Predicting Long-Term Tundra Plant Community Change in Response to Warming
Presentation Type
Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Presenter Major(s)
Biology
Mentor Information
Robert Hollister, hollistr@gvsu.edu
Department
Biology
Location
Kirkhof Center 2270
Start Date
13-4-2011 12:00 PM
End Date
13-4-2011 12:30 PM
Keywords
Environment, Life Science
Abstract
Arctic plants are adapted to low temperatures and turn temperature increases can cause dramatic changes in these plant communities. It has been shown that short-term warming experiments cause increased growth however as warming continues this growth may not be sustainable thus long-term community change may be difficult to predict. This study monitored four tundra sites in Alaska that has been done since the 1990s. In particular, we looked at how the plant communities changed over 11-13 years of warming. Communities were sampled after 1-2 (initial) and 4-6 years of warming (secondary) and changes were used to predict what the plant community assemblages looked like after tertiary warming. Initial warming responses were poor predictors of tertiary warming responses however, secondary warming responses were accurate predictors. Therefore, when using observed community change to predict future community change, it is important to partition out initial and secondary warming response.
Predicting Long-Term Tundra Plant Community Change in Response to Warming
Kirkhof Center 2270
Arctic plants are adapted to low temperatures and turn temperature increases can cause dramatic changes in these plant communities. It has been shown that short-term warming experiments cause increased growth however as warming continues this growth may not be sustainable thus long-term community change may be difficult to predict. This study monitored four tundra sites in Alaska that has been done since the 1990s. In particular, we looked at how the plant communities changed over 11-13 years of warming. Communities were sampled after 1-2 (initial) and 4-6 years of warming (secondary) and changes were used to predict what the plant community assemblages looked like after tertiary warming. Initial warming responses were poor predictors of tertiary warming responses however, secondary warming responses were accurate predictors. Therefore, when using observed community change to predict future community change, it is important to partition out initial and secondary warming response.