A global view of aspen: Conservation science for widespread keystone systems

Rogers, Paul C.; Pinno, Bradley D.; Šebesta, Jan; Albrectsen, Benedicte Riber; Li, Guoqing; Ivanova, Natalya; Kusbach, Antonín; Kuuluvainen, Timo; Landhäusser, Simon M.; Liu, Hongyan; Myking, Tor; Pulkkinen, Pertti; Wen, Zhu; Kulakowski, Dominik

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00828

Cited by 64 publications

(57 citation statements)

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“…Human desire for large ungulates for subsistence, aesthetics, or recreational purposes, while simultaneously eliminating key predators, in some locales, has resulted in runaway populations and concomitant vegetation impacts [43], such as the changes in understorey vegetation implicated here. In areas, undergoing rapid climate warming such as the broad region of the current study, combined effects of extended drought and herbivory are particularly detrimental to sustained aspen communities [19,24,49]. Third, we have seen here that understorey plant assemblages (and presumably dependent fauna) will be altered by aspen's response to human decisions-in cutting, recreational use, herbivore management, and other developments (i.e., roads, houses, campgrounds, and trails)-in the form of canopy openings and varying degrees of recruitment success.…”

Section: Broader Implications For Sustained Aspen Diversitymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Future management actions within Pando, using the wisdom of hindsight alongside results here, would do well to manage stable aspen within functionally appropriate aspen prescriptions [4]; meaning selection and group tree felling would promote more resilient uneven-aged forests. Second, herbivory is now a common threat to survival of aspen forests, not only in North America, but across Europe as well [10,32,48,49]. Human desire for large ungulates for subsistence, aesthetics, or recreational purposes, while simultaneously eliminating key predators, in some locales, has resulted in runaway populations and concomitant vegetation impacts [43], such as the changes in understorey vegetation implicated here.…”

Section: Broader Implications For Sustained Aspen Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Past Management Spurs Differential Plant Communities within a Giant Single-Clone Aspen Forest

Rogers

Šebesta

2019

Forests

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Sustainable aspen ecosystems hold great promise for global biodiversity conservation. These forests harbor relatively high species diversity, yet are threatened by fire suppression, land development, timber-focused management, extended droughts, and chronic herbivory. “Pando” is a high-profile quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) forest in Utah, USA which is putatively the ‘largest living organism on earth.’ Pando comprises an estimated 47,000 genetically identical stems, but is threatened by human impacts. Our interest in the present study is whether changes to the giant organism were affecting understorey vegetation and whether discrete zones are displaying divergent community compositions. For instance, recent research has demonstrated strong herbivory impacts that are affecting portions of Pando differentially. This study consists of 20 randomly distributed vegetation survey plots within three de facto management regimes (hereafter, management group or type) along an herbivory protection gradient: No Fence, 2013 Fence (total protection), and 2014 Fence (imperfect protection). The plant survey was supplemented by previously-established forest and herbivore measurements to test for community assemblage explanatory agents. Sixty-eight species were found across the entire study. Analyses indicated strong links between management group orientation, species assemblages, and tree density/canopy openings. We found distinct evidence that within management group species composition was more similar than across groups for two of the three pairings. However, the other pairing, the most successfully protected area and the completely unprotected area, was not statistically distinct; likely a result a deteriorating overstorey in these two areas, whereas the third management type (2014 Fence) exhibited higher canopy cover. Indicator species analysis found that a small group of plant species had statistical allegiances to specific management groups, suggesting resource preference selection within Pando. Ordination analysis searching for causal factors reached two broad conclusions: (1) aspen regeneration, and therefore long-term resilience, is being negatively affected by chronic animal browsing and (2) current understorey species diversity is highest where forest canopy gaps are abundant. Future research at the massive Pando clone will continue informing linkages between understorey communities and overstorey-driven ecological pathways.

