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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Climate Interactions Drive Tree Physiology And Growth In A Northeastern Forest Ecotone, Alexandra M. Barry
Climate Interactions Drive Tree Physiology And Growth In A Northeastern Forest Ecotone, Alexandra M. Barry
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Climate change is a threat to global forest ecosystems. In the northeastern United States, forest trees are facing rising temperatures and increasingly inconsistent moisture regimes. In addition to long-term changes in climate conditions, there is concern about the potential for more frequent and intense climate extremes, which can have severe and rapid negative effects on tree physiology and growth. Further, climate extremes may co-occur to produce a greater magnitude of effect than the sum of their parts, with a prominent example being hot droughts, which are increasing in occurrence and severity. The impact of these and other extreme climate interactions …
Subalpine Forest Tree Seedling Response To Drought, Alex Goke
Subalpine Forest Tree Seedling Response To Drought, Alex Goke
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Knowledge of tree species’ ability to tolerate drought is necessary to anticipate future forest dynamics with climate change, especially at the seedling stage given their role in shaping forest structure. We used precipitation reduction shelters to mimic drought for subalpine conifer seedlings (A. lasiocarpa and P. engelmannii) in the Rocky Mountains and compared survivorship and morphological and physiological responses to assess relative degrees of drought tolerance. We detected no significant investment in morphological tolerance traits (e.g. root biomass, leaf:stem area ratio) but substantial reductions in net photosynthesis. While shading partially ameliorated drought effects when precipitation reduction was moderate, …