scholarly journals Adaptive capacity in the foundation tree species Populus fremontii: implications for resilience to climate change and non-native species invasion in the American Southwest

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R Hultine ◽  
Gerard J Allan ◽  
Davis Blasini ◽  
Helen M Bothwell ◽  
Abraham Cadmus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Populus Fremontii ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Southwestern Usa

Abstract Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood) is recognized as one of the most important foundation tree species in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico because of its ability to structure communities across multiple trophic levels, drive ecosystem processes and influence biodiversity via genetic-based functional trait variation. However, the areal extent of P. fremontii cover has declined dramatically over the last century due to the effects of surface water diversions, non-native species invasions and more recently climate change. Consequently, P. fremontii gallery forests are considered amongst the most threatened forest types in North America. In this paper, we unify four conceptual areas of genes to ecosystems research related to P. fremontii’s capacity to survive or even thrive under current and future environmental conditions: (i) hydraulic function related to canopy thermal regulation during heat waves; (ii) mycorrhizal mutualists in relation to resiliency to climate change and invasion by the non-native tree/shrub, Tamarix; (iii) phenotypic plasticity as a mechanism for coping with rapid changes in climate; and (iv) hybridization between P. fremontii and other closely related Populus species where enhanced vigour of hybrids may preserve the foundational capacity of Populus in the face of environmental change. We also discuss opportunities to scale these conceptual areas from genes to the ecosystem level via remote sensing. We anticipate that the exploration of these conceptual areas of research will facilitate solutions to climate change with a foundation species that is recognized as being critically important for biodiversity conservation and could serve as a model for adaptive management of arid regions in the southwestern USA and around the world.

scholarly journals Disentangling the impacts of heat wave magnitude, duration and timing on the structure and diversity of sessile marine assemblages

PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan A. Smale ◽  
Anna L.E. Yunnie ◽  
Thomas Vance ◽  
Stephen Widdicombe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Heat Wave ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Recovery Phase ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Mature Adult ◽  
Sessile Invertebrates

Extreme climatic events, including heat waves (HWs) and severe storms, influence the structure of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Despite growing consensus that anthropogenic climate change will increase the frequency, duration and magnitude of extreme events, current understanding of their impact on communities and ecosystems is limited. Here, we used sessile invertebrates on settlement panels as model assemblages to examine the influence of HW magnitude, duration and timing on marine biodiversity patterns. Settlement panels were deployed in a marina in southwest UK for ≥5 weeks, to allow sufficient time for colonisation and development of sessile fauna, before being subjected to simulated HWs in a mesocosm facility. Replicate panel assemblages were held at ambient sea temperature (∼17 °C), or +3 °C or +5 °C for a period of 1 or 2 weeks, before being returned to the marina for a recovery phase of 2–3 weeks. The 10-week experiment was repeated 3 times, staggered throughout summer, to examine the influence of HW timing on community impacts. Contrary to our expectations, the warming events had no clear, consistent impacts on the abundance of species or the structure of sessile assemblages. With the exception of 1 high-magnitude long-duration HW event, warming did not alter not assemblage structure, favour non-native species, nor lead to changes in richness, abundance or biomass of sessile faunal assemblages. The observed lack of effect may have been caused by a combination of (1) the use of relatively low magnitude, realistic heat wave treatments compared to previous studies (2), the greater resilience of mature adult sessile fauna compared to recruits and juveniles, and (3) the high thermal tolerance of the model organisms (i.e., temperate fouling species, principally bryozoans and ascidians). Our study demonstrates the importance of using realistic treatments when manipulating climate change variables, and also suggests that biogeographical context may influence community-level responses to short-term warming events, which are predicted to increase in severity in the future.

scholarly journals Climate change and body size shift in Mediterranean bivalve assemblages: unexpected role of biological invasions

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1860) ◽  
pp. 20170357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał Nawrot ◽  
Paolo G. Albano ◽  
Devapriya Chattopadhyay ◽  
Martin Zuschin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Size Structure ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
The Mediterranean

