Patterns of ephemeral plant communities and their adaptations to temperature and precipitation regimes in Dzungaria Desert,Xinjiang

Parameterisation of relationships between climate and glacier mass balance is of considerable importance in understanding and modelling how temporal variability in climate affects the quantity of perennial snow and ice stored in glaciers, and the runoff from glacierised areas. Influences of year-to-year variations in air temperatures are pertinent in the absence of long records of measured energy balance and in view of predictions of future climate scenarios in terms of temperature. Measurements of temperature and precipitation from several stations in Alpine valleys in the Rhone basin, Wallis, Switzerland have been analysed to indicate trends in climate from 1930 to 1988. Actual measurements of mass balance of Griesgletscher, ablation calculated from runoff and net accumulation estimated from totalising rain gauges for Findelengletscher and Gornergletscher beginning in the late 1960s, and runoff from Aletschgletscher since 1930, were taken as annual glaciological responses to climatic variation. Variables to represent climatic elements and interactions between precipitation and temperature were selected according to degree of correlation with glacier response variables, and climate-glacier response relationships were assessed by multiple regression. Subsets of the data representing the coolest (1972–81) and warmest (1943–52) decades were also analysed to indicate whether relationships amongst climatic variables and between climate and mass balance remain the same under contrasting climatic conditions.Overall, mean summer air temperature variables for the months May through September and June through August provide the highest levels of explanation of variance of ablation and mass balance respectively (75–82%). Addition of a precipitation variable (winter, spring or summer) in multiple regression increases explanation to a maximum of 91%. Spring and summer precipitation variables are negatively correlated with ablation. Positive degree days and temperature-summer snow functions provide alternatives to temperature. Event-based analysis of the coolest and warmest years selected by rank order invokes high precipitation in May and low May-June temperatures and summer snowfall events as significant variables.Relationships between climatic variables indicate that warmer-than-average winters have higher precipitation, but at summer and annual time scales precipitation is slightly negatively associated with temperature. At the decadal level, warmer periods appear to be influenced by increased frequency of continental anticyclonic conditions, in an area subject to both maritime and continental influences. These analyses of climatic variables indicate that summer energy inputs dominate glacier mass balance. Relationships between precipitation and temperature are complex and were changeable during a fluctuation of about 1° over 40 years. Effects of a potentially warmer future on the form of precipitation in spring, summer and autumn are not clear, so estimates of changes of mass balance have been calculated for contrasting precipitation regimes.

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Scientistsʼ Warning on Climate Change and Medicinal Plants

Planta Medica ◽

10.1055/a-1041-3406 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 86 (01) ◽

pp. 10-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Wendy L. Applequist ◽

Josef A. Brinckmann ◽

Anthony B. Cunningham ◽

Robbie E. Hart ◽

Michael Heinrich ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Medicinal Plants ◽

Raw Material ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Medicinal Species ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Anthropogenic Habitat ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Chemical Content ◽

Mitigate Climate Change

AbstractThe recent publication of a World Scientistsʼ Warning to Humanity highlighted the fact that climate change, absent strenuous mitigation or adaptation efforts, will have profound negative effects for humanity and other species, affecting numerous aspects of life. In this paper, we call attention to one of these aspects, the effects of climate change on medicinal plants. These plants provide many benefits for human health, particularly in communities where Western medicine is unavailable. As for other species, their populations may be threatened by changing temperature and precipitation regimes, disruption of commensal relationships, and increases in pests and pathogens, combined with anthropogenic habitat fragmentation that impedes migration. Additionally, medicinal species are often harvested unsustainably, and this combination of pressures may push many populations to extinction. A second issue is that some species may respond to increased environmental stresses not only with declines in biomass production but with changes in chemical content, potentially affecting quality or even safety of medicinal products. We therefore recommend actions including conservation and local cultivation of valued plants, sustainability training for harvesters and certification of commercial material, preservation of traditional knowledge, and programs to monitor raw material quality in addition to, of course, efforts to mitigate climate change.

