Mortality of Australian alpine grasses (Poa spp.) after drought: species differences and ecological patterns

Griffin, Philippa C.; Hoffmann, Ary A.

doi:10.1093/jpe/rtr010

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Furthermore, the data used in this study were collected during part of the driest 13-year period (1996-2009) on record for south-eastern Australia since the late 1880s . This drought has been correlated with a 25 % reduction in alpine grass cover at long-term monitoring sites on the Bogong High Plains ) and significant mortality in both shrubs (Morgan 2004) and grasses (Griffin and Hoffmann 2012). Our microclimate data suggest that from 2003 to 2010 OTCs were likely to have on average 4 % less soil moisture than control plots (see "Experimental design").…”

Section: The Lack Of Direct Experimental Warming Effectmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Since 1979, mean growing season temperatures in the Australian Alps have risen by approximately 0.4 °C, and annual precipitation has fallen by 6 % ) with a consequent decline in the snow pack (Sánchez-Bayo and Green 2013). The Alps have also been subject to recent drought (Griffin and Hoffmann 2012), and were extensively burned by wildfires in 2003 .…”

Section: Study Locationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling rates of life form cover change in burned and unburned alpine heathland subject to experimental warming

et al. 2015

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Elevated global temperatures are expected to alter vegetation dynamics by interacting with physiological processes, biotic relationships and disturbance regimes. However, few studies have explicitly modeled the effects of these interactions on rates of vegetation change, despite such information being critical to forecasting temporal patterns in vegetation dynamics. In this study, we build and parameterize rate-change models for three dominant alpine life forms using data from a 7-year warming experiment. These models allowed us to examine how the interactions between experimental warming, the abundance of bare ground (a measure of past disturbance) and neighboring life forms (a measure of life form interaction) affect rates of cover change in alpine shrubs, graminoids and forbs. We show that experimental warming altered rates of life form cover change by reducing the negative effects of neighboring life forms and positive effects of bare ground. Furthermore, we show that our models can predict the observed direction and rate of life form cover change at burned and unburned long-term monitoring sites. Model simulations revealed that warming in unburned vegetation is expected to result in increased forb and shrub cover and decreased graminoid cover. In contrast, in burned vegetation, warming is predicted to slow post-fire regeneration in both graminoids and forbs and facilitate rapid expansion in shrub cover. These findings illustrate the applicability of modeling rates of vegetation change using experimental data. Our results also highlight the need to account for both disturbance and the abundance of other life forms when examining and forecasting vegetation dynamics under climatic change.

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Section: The Lack Of Direct Experimental Warming Effectmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Study Locationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling rates of life form cover change in burned and unburned alpine heathland subject to experimental warming

et al. 2015

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“…In Craters of the Moon, Idaho, at 1527 m, sagebrush roots grow downward through 91-cm-deep soils and extend into the crevices of basalt bedrock, which restricts soil drainage and produces a perched water table plants can tap (Passey et al, 1982). In the Victorian Alps, Australia, alpine Poa grasses at 1885 m are common on shallow (≤25 cm) soils, where pockets of deeper soil within bedrock crevices retain moisture available to plants during dry periods (Griffin and Hoffmann, 2012). Experimental seeding of the endangered Mauna Kea silversword at ≤3100 m (island of Hawai'i) indicates that the highest germination percentages occur in bedrock-crack habitats (Walker and Powell, 1999).…”

Section: Plant/substrate Relationships and The Role Of Soil Depth To mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pérez (1987bPérez ( , 1995 measured soil depth by boring auger holes along several 160-415 m-long toposequences at~4450 m in the Andes, where different giant rosette species are associated with specific soil depths. Griffin and Hoffmann (2012) used a sharpened steel rod to probe soil thickness along 1.5-km-long transects at~1850 m on the Victorian Alps (Australia), where soil depth strongly influences vegetation patterns.…”

Section: Volcanic Ash Soil Toposequences and Measurement Of Soil Depthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeomorphic influence of soil depth to bedrock, volcanic ash soils, and surface tephra on silversword distribution, Haleakalā Crater (Maui, Hawai'i)

Pérez

2015

Geomorphology

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“…The Brachyscome species appear to follow the first and third of these strategies. Overall, the higher germination percentage of species in autumn than in the following spring may indicate these species germinate and develop under cooler temperatures before the onset of winter, possibly to invest in growth prior to the high temperatures and unfavorable dry conditions that can occur in this environment in summer (Griffin andHoffmann 2012, Williams et al 2014). Staggered germination across seasons (observed mainly in the common species in this study) may help to spread risk of seedling mortality under the variable alpine environmental conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the niche‐breadth–range‐size hypothesis: habitat specialization vs. performance in Australian alpine daisies

Hirst

Griffin

Sexton

et al. 2017

Ecology

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Relatively common species within a clade are expected to perform well across a wider range of conditions than their rarer relatives, yet experimental tests of this "niche-breadth-range-size" hypothesis remain surprisingly scarce. Rarity may arise due to trade-offs between specialization and performance across a wide range of environments. Here we use common garden and reciprocal transplant experiments to test the niche-breadth-range-size hypothesis, focusing on four common and three rare endemic alpine daisies (Brachyscome spp.) from the Australian Alps. We used three experimental contexts: (1) alpine reciprocal seedling experiment, a test of seedling survival and growth in three alpine habitat types differing in environmental quality and species diversity; (2) warm environment common garden, a test of whether common daisy species have higher growth rates and phenotypic plasticity, assessed in a common garden in a warmer climate and run simultaneously with experiment 1; and (3) alpine reciprocal seed experiment, a test of seed germination capacity and viability in the same three alpine habitat types as in experiment 1. In the alpine reciprocal seedling experiment, survival of all species was highest in the open heathland habitat where overall plant diversity is high, suggesting a general, positive response to a relatively productive, low-stress environment. We found only partial support for higher survival of rare species in their habitats of origin. In the warm environment common garden, three common daisies exhibited greater growth and biomass than two rare species, but the other rare species performed as well as the common species. In the alpine reciprocal seed experiment, common daisies exhibited higher germination across most habitats, but rare species maintained a higher proportion of viable seed in all conditions, suggesting different life history strategies. These results indicate that some but not all rare, alpine endemics exhibit stress tolerance at the cost of reduced growth rates in low-stress environments compared to common species. Finally, these findings suggest the seed stage is important in the persistence of rare species, and they provide only weak support at the seedling stage for the niche-breadth-range-size hypothesis.

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Mortality of Australian alpine grasses (Poa spp.) after drought: species differences and ecological patterns

Cited by 29 publications

References 45 publications

Modeling rates of life form cover change in burned and unburned alpine heathland subject to experimental warming

Modeling rates of life form cover change in burned and unburned alpine heathland subject to experimental warming

Biogeomorphic influence of soil depth to bedrock, volcanic ash soils, and surface tephra on silversword distribution, Haleakalā Crater (Maui, Hawai'i)

Testing the niche‐breadth–range‐size hypothesis: habitat specialization vs. performance in Australian alpine daisies

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