Body size is a synthetic functional trait determining many key ecosystem properties. Reduction in average body size has been suggested as one of the universal responses to global warming in aquatic ecosystems. Climate change, however, coincides with human-enhanced dispersal of alien species and can facilitate their establishment. We address effects of species introductions on the size structure of recipient communities using data on Red Sea bivalves entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal. We show that the invasion leads to increase in median body size of the Mediterranean assemblage. Alien species are significantly larger than native Mediterranean bivalves, even though they represent a random subset of the Red Sea species with respect to body size. The observed patterns result primarily from the differences in the taxonomic composition and body-size distributions of the source and recipient species pools. In contrast to the expectations based on the general temperature–size relationships in marine ectotherms, continued warming of the Mediterranean Sea indirectly leads to an increase in the proportion of large-bodied species in bivalve assemblages by accelerating the entry and spread of tropical aliens. These results underscore complex interactions between changing climate and species invasions in driving functional shifts in marine ecosystems.

scholarly journals Climate change within Serbian forests: Current state and future perspectives

Topola ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Dejan Stojanović ◽  
Saša Orlović ◽  
Milica Zlatković ◽  
Saša Kostić ◽  
Verica Vasić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Insect Pests ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
Precipitation Decrease

Extreme weather conditions, namely droughts, heat waves, heavy rains, floods, and landslides are becoming more frequent globally and in Serbia as a result of climate change. Generally, various parts of human society are affected by changing climate conditions. Forest ecosystems are one of the most sensitive systems to weather and climate. In that sense, small changes may lead to large disturbances including forest decline, outbreaks of insect pests and diseases and eventually mortality. In Serbia, the average temperature in forest ecosystems of the most important and abundant forest tree species has risen for more than 1°C in the last thirty years (1990-2019) in comparison to the previous period (1961-1990). During the last thirty years, the northern and western parts of Serbia experienced an increase in precipitation as opposed to the southern and eastern parts of the country. If one takes a closer look at the climate within a particular forest stands, it would seem that the effect of precipitation decrease is stronger in less humid parts of a tree species range. In this paper, we discuss various aspects of climate change impacts on forests and forestry, including forest ecology, genetics, physiology, pests and diseases, ground vegetation, monitoring, reporting and verification system, climate change litigation and perspectives of forests in the 21st century in Serbia.

scholarly journals Trophic cascades, invasive species and body-size hierarchies interactively modulate climate change responses of ecotonal temperate–boreal forest

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1605) ◽  
pp. 2955-2961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee E. Frelich ◽  
Rolf O. Peterson ◽  
Martin Dovčiak ◽  
Peter B. Reich ◽  
John A. Vucetich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Temperate Species ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Exotic Earthworms ◽  
Below Ground ◽  
Induced Changes

As the climate warms, boreal tree species are expected to be gradually replaced by temperate species within the southern boreal forest. Warming will be accompanied by changes in above- and below-ground consumers: large moose ( Alces alces ) replaced by smaller deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) above-ground, and small detritivores replaced by larger exotic earthworms below-ground. These shifts may induce a cascade of ecological impacts across trophic levels that could alter the boreal to temperate forest transition. Deer are more likely to browse saplings of temperate tree species, and European earthworms favour seedlings of boreal tree species more than temperate species, potentially hindering the ability of temperate tree species to expand northwards. We hypothesize that warming-induced changes in consumers will lead to novel plant communities by changing the filter on plant species success, and that above- and below-ground cascades of trophic interactions will allow boreal tree species to persist during early phases of warming, leading to an abrupt change at a later time. The synthesis of evidence suggests that consumers can modify the climate change-induced transition of ecosystems.