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High resistance to climatic variability in a dominant tundra shrub species

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.6967 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. e6967 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Victoria T. González ◽

Mikel Moriana-Armendariz ◽

Snorre B. Hagen ◽

Bente Lindgård ◽

Rigmor Reiersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

High Resistance ◽

Climatic Variability ◽

Growing Season ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Vegetative Cover ◽

Growth And Survival ◽

Growing Season Length ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Precipitation Regimes

Climate change is modifying temperature and precipitation regimes across all seasons in northern ecosystems. Summer temperatures are higher, growing seasons extend into spring and fall and snow cover conditions are more variable during winter. The resistance of dominant tundra species to these season-specific changes, with each season potentially having contrasting effects on their growth and survival, can determine the future of tundra plant communities under climate change. In our study, we evaluated the effects of several spring/summer and winter climatic variables (i.e., summer temperature, growing season length, growing degree days, and number of winter freezing days) on the resistance of the dwarf shrub Empetrum nigrum. We measured over six years the ability of E. nigrum to keep a stable shoot growth, berry production, and vegetative cover in five E. nigrum dominated tundra heathlands, in a total of 144 plots covering a 200-km gradient from oceanic to continental climate. Overall, E. nigrum displayed high resistance to climatic variation along the gradient, with positive growth and reproductive output during all years and sites. Climatic conditions varied sharply among sites, especially during the winter months, finding that exposure to freezing temperatures during winter was correlated with reduced shoot length and berry production. These negative effects however, could be compensated if the following growing season was warm and long. Our study demonstrates that E. nigrum is a species resistant to fluctuating climatic conditions during the growing season and winter months in both oceanic and continental areas. Overall, E. nigrum appeared frost hardy and its resistance was determined by interactions among different season-specific climatic conditions with contrasting effects.

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Climate shapes flowering periods across plant communities

10.1101/2021.10.10.463841 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ruby E. Stephens ◽

Hervé Sauquet ◽

Greg R. Guerin ◽

Mingkai Jiang ◽

Daniel Falster ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Communities ◽

Flowering Phenology ◽

Floral Resources ◽

Flowering Period ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Flowering Periods ◽

Time Of Year ◽

And Function

AbstractAimClimate shapes the composition and function of plant communities globally, but it remains unclear how this influence extends to floral traits. Flowering phenology, or the time period in which a species flowers, has well-studied relationships with climatic signals at the species level but has rarely been explored at a cross-community and continental scale. Here, we characterise the distribution of flowering periods (months of flowering) across continental plant communities encompassing six biomes, and determine the influence of climate on community flowering period lengths.LocationAustraliaTaxonFlowering plantsMethodsWe combined plant composition and abundance data from 629 standardised floristic surveys (AusPlots) with data on flowering period from the AusTraits database and additional primary literature for 2,983 species. We assessed abundance-weighted community mean flowering periods across biomes and tested their relationship with climatic annual means and the predictability of climate conditions using regression models.ResultsCombined, temperature and precipitation (annual mean and predictability) explain 29% of variation in continental community flowering period. Plant communities with higher mean temperatures and lower mean precipitation have longer mean flowering periods. Moreover, plant communities in climates with predictable temperatures and, to a lesser extent, predictable precipitation have shorter mean flowering periods. Flowering period varies by biome, being longest in deserts and shortest in alpine and montane communities. For instance, desert communities experience low and unpredictable precipitation and high, unpredictable temperatures and have longer mean flowering periods, with desert species typically flowering at any time of year in response to rain.Main conclusionsOur findings demonstrate the role of current climate conditions in shaping flowering periods across biomes, with implications under climate change. Shifts in flowering periods across climatic gradients reflect changes in plant strategies, affecting patterns of plant growth and reproduction as well as the availability of floral resources across the landscape.

