Life Sciences Commons^™

Ungulate Herbivores As Drivers Of Aspen Recruitment And Understory Composition Throughout Arid Montane Landscapes, Elizabeth S. Reikowski, Tyler Refsland, J. Hall Cushman

Aspen Bibliography

Herbivory by wild and domestic ungulates can influence tree recruitment and understory forest communities throughout the world. Herbivore-driven declines in tree recruitment have been observed for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a foundation species whose health and management is recognized as a critical priority throughout much of its range. Livestock fencing is commonly used to promote aspen regeneration, but its effectiveness is rarely assessed, especially across large spatial scales. Using a livestock-reduction experiment, we evaluated the effects of ungulate herbivory on aspen in the Great Basin and southern Cascades, an expansive and environmentally heterogeneous region where aspen faces the …

Plant-Soil Feedbacks Help Explain Plant Community Productivity, Andrew Kulmatiski, Jeanette Norton, Leslie E. Forero, Josephine Grenzer

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Plant community productivity tends to increase as species richness increases, but the mechanisms behind this biodiversity-productivity relationship are not fully understood. Plant-soil feedbacks (PSF) are a compelling potential mechanism of the biodiversity-productivity relationship because they can explain patterns of both underyielding and overyielding in diverse plant communities. To test the role of plant-soil feedbacks in the biodiversity-productivity relationship we measured all possible plant-soil feedbacks for sixteen species, and used the measured plant-soil feedbacks to predict plant community biomass production. We compared the predicted plant community biomass production to observed biomass production in a paired biodiversity-productivity experiment.

Plant-Soil Feedbacks Predict Native But Not Non-Native Plant Community Composition: A 7-Year Common-Garden Experiment, Andrew Kulmatiski

Ecology Center Publications

Plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) have gained attention as a potential mechanism of plant growth and coexistence, however, because they are typically measured using plant monocultures in greenhouse conditions, the link between PSFs and plant growth in field communities remains poorly tested. Here, PSFs for six native and four non-native species were measured in a 7-year, common-garden experiment. A plant community growth model was then parameterized either with PSF data (PSF model) or without PSF data (Null model). PSF and Null model predictions were compared to plant ground cover in experimental and natural communities. For eight of 10 species, plant cover at …

Ecosystem Functional Response Across Precipitation Extremes In A Sagebrush Steppe, Andrew T. Tredennick, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, J. Bret Taylor, Peter B. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Background

Precipitation is predicted to become more variable in the western United States, meaning years of above and below average precipitation will become more common. Periods of extreme precipitation are major drivers of interannual variability in ecosystem functioning in water limited communities, but how ecosystems respond to these extremes over the long-term may shift with precipitation means and variances. Long-term changes in ecosystem functional response could reflect compensatory changes in species composition or species reaching physiological thresholds at extreme precipitation levels.

Methods

We conducted a five year precipitation manipulation experiment in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Idaho, United States. We …

A Multiple‐Scale Assessment Of Long‐Term Aspen Persistence And Elevational Range Shifts In The Colorado Front Range, Mario Bretfeld, Scott B. Franklin, Robert K. Peet

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen forests and woodlands are some of the most species‐rich forest communities in the northern hemisphere. Changing climate, altered disturbance regimes, land use, and increased herbivore pressure threaten these forests both in Eurasia and North America. In addition, rapid mortality dubbed “Sudden Aspen Decline” is a concern for aspen's long‐term presence in the western United States, especially Colorado and Utah. Yet it is still unclear whether aspen is persistent or declining at the landscape scale. We assessed aspen persistence at different spatial scales in the Colorado Front Range by resampling 89 plots containing aspen from among 305 vegetation plots sampled …