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Section: Broader Implications For Sustained Aspen Diversitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Broader Implications For Sustained Aspen Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Past Management Spurs Differential Plant Communities within a Giant Single-Clone Aspen Forest

Rogers

Šebesta

2019

Forests

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“…Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) is an ecologically and commercially important tree species with high genetic diversity and a broad natural range, including the boreal forest of North America, the eastern United States, and the western mountain ranges from Mexico to Alaska [1,2]. Aspen can regenerate both via sexual and asexual reproduction [2,3] Competing interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: AH received a research grant that included matching financial contributions from industry partners to a government research grant for this study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic parameters of growth and adaptive traits in aspen (Populus tremuloides): Implications for tree breeding in a warming world

et al. 2020

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Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) is a widespread commercial forest tree of high economic importance in western Canada and has been subject to tree improvement efforts over the past two decades. Such improvement programs rely on accurate estimates of the genetic gain in growth traits and correlated response in adaptive traits that are important for forest health. Here, we estimated genetic parameters in 10 progeny trials containing >30,000 trees with pedigree structures based on a partial factorial mating design that includes 60 half-sibs, 100 full-sib families and 1,400 clonally replicated genotypes. Estimated narrow-sense and broad-sense heritabilities were low for height and diameter (~0.2), but moderate for the dates of budbreak and leaf senescence (~0.4). Furthermore, estimated genetic correlations between growth and phenology were moderate to strong with tall trees being associated with early budbreak (r = -0.3) and late leaf senescence (r = -0.7). Survival was not compromised, but was positively associated with early budbreak or late leaf senescence, indicating that utilizing the growing season was more important for survival and growth than avoiding early fall or late spring frosts. These result suggests that populations are adapted to colder climate conditions and lag behind environmental conditions to which they are optimally adapted due to substantial climate warming observed over the last several decades for the study area. OPEN ACCESSCitation: Ding C, Hamann A, Yang R-C, Brouard JS (2020) Genetic parameters of growth and adaptive traits in aspen (Populus tremuloides): Implications for tree breeding in a warming world. PLoS ONE 15 (3): e0229225. https://doi.org/10.

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“…Populus davidiana (David's aspen), one of the six aspen species (Populus spp.) across the world, is a deciduous tree of the family Salicaceae and is widely distributed in eastern Asia (northeast China, Korean peninsula) [16]. The harvest rotations of P. davidiana are generally short and the fast growth facilitates commercial forestry, so it is widely planted in China through the encouragement of government programs targeting conversion of crop lands to forest cover [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All these provide a basis for the protection and utilization of P. davidiana. However, Rogers et al [16] highlighted that climate warming is one of the common threats to aspen ecosystems from a global point of view for six aspen species by means of a qualitative survey and systematic literature analysis. Although Zhao et al [29] took a preliminary step in this area and suggested that moderate drought may favor quick regeneration of P. davidiana based on monitoring of past community data, few studies have explored its vulnerability under future climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Future Climate Change Will Have a Positive Effect on Populus davidiana in China

Guan

Lü

et al. 2019

Forests

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Since climate change significantly affects global biodiversity, a reasonable assessment of the vulnerability of species in response to climate change is crucial for conservation. Most existing methods estimate the impact of climate change on the vulnerability of species by projecting the change of a species’ distribution range. This single-component evaluation ignores the impact of other components on vulnerability. In this study, Populus davidiana (David’s aspen), a tree species widely used in afforestation projects, was selected as the research subject under four future climate change scenarios (representative concentration pathway (RCP)2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5). Exposure components of range change as well as the degree of fragmentation, degree of human disturbance, and degree of protection were considered simultaneously. Then, a multicomponent vulnerability index was established to assess the effect of future climate change on the vulnerability of P. davidiana in China. The results show that the distribution range of P. davidiana will expand to the northwest of China under future climate change scenarios, which will lead to an increased degree of protection and a decreased degree of human disturbance, and hardly any change in the degree of fragmentation. The multicomponent vulnerability index values of P. davidiana under the four emission scenarios are all positive by 2070, ranging from 14.05 to 38.18, which fully indicates that future climate change will be conducive to the survival of P. davidiana. This study provides a reference for the development of conservation strategies for the species as well as a methodological case study for multicomponent assessment of species vulnerability to future climate change.

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A global view of aspen: Conservation science for widespread keystone systems

Cited by 64 publications

References 95 publications

Past Management Spurs Differential Plant Communities within a Giant Single-Clone Aspen Forest

Past Management Spurs Differential Plant Communities within a Giant Single-Clone Aspen Forest

Genetic parameters of growth and adaptive traits in aspen (Populus tremuloides): Implications for tree breeding in a warming world

Future Climate Change Will Have a Positive Effect on Populus davidiana in China

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