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Abstract (from Ecological Society of America): Predicting vegetation responses to increased future drought is challenging, owing to the complex interaction of multiple factors influencing both plant drought resistance and local climatic conditions, each of which may be subject to spatial and temporal heterogeneity. We conducted a detailed study of potential mechanisms underlying an elevational gradient in mortality that has characterized recent population declines of a threatened alpine plant, the Haleakalā silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum). We used a pair of greenhouse experiments staged at high and low elevations to test the influences of plasticity (to contrasting soil water availability...
Urbanization represents an unintentional global experiment that can provide insights into how species will respond and interact under future global change scenarios. Cities produce many conditions that are predicted to occur widely in the future, such as warmer temperatures, higher carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and exacerbated droughts. In using cities as surrogates for global change, it is challenging to disentangle climate variables—such as temperature—from co-occurring or confounding urban variables—such as impervious surface—and then to understand the interactive effects of multiple climate variables on both individual species and species interactions. However, such interactions are also difficult to replicate...
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12791/abstract): Urban green spaces provide ecosystem services to city residents, but their management is hindered by a poor understanding of their ecology. We examined a novel ecosystem service relevant to urban public health and esthetics: the consumption of littered food waste by arthropods. Theory and data from natural systems suggest that the magnitude and resilience of this service should increase with biological diversity. We measured food removal by presenting known quantities of cookies, potato chips, and hot dogs in street medians (24 sites) and parks (21 sites) in New York City, USA. At the same sites, we assessed ground-arthropod diversity...
Because microorganisms are sensitive to temperature, ongoing global warming is predicted to influence microbial community structure and function. We used large-scale warming experiments established at two sites near the northern and southern boundaries of US eastern deciduous forests to explore how microbial communities and their function respond to warming at sites with differing climatic regimes. Soil microbial community structure and function responded to warming at the southern but not the northern site. However, changes in microbial community structure and function at the southern site did not result in changes in cellulose decomposition rates. While most global change models rest on the assumption that taxa...
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.12790/full): Future climate change is expected to increase temperature (T) and atmospheric vapour pressure deficit (VPD) in many regions, but the effect of persistent warming on plant stomatal behaviour is highly uncertain. We investigated the effect of experimental warming of 1.9–5.1 °C and increased VPD of 0.5–1.3 kPa on transpiration and stomatal conductance (gs) of tree seedlings in the temperate forest understory (Duke Forest, North Carolina, USA). We observed peaked responses of transpiration to VPD in all seedlings, and the optimum VPD for transpiration (Dopt) shifted proportionally with increasing chamber VPD. Warming increased mean water use...
Rapid climate change may prompt species distribution shifts upward and poleward, but species movement in itself is not sufficient to establish climate causation. Other dynamics, such as disturbance history, may prompt species distribution shifts resembling those expected from rapid climate change. Links between species distributions, regional climate trends and physiological mechanism are needed to convincingly establish climate-induced species shifts. We examine a 38-year shift (1974–2012) in an elevation ecotone between two closely related ant species, Aphaenogaster picea and A. rudis. Even though A. picea and A. rudis are closely related with North American distributions that sometimes overlap, they also exhibit...
Abstarct (from Oikos): Urban landscapes are characterized by high proportions of impervious surface resulting in higher temperatures than adjacent natural landscapes. In some cities, like those at cooler latitudes, trees may benefit from warmer urban temperatures, but trees in many cities are beset with problems like drought stress and increased herbivory. What drives patterns of urban tree health across urbanization and latitudinal temperature gradients? In natural systems, latitude–herbivory relationships are well‐studied, and recent temperate studies have shown that herbivory generally increases with decreasing latitudes (warmer temperatures). However, the applicability of this latitude–herbivory theory in already‐warmed...
Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Climate change is affecting the benefits society derives from forests. One such forest ecosystem service is maple syrup, which is primarily derived from Acer saccharum(sugar maple), currently an abundant and widespread tree species in eastern North America. Two climate sensitive components of sap affect syrup production: sugar content and sap flow. The sugar in maple sap derives from carbohydrate stores influenced by prior year growing season conditions. Sap flow is tied to freeze/thaw cycles during early spring. Predicting climate effects on syrup production thus requires integrating observations across scales and biological processes. We observed sap at 6 sugar maple stands spanning...
Abstract (from ScienceDirect): Altered climate and changing fire regimes are synergistically impacting forest communities globally, resulting in deviations from historical norms and creation of novel successional dynamics. These changes are particularly important when considering the stability of a keystone species such as quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), which contributes critical ecosystem services across its broad North American range. As a relatively drought intolerant species, projected changes of altered precipitation timing, amount, and type (e.g. snow or rain) may influence aspen response to fire, especially in moisture-limited and winter precipitation-dominated portions of its range. Aspen is...
