ReviewThe New phytologist2019
The occurrence of red and yellow autumn leaves explained by regional differences in insolation and temperature.
Review in The New phytologist, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Signaling defenses with color: a meta-analysis of leaf color variation, palatability, and herbivore damage.The New phytologist · 2025Pooled it
- Multimodal Plant-Animal Communication: Signaling Mechanisms, Coevolution, and Environmental Disruption.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Integrated Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analyses Reveal the Regulatory Drivers of Anthocyanin-Mediated Leaf Color Variation inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- The Biosynthesis and Functions of Flavonoids: Recent Advances From Studies Across Land Plant Diversity.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2026Review
- Diversity and ecological functions of anthocyanins.BMC plant biology · 2025Review
- The Scarlet Alchemy of Survival: Integrated Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis of Leaf Coloration in EndangeredPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Predicting the Phenology of Herbivorous Insects.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- New Intrinsic Ecological Mechanisms of Leaf Nutrient Resorption in Temperate Deciduous Trees.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Understanding vegetation phenology responses to easily ignored climate factors in china's mid-high latitudes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Environmental Stimuli and Phytohormones in Anthocyanin Biosynthesis: A Comprehensive Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Exposed anthocyanic leaves of Prunus cerasifera are special shade leaves with high resistance to blue light but low resistance to red light against photoinhibition of photosynthesis.Annals of botany · 2023Article
- Red pigments in autumn leaves of Norway maple do not offer significant photoprotection but coincide with stress symptoms.Tree physiology · 2023Article
- Comparison of Antioxidant Properties and Metabolite Profiling ofAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Evolution and function of red pigmentation in land plants.Annals of botany · 2022Review
- The phenomenon of red and yellow autumn leaves: Hypotheses, agreements and disagreements.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Review
- Stress, senescence, and specialized metabolites in bryophytes.Journal of experimental botany · 2022Review
- Understorey light quality affects leaf pigments and leaf phenology in different plant functional types.Physiologia plantarum · 2022Article
- Exposure to strong irradiance exacerbates photoinhibition and suppresses N resorption during leaf senescence in shade-grown seedlings of fullmoon maple (Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- The roles of species' relatedness and climate of origin in determining optical leaf traits over a large set of taxa growing at high elevation and high latitude.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- Anthocyanins in photoprotection: knowing the actors in play to solve this complex ecophysiological issue.The New phytologist · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Red or yellow autumn leaves have long fascinated biologists, but their geographical concentration in trees in Eastern North America (ENA) has defied evolutionary explanations. In this review, anthocyanins and xanthophylls are discussed in relation to their occurrence in different regions of the Northern Hemisphere, phylogenetic distribution and photoprotective function during the breakdown of chlorophylls. Pigments in senescing leaves that intercept incident light and dissipate the absorbed energy extend the time available for nutrient resorption. Experiments with Arabidopsis have revealed greatest anthocyanin photoprotective function at low temperatures and high light intensities, and high-resolution solar irradiation maps reveal that ENA and Asia receive higher irradiation than does Europe. In addition, ENA experiences higher temperature fluctuations in autumn, resulting in cold snaps during leaf senescence. Under common garden conditions, chlorophyll degradation occurs earlier in ENA species than in their European and East Asian relatives. In combination, strong solar irradiation, temperature fluctuations and, on average, 3-wk shorter vegetation periods of ENA species favour investment in pigments to extend the time for nutrient resorption before abscission, explaining the higher frequency of coloured species in ENA compared to Europe. We end by outlining research that could test this new explanation of bright New England autumns.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.