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Closely-related tree species with overlapping ranges exhibit divergent adaptation to climate

10.1101/2021.11.08.467758 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

John W Whale ◽

Collin W Ahrens ◽

David T Tissue ◽

Paul D Rymer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Tree Species ◽

Global Climate ◽

Climate Scenario ◽

Genomic Variation ◽

Eucalyptus Species ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Local Environments ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Restoration Strategies

With global climate change shifting and altering temperature and precipitation regimes, the ability of natural forest stands to persist in their local environments are being challenged. For many taxa, particularly among long lived tree species, the potential to respond is underpinned by genetic and trait diversity and may be limited. We sampled 326 and 366 individuals of two widely distributed and closely-related red gum Eucalyptus species (E. blakelyi and E. tereticornis) from across their entire Australian range. We identified putatively adaptive variants associated within genes of key biological processes for both species. We mapped the change of allele frequencies of two hierarchical gene ontology groups shared by both species across geography and climate and predict genomically vulnerable regions under a projected 2070 climate scenario. Regions of potential vulnerability to decline under future climate differed between species and may be applied to guide conservation and restoration strategies. Our study indicated that some populations may contain the adaptive genomic variation necessary for these species to persist through climate change, while others may benefit from the adaptive variation of those populations to enhance resilience.

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Analysis of Climate Change in the Caucasus Region: End of the 20th–Beginning of the 21st Century

Climate ◽

10.3390/cli7010011 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Alla Tashilova ◽

Boris Ashabokov ◽

Lara Kesheva ◽

Nataliya Teunova

Keyword(s):

Warming Trend ◽

Distance Scale ◽

Climatic Zones ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Temperature Changes ◽

Caucasus Region ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Rescaled Range ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Weather Stations

The study of climate, in such a diverse climatic region as the Caucasus, is necessary in order to evaluate the influence of local factors on the formation of temperature and precipitation regimes in its various climatic zones. This study is based on the instrumental data (temperatures and precipitation) from 20 weather stations, located on the territory of the Caucasian region during 1961–2011. Mathematical statistics, trend analysis, and rescaled range Methods were used. It was found that the warming trend prevailed in all climatic zones, it intensified since the beginning of global warming (since 1976), while the changes in precipitation were not so unidirectional. The maximum warming was observed in the summer (on average by 0.3 °C/10 years) in all climatic zones. Persistence trends were investigated using the Hurst exponent H (range of variation 0–1), which showed a higher trend persistence of annual mean temperature changes (H = 0.8) compared to annual sum precipitations (H = 0.64). Spatial-correlation analysis performed for precipitations and temperatures showed a rapid decrease in the correlation between precipitations at various weather stations from R = 1 to R = 0.5, on a distance scale from 0 to 200 km. In contrast to precipitation, a high correlation (R = 1.0–0.7) was observed between regional weather stations temperatures at a distance scale from 0 to 1000 km, which indicates synchronous temperature changes in all climatic zones (unlike precipitation).

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Low resistance of montane and alpine grasslands to abrupt changes in temperature and precipitation regimes

Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research ◽

10.1080/15230430.2019.1618116 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 215-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Bernd Josef Berauer ◽

Peter A. Wilfahrt ◽

Mohammed A. S. Arfin-Khan ◽

Pia Eibes ◽

Andreas Von Heßberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alpine Grasslands ◽

Low Resistance ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Abrupt Changes

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Ectomycorrhizal communities along a precipitation gradient in Bavaria (Germany)

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6176 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Karin Pritsch ◽

Max Roth ◽

Fabian Weikl

Keyword(s):

Fungal Communities ◽

Soil Drought ◽

Precipitation Gradient ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Precipitation Regimes ◽

Below Ground ◽

Ectomycorrhizal Communities ◽

Compositional Patterns

Altered temperature and precipitation regimes particularly prolonged drought periods when combined with heat strongly affect forests in the last decades. However, neither did all trees die nor even stop growing at all sites. We are interested in the question if below ground interaction with ectomycorrhizal fungi could be partly mediating strong soil drought. For this purpose, we established sampling sites with Fagus sylvatica, Picea abies or Pinus sylvestris along a natural precipitation gradient of 400 km length in Bavaria (Germany). We hypothesized root associated fungal communities to reflect long-term adaptation to local edaphic and climate conditions and that the resulting tree-fungal partnerships have distinct compositional patterns.

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Effects of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Plant Communities

Plant Growth and Climate Change ◽

10.1002/9780470988695.ch7 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 146-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

M.D. Morecroft ◽

J.S. Paterson

Keyword(s):

Plant Communities ◽

Temperature And Precipitation ◽

Effects Of Temperature ◽

Precipitation Changes

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