Wood formation consumes around 15% of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions per year and plays a critical role in long-term sequestration of carbon on Earth. However, the exogenous factors driving wood formation onset and the underlying cellular mechanisms are still poorly understood and quantified, and this hampers an effective assessment of terrestrial forest productivity and carbon budget under global warming. Here, we used an extensive collection of unique datasets of weekly xylem tissue formation (wood formation) from 21 coniferous species across the Northern Hemisphere (latitudes 23 to 67°N) to present a quantitative demonstration that the onset of wood formation in Northern Hemisphere conifers is primarily driven by photoperiod and mean annual temperature (MAT), and only secondarily by spring forcing, winter chilling, and moisture availability. Photoperiod interacts with MAT and plays the dominant role in regulating the onset of secondary meristem growth, contrary to its as-yet-unquantified role in affecting the springtime phenology of primary meristems. The unique relationships between exogenous factors and wood formation could help to predict how forest ecosystems respond and adapt to climate warming and could provide a better understanding of the feedback occurring between vegetation and climate that is mediated by phenology. Our study quantifies the role of major environmental drivers for incorporation into state-of-the-art Earth system models (ESMs), thereby providing an improved assessment of long-term and high-resolution observations of biogeochemical cycles across terrestrial biomes.

AgroParisTech Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture l'Alimentation et l'Environnement Université de Lorraine Silva F 54000 Nancy France

Biotechnical Faculty University of Ljubljana 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Center of Plant Ecology Core Botanical Gardens Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou 510650 China

Centre for Functional Ecology Department of Life Sciences University of Coimbra 3000 456 Coimbra Portugal

Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Mengla Yunnan 666303 China

Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute Chinese Academy of Sciences Lanzhou 730000 China

DendroLab Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science University of Nevada Reno NV 89557

Dendrosciences Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape CH 8903 Birmensdorf Switzerland

Département des Sciences Fondamentales Université du Québec à Chicoutimi Chicoutimi QC G7H 2B1 Canada

Department of Agricultural Sciences University of Naples Federico 2 1 80055 Portici Napoli Italy

Department of Biology Southwest Anatolia Forest Research Institute 07010 Antalya Turkey

Department of Botany Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck 6020 Innsbruck Austria

Department of Forest and Carbon Resources Institut National de Information Géographique et Forestière 54250 Champigneulles France

Department of Forests Natural Resources Institute Finland 02150 Espoo Finland

Department of Geography and Regional Planning Environmental Science Institute University of Zaragoza 50009 Zaragoza Spain

Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology Charles University CZ 12843 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Sciences University of Alberta Camrose AB T4V 2R3 Canada

Department of Wood Science and Wood Technology Mendel University in Brno 61300 Brno Czech Republic

Dipartimento di Agraria Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria 89122 Reggio Calabria Italy

Dipartimento di Agricoltura Ambiente e Alimenti Università degli Studi del Molise 86100 Campobasso Italy

Forest Research Institute Université du Quebec en Abitibi Témiscamingue Rouyn Noranda QC J9X5E4 Canada

Institute of Botany University of Hohenheim 70593 Stuttgart Germany

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas 50192 Zaragoza Spain

Istituto di Ricerca sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche 50019 Sesto Fiorentino Italy

Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100101 China

Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology Wuhan Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan 430074 China

Key Laboratory of Guangdong for Utilization of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application Guangzhou Institute of Geography Guangzhou 510070 China

Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou 510650 China

Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou 510650 China;

Laboratory for Dendrochronology Slovenian Forestry Institute 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Laboratory of Plant Ecology Department of Plants and Crops Faculty of Bioscience Engineering Ghent University B 9000 Ghent Belgium

State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro bioresources College of Life Sciences South China Agricultural University Guangzhou 510642 China

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