Controlled experiments suggest that the seasonal build-up of nitrogen (N) limitation constrains the responses of forest autumn phenology to elevated temperatures. Therefore, rising soil N is expected to increase the delaying effects of elevated temperature on the end of the season, i.e., leaf senescence. However, the interactive effects of temperature, soil N, and aridity on xylem autumn phenology remain unknown. We conducted a wide spatial analysis from 75 conifer sites in the Northern Hemisphere and found that rising soil N increases the delaying effects of elevated temperature on the end of xylem cell wall thickening but reduced the delaying effects on the cessation of cell enlargement, especially in humid regions. The contrasting effects of elevated soil N on cell enlargement versus cell wall thickening could affect xylem cell anatomy, thereby induce changes in wood density, and induce a decoupling of stem size growth from photosynthate production. These analyses extend previous findings on forest autumn phenology by systematically investigating the spatial variation in the interactive effects of temperature and soil N on xylem autumn phenology at the cellular scale.

AGRARIA Department Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria Calabria 89124 Italy

Biotechnical Faculty Department of Wood Science and Technology University of Ljubljana Ljubljana 1000 Slovenia

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

Collaborative Laboratory for Integrated Forest and Fire Management Vila Real 5001 801 Portugal

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

Department of Botany Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck Innsbruck A 6020 Austria

Department of Forest Ecology Landscape Research Institute Brno 602 00 Czechia

Department of Geography Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 55099 Germany

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

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

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

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

Faculty of Agricultural Environmental and Food Sciences Free University of Bozen Bolzano Bolzano 1 39100 Italy

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

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou 510650 China

Institute of Economics and Trade Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk 660075 Russia

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología Zaragoza 50192 Spain

Istituto di Ricerca sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri Sesto Fiorentino I50019 Italy

Izmir Katip Çelebi University Faculty of Forestry Izmir 35620 Turkey

Key Lab 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

Laboratoire sur les écosystèmes terrestres boréaux Département des Sciences Fondamentales Université du Québec à Chicoutimi Chicoutimi QC G7H 2B1 Canada

National Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro environmental Pollution Control and Management Institute of Eco environmental and Soil Sciences Guangdong Academy of Sciences Guangzhou 510650 China

Natural Resources Institute Finland Helsinki 00790 Finland

School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences Nanjing University Nanjing 210093 China

School of Life Sciences Technische Universität München Freising 85354 Germany

Slovenian Forestry Institute Ljubljana 1000 Slovenia

State Key Laboratory for Vegetation Structure Function and Construction Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis and Protection College of Life Sciences Zhejiang University Hangzhou 310058 China

State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System Environment and Resources Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100101 China

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

Université de Lorraine AgroParisTech Nancy F 54000 France

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