Fossil fuel and agriculture have increased atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, which have caused global air temperature to increase by almost 1- degree Celsius. In the absence of climate mitigation, over the next century human-driven climate change is expected to increase temperatures from pre-industrial levels by more than 2-degrees. Understanding the consequences of climate change on ecosystems and the services they provide are critical for guiding land management activities that aim to improve resiliency and to prevent species losses. Here we evaluated how sagebrush ecosystems in the Western United States respond to climate change by using multiple climate projections...
Abstract: Field observations and numerical simulations indicate that the 6-to-30-km-wide mangrove forest along the Gulf Coast of South Florida effectively attenuated storm surges from a Category 3 hurricane, Wilma, and protected the inland wetland by reducing an inundation area of 1800 km2 and restricting surge inundation inside the mangrove zone. The surge amplitude decreases at a rate of 40–50 cm/km across the mangrove forest and at a rate of 20 cm/km across the areas with a mixture of mangrove islands with open water. In contrast, the amplitudes of storm surges at the front of the mangrove zone increase by about 10–30% because of the “blockage” of mangroves to surge water, which can cause greater impacts on structures...
The 37 islands of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) are low-lying atolls and islands, making the country extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts. The goal of this research was to provide easilyaccessible decision-making tools for managers, decision-makers and the public to assist in planning for agroforestry in the face of increasing drought and sea level rise (SLR). A team of researchers and climate change adaptation specialists from the RMI and the U.S. was responsible for the effort. Although the RMI is heavily reliant on imported food, local foods are still important in providing nutrients lacking in imported foods and has cultural importance. The role of plants in stabilizing shorelines is increasingly...
Climate change is expected to alter the seasonal and annual patterns of rainfall and temperature in the Hawaiian Islands. Land managers and other responsible agencies will need to know how plant species’ habitats will change over the next hundred years in order to manage these resources effectively. This is a major concern for resource managers at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) where current managed Special Ecological Areas (SEAs) for important plant species and communities may no longer provide suitable habitat in the future as climate changes. Expanding invasive species’ distributions under future climate conditions also may pose a threat to areas where native plants currently predominate. The objective...
This short-term project responded to concerns about the disappearance of culturally important plants in traditional gathering areas expressed by elders of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe (PGST) (Olympic Peninsula, WA), both currently and in response to continuing climate change. A formal Memorandum of Understanding was developed between Oregon State University and the PGST to guide this culturally sensitive research. We recommend this formal approach to researchers considering tribal partnerships in order to ensure expectations of all parties are clearly outlined. During formal interviews and informal conversation, PGST elders mentioned 37 plants, of which eight terrestrial species and a group of marine taxa were...
While the iconic Haleakalā silversword plant made a strong recovery from early 20th-century threats, it has now entered a period of substantial climate-related decline. New research published this week warns that global warming may have severe consequences for the silversword in its native habitat.
Abstract (from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.12919/abstract;jsessionid=64EF530762E939D509B9B308CD377394.f03t04): Anthropogenic climate change has altered temperate forest phenology, but how these trends will play out in the future is controversial. We measured the effect of experimental warming of 0.6–5.0 °C on the phenology of a diverse suite of 11 plant species in the deciduous forest understory (Duke Forest, North Carolina, USA) in a relatively warm year (2011) and a colder year (2013). Our primary goal was to dissect how temperature affects timing of spring budburst, flowering, and autumn leaf coloring for functional groups with different growth habits, phenological niches, and xylem anatomy....
The research field of animal and plant symbioses is advancing from studying interactions between two species to whole communities of associates. High-throughput sequencing of microbial communities supports multiplexed sampling for statistically robust tests of hypotheses about symbiotic associations. We focus on ambrosia beetles, the increasingly damaging insects primarily associated with fungal symbionts, which have also been reported to support bacteria. To analyze the diversity, composition, and specificity of the beetles’ prokaryotic associates, we combine global sampling, insect anatomy, 454 sequencing of bacterial rDNA, and multivariate statistics to analyze prokaryotic communities in ambrosia beetle mycangia,...
Abstract (from Nature Communications): A major challenge in articulating human dimensions of climate change lies in translating global climate forecasts into impact assessments that are intuitive to the public. Climate-analog mapping involves matching the expected future climate at a location (e.g., a person’s city of residence) with current climate of another, potentially familiar, location - thereby providing a more relatable, place-based assessment of climate change. For 540 North American urban areas, we used climate-analog mapping to identify the location that has a contemporary climate most similar to each urban area’s expected 2080’s climate. We show that climate of most urban areas will shift considerably...