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Abstract:
We review observational, experimental, and model results on how plants respond to extreme climatic conditions
induced by changing climatic variability. Distinguishing between impacts of changing mean climatic conditions and
changing climatic variability on terrestrial ecosystems is generally underrated in current studies. The goals of our
review are thus (1) to identify plant processes that are vulnerable to changes in the variability of climatic variables
rather than to changes in their mean, and (2) to depict/evaluate available study designs to quantify responses of
plants to changing climatic variability. We find that phenology is largely affected by changing mean climate but also
that impacts of climatic variability are much less studied, although potentially damaging. We note that plant water
relations seem to be very vulnerable to extremes driven by changes in temperature and precipitation and that heatwaves
and flooding have stronger impacts on physiological processes than changing mean climate. Moreover, interacting
phenological and physiological processes are likely to further complicate plant responses to changing climatic
variability. Phenological and physiological processes and their interactions culminate in even more sophisticated
responses to changing mean climate and climatic variability at the species and community level. Generally, observational
studies are well suited to study plant responses to changing mean climate, but less suitable to gain a mechanistic
understanding of plant responses to climatic variability. Experiments seem best suited to simulate extreme events.
In models, temporal resolution and model structure are crucial to capture plant responses to changing climatic variability.
We highlight that a combination of experimental, observational, and/or modeling studies have the potential
to overcome important caveats of the respective individual approaches.
