Plant Responses to Temperature and Water Limitation
Science Center Objects
Weather and climate impacts on dominant native perennials must be understood in order to efficiently manage our western landscapes. We use an ecophysiological approach, linking to population, community, and landscape ecology, to understand the impacts and responses of plants on or to their environment.
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Date published: November 16, 2017Status: ActivePlant-Soil-Environment Laboratory (FRESC)
We produce basic and applied science needed to manage landscapes in ways that make them resistant and resilient to stressors such as wildfire, exotic plant invasions, drought, and temperature extremes. These stressors impact ecosystem productivity and functioning and pose costly risks to human health and safety in the western United States. We team with other state and federal agencies to find...
Contacts: Matthew J Germino
Snowmelt timing regulates community composition, phenology, and physiological performance of alpine plants
The spatial patterning of alpine plant communities is strongly influenced by the variation in physical factors such as temperature and moisture, which are strongly affected by snow depth and snowmelt patterns. Earlier snowmelt timing and greater soil-moisture limitations may favor wide-ranging species adapted to a broader set of ecohydrological...
Winkler, Daniel E.; Butz, Ramona J.; Germino, Matthew J.; Reinhardt, Keith; Kueppers, Lara M. Seed origin and warming constrain lodgepole pine recruitment, slowing the pace of population range shifts
Understanding how climate warming will affect the demographic rates of different ecotypes is critical to predicting shifts in species distributions. Here we present results from a common garden, climate change experiment in which we measured seedling recruitment of lodgepole pine, a widespread North American conifer that is also planted globally....
Conlisk, Erin; Castanha, Cristina; Germino, Matthew J.; Veblen, Thomas T.; Smith, Jeremy M.; Moyes, Andrew B.; Kueppers, Lara M. Growth strategies and threshold responses to water deficit modulate effects of warming on tree seedlings from forest to alpine
1.Predictions of upslope range shifts for tree species with warming are based on assumptions of moisture stress at lower elevation limits and low temperature stress at high elevation limits. However, recent studies have shown that warming can reduce tree seedling establishment across the entire gradient from subalpine forest to alpine via moisture...
Lazarus, Brynne E.; Castanha, Cristina; Germino, Matthew J.; Kueppers, Lara M.; Moyes, Andrew B. A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality
Widespread tree mortality associated with drought has been observed on all forested continents and global change is expected to exacerbate vegetation vulnerability. Forest mortality has implications for future biosphere–atmosphere interactions of carbon, water and energy balance, and is poorly represented in dynamic vegetation models. Reducing...
Adams, Henry D.; Zeppel, Melanie; Anderegg, William R.L.; Hartmann, Henrik; Landhäusser, Simon M.; Tissue, David T.; Huxman, Travis E.; Hudson, Patrick J.; Franz, Trenton E.; Allen, Craig D.; Anderegg, Leander D. L.; Barron-Gafford, Greg A.; Beerling, David; Breshears, David D.; Brodribb, Timothy J.; Bugmann, Harald; Cobb, Richard C.; Collins, Adam D.; Dickman, L. Turin; Duan, Honglang; Ewers, Brent E.; Galiano, Lucia; Galvez, David A.; Garcia-Forner, Núria; Gaylord, Monica L.; Germino, Matthew J.; Gessler, Arthur; Hacke, Uwe G.; Hakamada, Rodrigo; Hector, Andy; Jenkins, Michael W.; Kane, Jeffrey M.; Kolb, Thomas E.; Law, Darin J.; Lewis, James D.; Limousin, Jean-Marc; Love, David; Macalady, Alison K.; Martinez-Vilalta, Jordi; Mencuccini, Maurizio; Mitchell, Patrick J.; Muss, Jordan D.; O'Brien, Michael J.; O'Grady, Anthony P.; Pangle, Robert E.; Pinkard, Elizabeth A.; Piper, Frida I.; Plaut, Jennifer; Pockman, William T.; Quirk, Joe; Reinhardt, Keith; Ripullone, Francesco; Ryan, Michael G.; Sala, Anna; Sevanto, Sanna; Sperry, John S.; Vargas, Rodrigo; Vennetier, Michel; Way, Danielle A.; Wu, Chonggang; Yepez, Enrico A.; McDowell, Nate G. Enhanced precipitation promotes decomposition and soil C stabilization in semiarid ecosystems, but seasonal timing of wetting matters
AimsChanging precipitation regimes in semiarid ecosystems will affect the balance of soil carbon (C) input and release, but the net effect on soil C storage is unclear. We asked how changes in the amount and timing of precipitation affect litter decomposition, and soil C stabilization in semiarid ecosystems.MethodsThe study took place at a long-...
Campos, Xochi; Germino, Matthew J.; de Graaff, Marie-Anne Declines in low-elevation subalpine tree populations outpace growth in high-elevation populations with warming
Species distribution shifts in response to climate change require that recruitment increase beyond current range boundaries. For trees with long life spans, the importance of climate-sensitive seedling establishment to the pace of range shifts has not been demonstrated quantitatively.Using spatially explicit, stochastic population models combined...
Conlisk, Erin; Castanha, Cristina; Germino, Matthew J.; Veblen, Thomas T; Smith, Jeremy M.; Kueppers, Lara M. Climate drives adaptive genetic responses associated with survival in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)
A genecological approach was used to explore genetic variation for survival in Artemisia tridentata(big sagebrush). Artemisia tridentata is a widespread and foundational shrub species in western North America. This species has become extremely fragmented, to the detriment of dependent wildlife, and efforts to restore it are now a...
Chaney, Lindsay; Richardson, Bryce A.; Germino, Matthew J. Effects of experimentally reduced snowpack and passive warming on montane meadow plant phenology and floral resources
Climate change can have a broad range of effects on ecosystems and organisms, and early responses may include shifts in vegetation phenology and productivity that may not coincide with the energetics and forage timing of higher trophic levels. We evaluated phenology, annual height growth, and foliar frost responses of forbs to a factorial...
Sherwood, J.A.; Debinski, D.M.; Caragea, P.C.; Germino, Matthew J. Response of aboveground carbon balance to long-term, experimental enhancements in precipitation seasonality is contingent on plant community type in cold-desert rangelands
Semi-arid rangelands are important carbon (C) pools at global scales. However, the degree of net C storage or release in water-limited systems is a function of precipitation amount and timing, as well as plant community composition. In northern latitudes of western North America, C storage in cold-desert ecosystems could increase with boosts in...
McAbee, Kathryn; Reinhardt, Keith; Germino, Matthew J.; Bosworth, Andrew Warming and provenance limit tree recruitment across and beyond the elevation range of subalpine forest
Climate niche models project that subalpine forest ranges will extend upslope with climate warming. These projections assume that the climate suitable for adult trees will be adequate for forest regeneration, ignoring climate requirements for seedling recruitment, a potential demographic bottleneck. Moreover, local genetic adaptation is expected...
Kueppers, Lara M.; Conlisk, Erin; Castanha, Cristina; Moyes, Andrew B.; Germino, Matthew J.; de Valpine, Perry; Torn, Margaret S.; Mitton, Jeffry B. Climate adaption and post-fire restoration of a foundational perennial in cold desert: Insights from intraspecific variation in response to weather
1.The loss of foundational but fire-intolerant perennials such as sagebrush due to increases in fire size and frequency in semiarid regions has motivated efforts to restore them, often with mixed or even no success. Seeds of sagebrush Artemisia tridentata and related species must be moved considerable distances from seed source to...
Brabec, Martha M.; Germino, Matthew J.; Richardson, Bryce A. Online induction heating for determination of isotope composition of woody stem water with laser spectrometry: A methods assessment
Application of stable isotopes of water to studies of plant–soil interactions often requires a substantial preparatory step of extracting water from samples without fractionating isotopes. Online heating is an emerging approach for this need, but is relatively untested and major questions of how to best deliver standards and assess...
Lazarus, Brynne E.; Germino, Matthew J.; Vander Veen, Jessica L.-
Date published: August 10, 2018Alpine Plant Community Composition, Phenology, and Physiology in Relation to Snow Melt Timing
Earlier snowmelt affects many ecosystems worldwide, especially in montane settings. USGS and other federal and university scientists determined how alpine plant species respond to snow melt gradients in a high-alpine area of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
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Date published: June 18, 2018Impacts of Altered Precipitation on a Desert Shrub Depends on Timing
Semi-arid shrub steppe occupies a vast geographic range with distinct seasonal patterns in precipitation.