Implications of climate warming for Boreal Shield lakes: a review and synthesis

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (NA) ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Keller
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Biological Interactions ◽  
Lake Ecosystems ◽  
Multiple Stressor ◽  
Species Invasions ◽  
Boreal Shield ◽  
Shield Lakes

Climate change is a reality. A warming climate will have large effects on lakes of the Boreal Shield. Our ability to forecast these effects, however, is hampered by a very incomplete understanding of the actual interactions between weather and many aspects of lake ecosystems. Climate change will affect lakes in very complex ways. Changing weather conditions will have direct effects on thermal habitats; however, there will also be very important indirect effects on lake ecosystems through influences on watershed processes that affect the thermal and chemical characteristics of lakes. Altered habitat conditions will affect the resident biota in both positive and negative ways and may favour range expansions of some native and non-native species. Our understanding of the altered biological interactions that will structure lake communities in a warmer climate is still limited, making the prediction of biological outcomes very difficult. Modelling efforts, experiments and empirical analyses of relationships between important attributes of lakes, lake communities, and weather conditions in the past are beginning to further our ability to predict likely future effects. Much more work is needed in all these research areas to further our understanding of the probable effects of climate change on Boreal Shield lakes. Because of the potential interactions of climate with other large-scale environmental stressors such as UV-B irradiance, exotic species invasions, base cation depletion, and acidification, future studies need to consider multiple stressor effects.

scholarly journals Springtail community structure is influenced by functional traits but not biogeographic origin of leaf litter in soils of novel forest ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1879) ◽  
pp. 20180647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Raymond-Léonard ◽  
Dominique Gravel ◽  
Peter B. Reich ◽  
I. Tanya Handa
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Leaf Litter ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Food Resource ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Tree Communities ◽  
Springtail Community

With ongoing global change, shifts in the ranges of non-native species and resulting novel communities can modify biotic interactions and ecosystem processes. We hypothesized that traits and not biogeographic origin of novel plant communities will determine community structure of organisms that depend on plants for habitat or as a food resource. We tested the functional redundancy of novel tree communities by verifying if six pairs of congeneric European and North American tree species bearing similar leaf litter traits resulted in similar ecological filters influencing the assembly of springtail (Collembola) communities at two sites. Litter biogeographic origin (native versus non-native) did not influence springtail community structure, but litter genus, which generally reflected trait differences, did. Our empirical evidence suggests that a functional trait approach may be indeed as relevant as, and complementary to, studying biogeographic origin to understand the ecological consequences of non-native tree species in soils of novel forest ecosystems.

Water scarcity and sustainability in the arid area of North America: Insights gained from a cross border perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Yáñez-Arancibia ◽  
John W. Day
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North America ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Arid Area ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The Face

The arid border region that encompasses the American Southwest and the Mexican northwest is an area where the nexus of water scarcity and climate change in the face of growing human demands for water, emerging energy scarcity, and economic change comes into sharp focus.

scholarly journals Elevated temperature and browning increase dietary methylmercury, but decrease essential fatty acids at the base of lake food webs

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pianpian Wu ◽  
Martin J. Kainz ◽  
Fernando Valdés ◽  
Siwen Zheng ◽  
Katharina Winter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Essential Fatty Acids ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Essential Nutrients ◽  
Aquatic Food Webs ◽  
Aquatic Food

AbstractClimate change scenarios predict increases in temperature and organic matter supply from land to water, which affect trophic transfer of nutrients and contaminants in aquatic food webs. How essential nutrients, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and potentially toxic contaminants, such as methylmercury (MeHg), at the base of aquatic food webs will be affected under climate change scenarios, remains unclear. The objective of this outdoor mesocosm study was to examine how increased water temperature and terrestrially-derived dissolved organic matter supply (tDOM; i.e., lake browning), and the interaction of both, will influence MeHg and PUFA in organisms at the base of food webs (i.e. seston; the most edible plankton size for zooplankton) in subalpine lake ecosystems. The interaction of higher temperature and tDOM increased the burden of MeHg in seston (< 40 μm) and larger sized plankton (microplankton; 40–200 μm), while the MeHg content per unit biomass remained stable. However, PUFA decreased in seston, but increased in microplankton, consisting mainly of filamentous algae, which are less readily bioavailable to zooplankton. We revealed elevated dietary exposure to MeHg, yet decreased supply of dietary PUFA to aquatic consumers with increasing temperature and tDOM supply. This experimental study provides evidence that the overall food quality at the base of aquatic food webs deteriorates during ongoing climate change scenarios by increasing the supply of toxic MeHg and lowering the dietary access to essential nutrients of consumers at higher trophic levels.

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