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Abstract: The response of forest growth to climate variability varies along environmental gradients. A growth increase and decrease with warming is usually observed in cold‐humid and warm‐dry regions, respectively. However, it remains poorly known where the sign of these temperature effects switches. Here we introduce a newly developed European tree ring network that has been specifically collected to reconstruct forest aboveground biomass increment (ABI). We quantify, how the long‐term (1910–2009) interannual variability of ABI depends on local mean May–August temperature and test, if a dynamic global vegetation model ensemble reflects the resulting patterns. We find that sites at 8 °C mean May–August temperature increase ABI on average by 5.7 ± 1.3%, whereas sites at 20 °C decrease ABI by 3.0 ± 1.8% m−2 year−1 Δ°C−1. A threshold temperature between beneficial and detrimental effects of warming and the associated increase in water demand on tree growth emerged at 15.9 ± 1.4 °C mean May–August temperature. Because interannual variability increases proportionally with mean growth rate—that is, the coefficient of variation stays constant—we were able to validate these findings with a much larger tree ring data set that had been established following classic dendrochronological sampling schemes. While the observed climate sensitivity pattern is well reflected in the dynamic global vegetation model ensemble, there is a large spread of threshold temperatures between the individual models. Also, individual models disagree strongly on the magnitude of climate impact at the coldest and warmest locations, suggesting where model improvement is most needed to more accurately predict forest growth and effectively guide silvicultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomato flavor from a heat pump dehumidifier dryer was characterized and compared to fresh and freeze-dried tomato samples for the retention of fresh flavor compounds. The monitored quality parameters were nonvolatile, volatile, and odor intensity. There were no differences in nonvolatile profiles; however, significant changes in key odor-impact volatiles were observed. Commercial spray-dried tomato was also evaluated to examine thermally induced volatile changes. The volatile and sensory profiles of heat pump dried tomato were comparable to freeze-dried tomato, with good retention of fresh aroma. In contrast, loss of compounds contributing to fresh green aroma ((E)-2-hexenal, 1-penten-3-one, 1-hexanol) and presence of heat-induced compounds (dimethyl sulfide, furfural, pyrrole derivatives) were detected in the spray-dried tomato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth's carbon and hydrologic cycles are intimately coupled by gas exchange through plant stomata. However, uncertainties in the magnitude and consequences of the physiological responses of plants to elevated CO2 in natural environments hinders modelling of terrestrial water cycling and carbon storage. Here we use annually resolved long-term δ13C tree-ring measurements across a European forest network to reconstruct the physiologically driven response of intercellular CO2 (Ci) caused by atmospheric CO2 (Ca) trends. When removing meteorological signals from the δ13C measurements, we find that trees across Europe regulated gas exchange so that for one ppmv atmospheric CO2 increase, Ci increased by ∼0.76 ppmv, most consistent with moderate control towards a constant Ci/Ca ratio. This response corresponds to twentieth-century intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) increases of 14 ± 10 and 22 ± 6% at broadleaf and coniferous sites, respectively. An ensemble of process-based global vegetation models shows similar CO2 effects on iWUE trends. Yet, when operating these models with climate drivers reintroduced, despite decreased stomatal opening, 5% increases in European forest transpiration are calculated over the twentieth century. This counterintuitive result arises from lengthened growing seasons, enhanced evaporative demand in a warming climate, and increased leaf area, which together oppose effects of CO2-induced stomatal closure. Our study questions changes to the hydrological cycle, such as reductions in transpiration and air humidity, hypothesized to result from plant responses to anthropogenic emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial and oceanic carbon cycle processes remove ~55% of global carbon emissions, with the remaining 45 %, known as the "airborne fraction", accumulating in the atmosphere. The long-term dynamics of the component fluxes contributing to the airborne fraction are challenging to interpret, but important for informing fossil-fuel emission targets and for monitoring the trends of biospheric carbon fluxes. Climate and land-cover forcing data for terrestrial ecosystem models are a largely unexplored source of uncertainty in terms of their contribution to understanding airborne fraction dynamics. Here we present results using a single dynamic global vegetation model forced by an ensemble experiment of climate (CRU, ERA-Interim, NCEP-DOE II), and diagnostic land-cover datasets (GLC2000, GlobCover, MODIS). For the averaging period 1996-2005, forcing uncertainties resulted in a large range of simulated global carbon fluxes, up to 13% for net primary production (52.4 to 60.2 Pg C a-1) and 19% for soil respiration (44.2 to 54.8 Pg C a-1). The sensitivity of contemporary global terrestrial carbon fluxes to climate strongly depends on forcing data (1.2-5.9 Pg C K-1 or 0.5 to 2.7 ppmv CO2 K-1), but weakening carbon sinks in sub-tropical regions and strengthening carbon sinks in northern latitudes are found to be robust. The climate and land-cover combination that best correlate to the inferred carbon sink, and with the lowest residuals, is from observational data (CRU) rather than reanalysis climate data and with land-cover categories that have more stringent criteria for forest cover (MODIS). Since 1998, an increasing positive trend in residual error from bottom-up accounting of global sinks and sources (from 0.03 (1989-2005) to 0.23 Pg C a-1 (1998-2005)) suggests that either modeled drought sensitivity of carbon fluxes is too high, or that carbon emissions from net land-cover change is too large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial and oceanic carbon cycle processes remove ~55% of global carbon emissions, with the remaining 45%, known as the "airborne fraction", accumulating in the atmosphere. The long-term dynamics of the component fluxes contributing to the airborne fraction are challenging to interpret, but important for informing fossil-fuel emission targets and for monitoring the trends of biospheric carbon fluxes. Climate and land-cover forcing data for terrestrial ecosystem models are a largely unexplored source of uncertainty in terms of their contribution to understanding airborne fraction dynamics. Here we present results using a single dynamic global vegetation model forced by an ensemble experiment of climate (CRU, ERA-Interim, NCEP-DOE II), and diagnostic land-cover datasets (GLC2000, GlobCover, MODIS). Forcing uncertainties resulted in a large range of simulated global carbon fluxes, up to 13% for net primary production (52.4 to 60.2 Pg C a-1) and 19% for soil respiration (44.2 to 54.8Pg C a-1). The sensitivity of contemporary global terrestrial carbon fluxes to climate strongly depends on forcing data (1.2-5.9 Pg C K-1 or 0.5 to 2.7 ppmv CO2 K-1), but weakening carbon sinks in sub-tropical regions and strengthening carbon sinks in northern latitudes are found to be robust. The climate and land-cover combination that best correlate to the inferred carbon sink, and with the lowest residuals, is from observational data (CRU) rather than reanalysis climate data and with land-cover categories that have more stringent criteria for forest cover (MODIS). Since 1998, an increasing positive trend in residual error from bottom-up accounting of global sinks and sources (from 0.03 (1989-2005) to 0.23Pg C a-1 (1998-2005)) suggests that either modeled drought sensitivity of carbon fluxes is too high, or that the trend toward decreased net land-use fluxes (~0.5 Pg C) is overestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]