Thresholds for spring freeze: measuring risk to improve predictions in a warming world.

ABSTRACT: Plant distribution and productivity are shaped by environmental stressors, particularly freezing events in extra-tropical regions. In early spring, a progressive loss of cold hardiness with phenological development leaves emerging tissues vulnerable to freezing events. In many regions, climate warming is advancing phenology to a greater degree than the date of the last spring freeze, increasing the period of vulnerability to spring freezes. Studies describing critical temperatures at which spring freeze damage occurs are numerous and diverse in both the system studied and type of thresholds used (empirical vs model). Here, we review trends in previously reported thresholds for spring freeze damage across a range of plant groups (row crops, fruit trees, and forest species) over the course o

SUBMITTER: Kirchhof E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12445811 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature