Rainfall variability and fine‐scale life history tradeoffs help drive niche partitioning in a desert annual plant community

Shriver, Robert K.

doi:10.1111/ele.12818

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Little is known of the photosynthetic physiology of these species, although there appear to be trade‐offs between resource acquisition and drought for E. glaucus (Balachowski & Volaire, ). Some life history trade‐offs might appear minor but cause important interactions with drought (Shriver, ). Moreover, we used potted, watered, fertilized plants, so they were presumably not affected by competition for light, water, or nutrients as would be plants rooted in the soil of plots.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

et al. 2019

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Rainfall interception shelters are frequently used to study the ecological consequences of drought. One common shelter design employs V‐shaped plastic troughs spaced on a supporting frame to intercept rainfall. Shading, reflection, and infrared radiation may alter the radiative environment under shelters in ways independent of their intended effect on soil moisture. We measured microclimate and several photosynthetic variables for watered, potted plants under rain‐out shelters and in open‐air, unsheltered plots. We tested whether the shelter infrastructure altered aboveground micrometeorology and photosynthesis for watered, potted plants of native Californian species: Elymus glaucus, Eriogonum latifolium, Mimulus aurantiacus, and Morella californica. We quantified the effects on photosynthesis in terms of light harvesting by photosystem II (PSII) and leaf‐level gas exchange on open‐air and shelter plots, the quantum yield of PSII for darkened leaves, dark respiration, and nocturnal stomatal conductance. The rain‐out shelter reduced daily integrated photosynthetically active radiation by 20%. Air temperature, leaf temperature, and leaf‐to‐air vapour pressure difference were not different under shelters compared with controls during the day. Likewise, there were no effects of shelters on net CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance to water vapour (gs), internal leaf (CO2), or electron transport rate through PSII during the daytime. At night, Tair was 0.6°C higher under shelters, but there were no effects on dark respiration or stomatal conductance. Despite some differences in micrometeorology under rain‐out shelters compared with open‐air plots, there were little or no aboveground nondrought effects of the shelters on leaf‐level photosynthesis for watered, potted plants of these California native plant species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

et al. 2019

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“…Partitioning of available resources can mediate community responses to drought stress and is affected by the specific plant community composition at the time of drought and by the amount of diversity of the system (Reich, ; Felton et al ., ). Demographic tradeoffs in growth and survival can promote niche partitioning and the distribution of limiting resources during a drought (Shriver, ).…”

Section: Site‐specific Characteristics Influencing Community Resistanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Response to Extreme Drought (CRED): a framework for drought‐induced shifts in plant–plant interactions

et al. 2019

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As climate changes, many regions of the world are projected to experience more intense droughts, which can drive changes in plant community composition through a variety of mechanisms. During drought, community composition can respond directly to resource limitation, but biotic interactions modify the availability of these resources. Here, we develop the Community Response to Extreme Drought framework (CRED), which organizes the temporal progression of mechanisms and plantplant interactions that may lead to community changes during and after a drought. The CRED framework applies some principles of the stress gradient hypothesis (SGH), which proposes that the balance between competition and facilitation changes with increasing stress. The CRED framework suggests that net biotic interactions (NBI), the relative frequency and intensity of facilitative (+) and competitive (À) interactions between plants, will change temporally, becoming more positive under increasing drought stress and more negative as drought stress decreases. Furthermore, we suggest that rewetting rates affect the rate of resource amelioration, specifically water and nitrogen, altering productivity responses and the intensity and importance of NBI, all of which will influence droughtinduced compositional changes. System-specific variables and the intensity of drought influence the strength of these interactions, and ultimately the system's resistance and resilience to drought.

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“…The need to understand and anticipate ecological responses to climate change has led to a growing literature linking climate conditions to demographic rates and population dynamics. This work has expanded our knowledge of how plant demographic rates respond to changes in environmental conditions through time (Dalgleish et al 2011, Chu et al 2016, Shriver 2016, 2017, Tomasek et al 2019) and across large spatial gradients (Angert 2006, Eckhart et al 2011, Gelfand et al 2013, Merow et al 2014). For example, Dalgleish et al (2011) identified winter and summer climate conditions as important for explaining inter‐annual variation in demographic rates of steppe plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Local landscape position impacts demographic rates in a widespread North American steppe bunchgrass

Shriver

Campbell²,

Dailey

et al. 2021

Ecosphere

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Understanding the environmental drivers of demographic rates and population dynamics over space and time is critical for anticipating how species will respond to climate change. While the influence of temporal environmental variation and large environmental gradients are well recognized, less is known about how local topography and landscape position influence demography over small spatial scales. Here, we investigate how local landscape position (north-vs. south-facing aspects) influence the demographic rates and population growth of a common bunchgrass in western North America, bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), using 6 annual censuses measuring growth, survival, and reproductive output. We found notably lower survival on south-facing slopes, particularly among smaller individuals. In contrast, south-facing slopes maintained comparatively high reproductive output in most years, measured both as spikes per plant and spikelets per spike. When we combined these data in demographic models, we found that lower survival among small individuals and greater reliance on reproduction mean south-facing slopes would generally have to maintain higher recruitment for a stable population. Our results highlight the important influence that landscape position and local topography can have in driving population trends. As conditions warm and dry with climate change (north-faces becoming similar to current south-facing slope conditions), bluebunch wheatgrass may become more reliant on reproduction to maintain viable populations and more sensitive to variability in recruitment.

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Rainfall variability and fine‐scale life history tradeoffs help drive niche partitioning in a desert annual plant community

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

Drought‐Net rainfall shelters did not cause nondrought effects on photosynthesis for California central coast plants

Community Response to Extreme Drought (CRED): a framework for drought‐induced shifts in plant–plant interactions

Local landscape position impacts demographic rates in a widespread North American steppe bunchgrass

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