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Filters: Tags: Juniperus osteosperma (X) > partyWithName: James R Ehleringer (X)

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In water-limited environments of the intermountain region of North America, summer precipitation may play a role in the structure and function of aridland communities and ecosystems. This study examined the potential reliance on summer precipitation of two widespread, coexisting woody species in the southwestern United States, Pinus edulis Englmn. (Colorado piñon) and Juniperus osteosperma (Torr) Little (Utah juniper). The current distributions of P. edulis and J. osteosperma are highly suggestive of different dependencies on summer rainfall. We hypothesized that P. edulis was dependent on summer precipitation, utilizing summer precipitation even during extremely dry summers, whereas J. osteosperma was not dependent,...
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In the arid southwest of North America, winter precipitation penetrates to deep soil layers, whereas summer "monsoon" precipitation generally wets only surface layers. Use of these spatially separated water sources was determined for three dominant tree species of the pinyon-juniper ecosystem at six sites along a gradient of increasing summer precipitation in Utah and Arizona. Mean summer precipitation ranged from 79 to 286 mm, or from 18% to 60% of the annual total across the gradient. We predicted that, along this summer rainfall gradient, populations of dominant tree species would exhibit a clinal off-on response for use of water from upper soil layers, responding at particular threshold levels of summer precipitation...
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Anthropogenic climate change is likely to alter the patterns of moisture availability globally. The consequences of these changes on species distributions and ecosystem function are largely unknown, but possibly predictable based on key ecophysiological differences among currently coexisting species. In this study, we examined the environmental and biological controls on transpiration from a piñon–juniper (Pinus edulis–Juniperus osteosperma) woodland in southern Utah, USA. The potential for climate-change-associated shifts in moisture inputs could play a critical role in influencing the relative vulnerabilities of piñons and junipers to drought and affecting management decisions regarding the persistence of this...
    map background search result map search result map Transpiration and Hydraulic Strategies in a Pinyon-Juniper Woodland Intra- and Interspecific Variation for Summer Precipitation Use in Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands Seasonal variations in moisture use in a pinon-juniper woodland. Transpiration and Hydraulic Strategies in a Pinyon-Juniper Woodland Seasonal variations in moisture use in a pinon-juniper woodland. Intra- and Interspecific Variation for Summer Precipitation Use in Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands