Effects of experimentally reduced snowpack and passive warming on montane meadow plant phenology and floral resources

Sherwood, Jill; Debinski, Diane M.; Caragea, Petruţa C.; Germino, Matthew J.

doi:10.1002/ecs2.1745

Cited by 42 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…Snow removal has been shown to be an effective way to induce early flowering in plants (Gezon et al, ; Wipf, ). Although snow removal could affect soil moisture, few studies have documented any significant differences in soil moisture between snow removal and natural snowmelt treatments (Wipf, , but see Sherwood, Debinski, Caragea, & Germino, ). Plots in the frost treatment were exposed to naturally occurring frost events, while plots in the frost‐reduction treatment were covered with frost‐resistant tarps (Easy Gardener Products, Waco, TX) the evening before a frost event was forecasted to occur, and tarps were removed the following morning once temperatures reached above 0°C.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure on the reproductive success of montane forbs

et al. 2019

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Changes from historic weather patterns have affected the phenology of many organisms world‐wide. Altered phenology can introduce organisms to novel abiotic conditions during growth and modify species interactions, both of which could drive changes in reproduction. We explored how climate change can alter plant reproduction using an experiment in which we manipulated the individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure, and measured subsequent effects on flowering phenology, peak flower density, frost damage, pollinator visitation and reproduction of four subalpine wildflowers. Additionally, we conducted a pollen‐supplementation experiment to test whether the plants in our snowmelt and frost treatments were pollen limited for reproduction. The four plants included species flowering in early spring to mid‐summer. The phenology of all four species was significantly advanced, and the bloom duration was longer in the plots from which we removed snow, but with species‐specific responses to snow removal and frost exposure in terms of frost damage, flower production, pollinator visitation and reproduction. The two early blooming species showed significant signs of frost damage in both early snowmelt and frost treatments, which negatively impacted reproduction for one of the species. Further, we recorded fewer pollinators during flowering for the earliest‐blooming species in the snow removal plots. We also found lower fruit and seed set for the early blooming species in the snow removal treatment, which could be attributed to the plants growing under unfavourable abiotic conditions. However, the later‐blooming species escaped frost damage even in the plots where snow was removed, and experienced increased pollinator visitation and reproduction. Synthesis. This study provides insight into how plant communities could become altered due to changes in abiotic conditions, and some of the mechanisms involved. While early blooming species may be at a disadvantage under climate change, species that bloom later in the season may benefit from early snowmelt, suggesting that climate change has the potential to reshape flowering communities.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure on the reproductive success of montane forbs

et al. 2019

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“…Snow melt timing has been recognized as early as the 1930s as a primary initiator of plant phenological events in both Arctic and alpine tundra (Schwartz, 2013;see, e.g., Billings & Mooney, 1968;Sørensen, 1941;Wipf & Rixen, 2010), and many recent studies have demonstrated that snow melt date is a key driver explaining variation in spring phenology in tundra ecosystems (Bjorkman et al, 2015;Cooper, Dullinger, & Semenchuk, 2011;Cortés et al, 2014;Iler et al, 2017;Molau et al, 2005;Semenchuk et al, 2016;Sherwood, Debinski, Caragea, & Germino, 2017;Wipf, 2009;Wipf, Stoeckli, & Bebi, 2009; but see Thórhallsdóttir, 1998). During snow melt, tundra plants experience dramatic changes in their immediate environment: light availability increases and plant and soil surfaces are exposed to atmospheric temperatures and CO 2 concentrations (Starr & Oberbauer, 2003), which in turn stimulate plant metabolic and developmental activities (Jones, 2013).…”

Section: Snow Melt As a Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, snow melt may act as an indicator for suitable growing conditions to come as the growing season advances (Wheeler et al, 2015). Prior to melt, the insulation of the snow layer protects the plants from frost damage, desiccation and photoinhibition (Lundell, Saarinen, & Hänninen, 2010;Mølgaard & Christensen, 2003;Sherwood et al, 2017;Wheeler et al, 2015;Wipf & Rixen, 2010;Wipf et al, 2009) and reduces early-season herbivory (Wheeler et al, 2016), while after snow melt, the availability of soil moisture and nutrients is increased (Wipf & Rixen, 2010). Plants may therefore experience strong evolutionary pressure to adapt spring metabolic activity to coincide directly with the timing of snow melt (Cortés et al, 2014).…”

