that acclimation of phenology has enabled plants to transcend a constrained leaf longevity or premature C sink saturation over the course of several decades, leading to a more effective use of available light and a sustained extension of the vegetation CO2 uptake season over time.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -