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 GerminoAttribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
Colonisation of the alpine tundra by trees: Alpine neighbours assist late-seral but not early-seral conifer seedlings
BackgroundClimate change is projected to alter the elevation and latitude of treeline globally. Seed germination and seedling survival are critical controls on treeline expansion. Neighbouring alpine plants, either through competition for resources or through altered microclimate, also affect seedlings emerging in the alpine zone. With warming,...
Jabis, Meredith D.; Germino, Matthew; Kueppers, Lara M. Freezing resistance, safety margins, and survival vary among big sagebrush populations across the western United States
PremisePhysiological responses to temperature extremes are considered strong drivers of species’ demographic responses to climate variability. Plants are typically classified as either avoiders or tolerators in their freezing‐resistance mechanism, but a gradient of physiological‐threshold freezing responses may exist among individuals of a...
Lazarus, Brynne; Germino, Matthew J.; Richardson, Bryce A. Corrigendum to “A comprehensive analysis of interseasonal and interannual energy and water balance dynamics in semiarid shrubland and forest ecosystems” [Sci. Total Environ. 651 (2019) 381–398]
The authors regret the omission of an author, funding sources, and key support staff. The omitted author and their affiliation is: Matthew J Germino US Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise ID 83706. The correct citation should be: Valayamkunnath, P., Sridhar, V., Zhao, W. Allen, R.G., and Germino, M.J., 2019...
Valayamkunnath, Prasanth; Sridhar, Venkataramana; Zhao, Wenguang; Allen, Richard G; Germino, Matthew J. Vegetation and precipitation shifts interact to alter organic and inorganic carbon storage in cold desert soils
Dryland ecosystems are experiencing shifts in rainfall and plant community composition, which are expected to alter cycling and storage of soil carbon (C). Few experiments have been conducted to examine long‐term effects on (1) soil organic C (SOC) pools throughout the soil profile, and (2) soil inorganic C (SIC) pools as they relate to dynamic...
Huber, David P.; Lohse, Kathleen A.; Commendador, Amy; Joy, Stephen; Aho, Ken A.; Finney, Bruce P.; Germino, Matthew J. Adaptive variation, including local adaptation, requires decades to become evident in common gardens
Population‐level adaptation to spatial variation in factors such as climate and soils is critical for climate‐vulnerability assessments, restoration seeding, and other ecological applications in species management, and the underlying information is typically based on common‐garden studies that are short duration. Here, we show >20 yr were...
Germino, Matthew J.; Moer, Ann M.; Sands, Alan R. Changes in structure and physiological functioning due to experimentally enhanced precipitation seasonality in a widespread shrub species
Semi-arid shrub steppe occupies a vast geographic range that is characterized in part by distinct seasonal patterns in precipitation. Few studies have evaluated how variability in both the amount and timing of precipitation affect the structure and physiology of shrubs in these systems. We quantified changes in foliar crown parameters, xylem...
Reinhardt, Keith; McAbee, Kathryn; Germino, Matthew 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.-
Date published: October 20, 2020Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index for western United States, 2001-2014, derived from gridMET climate estimates
These data are 30m by 30 m grids of the mean Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) between 2001-2014 in the western United States. The SPEI index was developed by Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano and coauthors (https://spei.csic.es/index.html). Source evapotranspiration and precipitation data were generated by gridMET (...
Attribution: Climate Adaptation Science Centers -
Date published: July 24, 2020
Early Establishment Patterns of 'Local' Wyoming Big Sagebrush Population in Common Gardens Along Elevational Gradient in Owyhee Mountains, Idaho
This dataset contains information on the survival of sagebrush seedlings originating from seed collected from 3 'local' populations over 2+ years. Datasets presented consist of individual seedling survival, growth and reproduction data as well as population level results as they relate to the differences in modeled and calculated climate variables and the differences between the climatic
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center -
Date published: February 25, 2020
Ecological Drought for Sagebrush Seedings in the Great Basin
Monthly Standardize Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Daily soil-water potential (MPa) and soil temperature (degree C) data for plots from SageSuccess. The SageSuccess Project is a joint effort between USGS, BLM, and FWS to understand how to establish big sagebrush and ultimately restore functioning sagebrush ecosystems. Improving the success of land management trea
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
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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.
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center -
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.
Attribution: Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center