Section: Snow Melt As a Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Local snow melt and temperature—but not regional sea ice—explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra

Assmann

Myers‐Smith

Phillimore

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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The Arctic is undergoing dramatic environmental change with rapidly rising surface temperatures, accelerating sea ice decline and changing snow regimes, all of which influence tundra plant phenology. Despite these changes, no globally consistent direction of trends in spring phenology has been reported across the Arctic. While spring has advanced at some sites, spring has delayed or not changed at other sites, highlighting substantial unexplained variation. Here, we test the relative importance of local temperatures, local snow melt date and regional spring drop in sea ice extent as controls of variation in spring phenology across different sites and species. Trends in long‐term time series of spring leaf‐out and flowering (average span: 18 years) were highly variable for the 14 tundra species monitored at our four study sites on the Arctic coasts of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, ranging from advances of 10.06 days per decade to delays of 1.67 days per decade. Spring temperatures and the day of spring drop in sea ice extent advanced at all sites (average 1°C per decade and 21 days per decade, respectively), but only those sites with advances in snow melt (average 5 days advance per decade) also had advancing phenology. Variation in spring plant phenology was best explained by snow melt date (mean effect: 0.45 days advance in phenology per day advance snow melt) and, to a lesser extent, by mean spring temperature (mean effect: 2.39 days advance in phenology per °C). In contrast to previous studies examining sea ice and phenology at different spatial scales, regional spring drop in sea ice extent did not predict spring phenology for any species or site in our analysis. Our findings highlight that tundra vegetation responses to global change are more complex than a direct response to warming and emphasize the importance of snow melt as a local driver of tundra spring phenology.

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“…Pikas are diet generalists that consume forbs, graminoids, and foliage of shrubs and trees (Dearing 1996). Experimental snow removals alter plant phenology and increase exposure to frost damage (Sherwood et al 2017), which can change composition and abundance of vegetation. Bhattacharyya and Ray (2015) observed significant changes in haypile composition that coincided with a trend in earlier melt-off in the southern Rockies, where amounts of vegetation high in secondary metabolites decreased as snow melt occurred earlier.…”

Section: Direct Vs Indirect Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological consequences of anomalies in atmospheric moisture and snowpack

Johnston

Bruggeman

Beers

et al. 2019

Ecology

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Although increased frequency of extreme-weather events is one of the most secure predictions associated with contemporary climate change, effects of such events on distribution and abundance of climate-sensitive species remain poorly understood. Montane ecosystems may be especially sensitive to extreme weather because of complex abiotic and biotic interactions that propagate from climate-driven reductions in snowpack. Snowpack not only protects subnivean biotas from extreme cold, but also influences forage availability through timing of melt-off and water availability. We related relative abundances of an alpine mammal, the American pika (Ochotona princeps), to measures of weather and snowpack dynamics over an 8-yr period that included before and after a year of record-low snowpack in Washington, USA. We sought to (1) quantify any change in pika abundance associated with the snowpack anomaly and (2) identify aspects of weather and snowpack that influenced abundance of pikas. Pikas showed a 1-yr lag response to the snowpack anomaly and exhibited marked declines in abundance at elevations below 1,400 m simultaneous with increased abundances at higher elevations. Atmospheric moisture, indexed by vapor pressure deficit (VPD), was especially important, evidenced by strong support for the top-ranked model that included the interaction of VPD with snowpack duration. Notably, our novel application of VPD from gridded climate data for analyses of animal abundances shows strong potential for improving species distribution models because VPD represents an important aspect of weather that influences the physiology and habitat of biota. Pikas were apparently affected by cold stress without snowpack at mid elevations, whereas changes to forage associated with snowpack and VPD were influential at high and low elevations. Our results reveal context dependency in pika responses to weather and illustrate how snow drought can lead to rapid change in the abundance of subnivean animals.

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Effects of experimentally reduced snowpack and passive warming on montane meadow plant phenology and floral resources

Cited by 42 publications

References 51 publications

The individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure on the reproductive success of montane forbs

The individual and combined effects of snowmelt timing and frost exposure on the reproductive success of montane forbs

Local snow melt and temperature—but not regional sea ice—explain variation in spring phenology in coastal Arctic tundra

Ecological consequences of anomalies in atmospheric moisture and snowpack

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