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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Climate Of The Weakly-Forced Yet High-Impact Convective Storms Throughout The Ohio River Valley And Mid-Atlantic United States, Binod Pokharel, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Jonathan D. Meyer, Robert R. Gillies, Yen-Heng Lin Sep 2018

Climate Of The Weakly-Forced Yet High-Impact Convective Storms Throughout The Ohio River Valley And Mid-Atlantic United States, Binod Pokharel, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Jonathan D. Meyer, Robert R. Gillies, Yen-Heng Lin

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The 1-in-1000-year precipitation event in late June 2016 over West Virginia caused tremendous flooding damage. Like the 2012 mid-Atlantic derecho that blacked out much of the DC area, similar events can be traced to small, mid-tropospheric perturbations (MPs) embedded in the large-scale ridge pattern. Under this “weakly-forced” pattern, severe weather outbreaks commonly occur alongside eastward propagating MPs acting as a triggering mechanism for progressive mesoscale convective systems, which move across the central and eastern US. Forecasting of such weakly-forced yet severe weather events is difficult in both weather and climate timescales. The present diagnostic analysis of the MP climatology is …


Climatically Driven Changes In Primary Production Propagate Through Trophic Levels, David C. Stoner, Joseph O. Sexton, David M. Choate, Jyoteshwar Nagol, Heather H. Bernales, Steven A. Sims, Kirsten E. Ironside, Kathleen M. Longshore, Thomas C. Edwards Jr. Aug 2018

Climatically Driven Changes In Primary Production Propagate Through Trophic Levels, David C. Stoner, Joseph O. Sexton, David M. Choate, Jyoteshwar Nagol, Heather H. Bernales, Steven A. Sims, Kirsten E. Ironside, Kathleen M. Longshore, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Climate and land‐use change are the major drivers of global biodiversity loss. Their effects are particularly acute for wide‐ranging consumers, but little is known about how these factors interact to affect the abundance of large carnivores and their herbivore prey. We analyzed population densities of a primary and secondary consumer (mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus, and mountain lion, Puma concolor) across a climatic gradient in western North America by combining satellite‐based maps of plant productivity with estimates of animal abundance and foraging area derived from Global Positioning Systems telemetry data (GPS). Mule deer density exhibited a positive, linear relationship with plant …


El Niño-Southern Oscillation Complexity, Axel Timmermann, Soon-Il An, Jong-Seong Kug, Fei-Fei Jin, Wenju Cai, Antonietta Capotondi, Kim Cobb, Matthieu Lengaigne, Michal J. Mcphaden, Malte F. Stuecker, Karl Stein, Andrew T. Wittenberg, Kyung-Sook Yun, Tobias Bayr, Han-Ching Chen, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Et Al. Jul 2018

El Niño-Southern Oscillation Complexity, Axel Timmermann, Soon-Il An, Jong-Seong Kug, Fei-Fei Jin, Wenju Cai, Antonietta Capotondi, Kim Cobb, Matthieu Lengaigne, Michal J. Mcphaden, Malte F. Stuecker, Karl Stein, Andrew T. Wittenberg, Kyung-Sook Yun, Tobias Bayr, Han-Ching Chen, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Et Al.

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

El Niño events are characterized by surface warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean and weakening of equatorial trade winds that occur every few years. Such conditions are accompanied by changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation, affecting global climate, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, fisheries and human activities. The alternation of warm El Niño and cold La Niña conditions, referred to as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), represents the strongest year-to-year fluctuation of the global climate system. Here we provide a synopsis of our current understanding of the spatio-temporal complexity of this important climate mode and its influence on the Earth system.


Managing Big Sagebrush In A Changing Climate, Peter B. Adler, Katie Renwick, Emily Kachergis, Mary Manning, Tom Remington, Eric Thacker, Cameron Aldridge, Bethany Bradley, Andrew Kleinhesselink, Caroline Curtis, Daniel Schlaepfer, Benjamin Poulter May 2018

Managing Big Sagebrush In A Changing Climate, Peter B. Adler, Katie Renwick, Emily Kachergis, Mary Manning, Tom Remington, Eric Thacker, Cameron Aldridge, Bethany Bradley, Andrew Kleinhesselink, Caroline Curtis, Daniel Schlaepfer, Benjamin Poulter

All Current Publications

This publication identifies areas where big sagebrush populations are most and least vulnerable to climate change and demonstrates where continued investment in sagebrush conservation and restoration could have the most impact.


Herbivory And Eutrophication Mediate Grassland Plant Nutrient Responses Across A Global Climatic Gradient, T. Michael Anderson, Daniel M. Griffith, James B. Grace, Eric M. Lind, Peter B. Adler, Lori A. Biederman, Dana M. Blumenthal, Pedro Daleo, Jennifer Firn, Nicole Hagenah, W. Stanley Harpole, Andrew S. Macdougall, Rebecca L. Mcculley, Suzanne M. Prober, Anita C. Risch, Mahesh Sankaran, Martin Schütz, Eric W. Seabloom, Carly J. Stevens, Lauren L. Sullivan, Peter D. Wragg, Elizabeth T. Borer Mar 2018

Herbivory And Eutrophication Mediate Grassland Plant Nutrient Responses Across A Global Climatic Gradient, T. Michael Anderson, Daniel M. Griffith, James B. Grace, Eric M. Lind, Peter B. Adler, Lori A. Biederman, Dana M. Blumenthal, Pedro Daleo, Jennifer Firn, Nicole Hagenah, W. Stanley Harpole, Andrew S. Macdougall, Rebecca L. Mcculley, Suzanne M. Prober, Anita C. Risch, Mahesh Sankaran, Martin Schütz, Eric W. Seabloom, Carly J. Stevens, Lauren L. Sullivan, Peter D. Wragg, Elizabeth T. Borer

Ecology Center Publications

Plant stoichiometry, the relative concentration of elements, is a key regulator of ecosystem functioning and is also being altered by human activities. In this paper we sought to understand the global drivers of plant stoichiometry and compare the relative contribution of climatic vs. anthropogenic effects. We addressed this goal by measuring plant elemental (C, N, P and K) responses to eutrophication and vertebrate herbivore exclusion at eighteen sites on six continents. Across sites, climate and atmospheric N deposition emerged as strong predictors of plot‐level tissue nutrients, mediated by biomass and plant chemistry. Within sites, fertilization increased total plant nutrient pools, …


Herbivory And Drought Generate Short‐Term Stochasticity And Long‐Term Stability In A Savanna Understory Community, Corinna Riginos, Lauren M. Porensky, Kari E. Veblen, Truman P. Young Mar 2018

Herbivory And Drought Generate Short‐Term Stochasticity And Long‐Term Stability In A Savanna Understory Community, Corinna Riginos, Lauren M. Porensky, Kari E. Veblen, Truman P. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Rainfall and herbivory are fundamental drivers of grassland plant dynamics, yet few studies have examined long‐term interactions between these factors in an experimental setting. Understanding such interactions is important, as rainfall is becoming increasingly erratic and native wild herbivores are being replaced by livestock. Livestock grazing and episodic low rainfall are thought to interact, leading to greater community change than either factor alone. We examined patterns of change and stability in herbaceous community composition through four dry periods, or droughts, over 15 years of the Kenya Long‐term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE), which consists of six different combinations of cattle, native wild …