Temperature effects on forest herbs assessed by warming and transplant experiments along a latitudinal gradient

Abstract

Slow-colonizing forest understorey plants are probably not able to rapidly adjust their distribution range following largescale climate change. Therefore, the acclimation potential to climate change within their actual occupied habitats will likely be key for their short-and long-term persistence. We combined transplant experiments along a latitudinal gradient with open-top chambers to assess the effects of temperature on phenology, growth and reproductive performance of multiple populations of slow-colonizing understorey plants, using the spring flowering geophytic forb Anemone nemorosa and the early summer flowering grass Milium effusum as study species. In both species, emergence time and start of flowering clearly advanced with increasing temperatures. Vegetative growth (plant height, aboveground biomass) and reproductive success (seed mass, seed germination and germinable seed output) of A. nemorosa benefited from higher temperatures. Climate warming may thus increase future competitive ability and colonization rates of this species. Apart from the effects on phenology, growth and reproductive performance of M. effusum generally decreased when transplanted southwards (e.g., plant size and number of individuals decreased towards the south) and was probably more limited by light availability in the south. Specific leaf area of both species increased when transplanted southwards, but decreased with open-top chamber installation in A. nemorosa. In general, individuals of both species transplanted at the home site performed best, suggesting local adaptation. We conclude that contrasting understorey plants may display divergent plasticity in response to changing temperatures which may alter future understorey community dynamics.

Microbial mediation of biogeochemical cycles revealed by simulation of global changes with soil transplant and cropping

“…The use of soil transplant as a proxy to study the effects of global changes has been successfully demonstrated in both plant biology and microbiology (Balser and Firestone, 2005;Breeuwer et al, 2010;De Frenne et al, 2011;Lazzaro et al, 2011;Vanhala et al, 2011). It was reported that soil microbial community structure and community functions were altered when soil was transplanted into warmer regions to simulate global warming (Vanhala et al, 2011), which was consistent with a number of studies showing that warming altered microbial community (Petchey et al, 1999;Rinnan et al, 2007;Zhou et al, 2012).…”

Examination of Surface Temperature Modification by Open-Top Chambers along Moisture and Latitudinal Gradients in Arctic Alaska Using Thermal Infrared Photography

“…Passive warming [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Previous warming studies using OTCs have been directed toward analyzing specific species responses [8], radiation dynamics [9], plant phenology [10], snow regime shifts [11], and trace gas exchange [12,13] to name a few.…”

“…Previous warming studies using OTCs have been directed toward analyzing specific species responses [8], radiation dynamics [9], plant phenology [10], snow regime shifts [11], and trace gas exchange [12,13] to name a few. Studies have spanned multiple locations to include gradients; DeFrenne et al [5,6] examined transplants of forest understory species along a latitudinal gradient, and Oberbauer et al [13] studied ecosystem CO 2 fluxes in response to latitudinal and moisture gradients. Meta-analyses of many sites combined have quantified the impacts of passive warming treatments on tundra vegetation and indicate a warming climate in high latitudes and high elevations is changing plant communities and ecosystem function [14,15].…”

Impacts of warming and changes in precipitation frequency on the regeneration of two Acer species

“…Nevertheless, our results clearly point out the influence of seed provenance on seedling responses to climate change (Atzmon et al, 2004;Thiel et al, 2014). Additionally, the possibility of the presence of local adaptations should be analysed (Kawecki and Ebert, 2004) through the use of, for instance, transplant experiments (De Frenne et al, 2011;HilleRisLambers et al, 2013;Ibáñez and McCarthy-Neumann, 2014).…”