Emergence of a mid-season period of low floral resources in a montane meadow ecosystem associated with climate change

Aldridge, George; Inouye, David W.; Forrest, Jessica R. K.; Barr, W. Andrew; Miller‐Rushing, Abraham J.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2011.01826.x

Cited by 136 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Mesic meadows, the meadow types we expected to be most vulnerable, showed a particularly intriguing temporal trajectory, starting with higher abundance of hydric species and ending with a higher abundance of xeric affinity species. These results concur with Aldridge et al (2011), who found that the flowering-plant community in an alpine meadow shifted in floral resources during a drought and that the mesic meadows were most vulnerable to change. The implications of our data are that longer-term changes due to drought could simplify butterfly community composition, resulting in prevalence of a species tolerant to drying conditions and a loss of species associated with wetter conditions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Gradient‐based habitat affinities predict species vulnerability to drought

Debinski

Caruthers

Cook

et al. 2013

Ecology

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Ecological fingerprints of climate change are becoming increasingly evident at broad geographical scales as measured by species range shifts and changes in phenology. However, finer-scale species-level responses to environmental fluctuations may also provide an important bellwether of impending future community responses. Here we examined changes in abundance of butterfly species along a hydrological gradient of six montane meadow habitat types in response to drought. Our data collection began prior to the drought, and we were able to track changes for 11 years, of which eight were considered mild to extreme drought conditions. We separated the species into those that had an affinity for hydric vs. xeric habitats. We suspected that drought would favor species with xeric habitat affinities, but that there could be variations in species-level responses along the hydrological gradient. We also suspected that mesic meadows would be most sensitive to drought conditions. Temporal trajectories were modeled for both species groups (hydric vs. xeric affinity) and individual species. Abundances of species with affinity for xeric habitats increased in virtually all meadow types. Conversely, abundances of species with affinity for hydric habitats decreased, particularly in mesic and xeric meadows. Mesic meadows showed the most striking temporal abundance trajectory: Increasing abundances of species with xeric habitat affinity were offset by decreasing or stable abundances of species with hydric habitat affinity. The one counterintuitive finding was that, in some hydric meadows, species with affinity for hydric habitats increased. In these cases, we suspect that decreasing moisture conditions in hydric meadows actually increased habitat suitability because sites near the limit of moisture extremes for some species became more acceptable. Thus, species responses were relatively predictable based upon habitat affinity and habitat location along the hydrological gradient, and mesic meadows showed the highest potential for changes in community composition. The implications of these results are that longer-term changes due to drought could simplify community composition, resulting in prevalence of species tolerant to drying conditions and a loss of species associated with wetter conditions. We contend that this application of gradient analysis could be valuable in assessing species vulnerability of other taxa and ecosystems. Abstract. Ecological fingerprints of climate change are becoming increasingly evident at broad geographical scales as measured by species range shifts and changes in phenology. However, finer-scale species-level responses to environmental fluctuations may also provide an important bellwether of impending future community responses. Here we examined changes in abundance of butterfly species along a hydrological gradient of six montane meadow habitat types in response to drought. Our data collection began prior to the drought, and we were able to track changes for 11 years, of which eight were considere...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Gradient‐based habitat affinities predict species vulnerability to drought

Debinski

Caruthers

Cook

et al. 2013

Ecology

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“…4), limiting divergence within the reproductive season. Thus, our results contrast with other studies in which experimental warming led to divergent flowering responses between species 9 and mid-season, low floral abundance as the climate warmed 16 . Longer active and reproductive periods by at least some species would reduce the adverse effects of warming on trophic interactions and ecosystem function 17,18 .…”

contrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies have also found that elevated CO 2 has a greater effect on flowering times under warming conditions, as well as a greater effect on late-flowering species 14,20 . Our data indicate that higher atmospheric CO 2 concentrations may be contributing to observed changes over time in flowering patterns, such as a shorter reproductive season and greater asynchrony with pollinators, which have previously been attributed to warming 16,17 .…”

Section: Research Lettermentioning

confidence: 55%

Elevated CO2 further lengthens growing season under warming conditions

Reyes-Fox¹,

Steltzer

Trlica

et al. 2014

Nature

167

119

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“…Co-flowering patterns are important because they can affect the intensity of plant-plant interactions and rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans R Soc B 368: 20120489 interactions with higher trophic levels, such as pollinators [51]. Indeed, we see evidence of community reshuffling of co-flowering patterns at Gothic [52,53] and changes in community-level flowering duration at Zackenberg [54].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Nonlinear flowering responses to climate: are species approaching their limits of phenological change?

Iler

Høye

Inouye

et al. 2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Many alpine and subalpine plant species exhibit phenological advancements in association with earlier snowmelt. While the phenology of some plant species does not advance beyond a threshold snowmelt date, the prevalence of such threshold phenological responses within plant communities is largely unknown. We therefore examined the shape of flowering phenology responses (linear versus nonlinear) to climate using two long-term datasets from plant communities in snow-dominated environments: Gothic, CO, USA (1974–2011) and Zackenberg, Greenland (1996–2011). For a total of 64 species, we determined whether a linear or nonlinear regression model best explained interannual variation in flowering phenology in response to increasing temperatures and advancing snowmelt dates. The most common nonlinear trend was for species to flower earlier as snowmelt advanced, with either no change or a slower rate of change when snowmelt was early (average 20% of cases). By contrast, some species advanced their flowering at a faster rate over the warmest temperatures relative to cooler temperatures (average 5% of cases). Thus, some species seem to be approaching their limits of phenological change in response to snowmelt but not temperature. Such phenological thresholds could either be a result of minimum springtime photoperiod cues for flowering or a slower rate of adaptive change in flowering time relative to changing climatic conditions.

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Emergence of a mid-season period of low floral resources in a montane meadow ecosystem associated with climate change

Cited by 136 publications

References 36 publications

Gradient‐based habitat affinities predict species vulnerability to drought

Gradient‐based habitat affinities predict species vulnerability to drought

Elevated CO2 further lengthens growing season under warming conditions

Nonlinear flowering responses to climate: are species approaching their limits of phenological change?

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